Intelligence, Surveillance, And Reconnaissance Operations

It was the spring of 2011, and I was sitting behind my desk along with my colleagues in the Communications Security section of the 1st Information Operations Battalion’s Vulnerability Assessment Detachment. Our section NCOIC had just been relieved of duty for violating several Army regulations and security protocols while an individual augmentee deployed to Afghanistan, representing our organization within a special operations Task Force. While his conduct had nothing to do with the mission nor our section, his abject failure to display any integrity or adhere to the Army Values reflected very poorly on our unit and cast our office in a particularly unflattering light...not to mention the additional scrutiny from our chain of command.

Paper 1: What are the capabilities and limitations of intelligence in supporting homeland security efforts?

Intelligence gathering and collection in the United States has significantly increased over time. This paper examines how intelligence reporting and pre-mission planning was crucial to the success of the United Nations involvement at The Battle of Inchon during the Korean War. By examining how intelligence played a role in this battle, you will be able to understand why it is important to gather and collect intelligence prior to every mission executed. Intelligence collection should be the baseline for all military operations. Inchon Landing has an ample amount of actionable intelligence; collected and disseminated appropriately we will discuss how it played a role in a low probability mission accomplishment to the last great amphibious assault in history. This paper provides detailed explanations on why The Battle of Inchon was a success and what could have been the outcome had it gone the other way.

Domestic terrorism is like cancer that eats away at the very values and beliefs of the American people. Instead of combining efforts to peacefully and legally enact change, domestic terrorists take the law and actions into their own hands. Groups such as eco-terrorists use firebombing to make their point that the Earth will be protected at all costs. That cost even meant human lives. Militia groups feel the same way. Their goal is not about saving the Earth but rather to change the government. They see it as too weak to handle the needs of the America people. These individuals use modified firearms, explosives, and survival tactics. Law abiding citizens are not defenseless, the FBI and NCIRC work together to help keep America safe.

National Intelligence Analysis et al. (2010) claim that in the early 2000s, Canada's heroin market was controlled by South and Southwest Asia, and these regions took Southeast Asia's place. Since 2004, heroin seizures have been increasing even though heroin is allegedly one of the least commonly used illicit drugs in Canada (NIA et al., 2010). Asian, Latin American, and West African organized crime groups, functioning in Canada as well as in foreign countries, remained to be participants in smuggling and transporting heroin in Canada (NIA et al., 2010). That is not to say that Canadian organized crime groups were not participants in the heroin market; Canadian organized crime groups took part in the heroin trade as well (NIA et al., 2010).

Under the Reagan Doctrine, the CIA trained and helped the Contras, an anti-communist guerrilla force in Nicaragua, who were battling against the Sandinistas. The Boland Amendment was passed in which the Department of Defense and the CIA were restricted from operating in Nicaragua. . McFarlane believed the sale of arms would enhance relations between the U.S. and Iran, and increase the influence of the U.S. in the Middle East, in especial Lebanon. Reagan was driven by seven Americans who were being held hostages by terrorists in Lebanon. They proceeded to ship arms to Iran, a violation of the embargo. This came to be know as the “arms-for-hostages deal”. The money was used to finance the Contras in their battle against the Sandinistas. When

Colin Powell suggests, "Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership" The U.S. Military overseas operations may defend and solve certain problems but, the troops overseas could be in more danger there than in the United States. Overseas military for the United States, use resources that could be used with greater importance in the United States, they deal with different conspiracies, and although the military is a defense department it fights wars that will solve the situation not begin problems.

Production of intelligence has change drastically since the Cold War. During the Cold War, the main intelligence gathering methods were mainly organized on the collection side, using SIGINT, IMINT, and HUMINT. Today we face a new enemy, where we must change our typical intelligence gathering methods. As we changed our methods,

The United States is founded on the concept of freedom – freedom from the control of a government that the people have no participation in or control over and freedom from tyranny. Throughout its history the United States has often been forced to walk a difficult line and since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that line has become increasingly blurred. The government must take certain actions in order to provide security from those who seek to harm its citizens. But to what extent do the citizens of the United States knowingly authorize the actions that are necessary for their protection, and to what extent are they unaware or even purposefully deluded about the nature of such actions?

I can’t agree more with your point that OPSEC is essential to defeat our adversaries in information warfare. We not only need to know our enemy’s capabilities but also our own. We have to acknowledge that we can’t rule of the possibilities of counter deception from our enemies. The less vulnerable we are, the harder for our enemies to attack our resources. Cyr argues These individuals must possess an intuitive sense and ability to function in an increasingly fast Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) loop. They will also have to rapidly combine their knowledge of the adversary (culture, values, modes of operation) with the real-time picture they receive from sensors in order to “convert information advantage to operational advantage.

Throughout the intelligence cycle process the intelligence analyst is the driving force in each step of the process. An intelligence analyst provides guidance, which enables the collectors to focus and pinpoint the overall objective by highlighting key requirements. Further, the analyst conducts the analysis of collected information. Through critical thinking and experience the intelligence collect is completed or re-started, information gathered determines if the cycle moves forward or backwards. Consequently, during the intelligence cycle biases are introduced, making a finished product questionable. Biases are unnecessary but they at times exists, whether from the analyst or collection platform. Furthermore, planning a mission based on

Over the last seventy years, the U.S. Military has developed into one of the main tools used by our International Partners to manage complex crisis that pose a serious threat to international peace and security past the United States borders. The number of military personnel that are being deployed to investigate, assist when peacekeeping is greatly needed has grown in size and within the last decade has become progressively complex. Today our military collect and analyze numerous data that is being received through our U.S. Intelligence Office to better protect our concerned interest of our foreign

Operation Cyclone was the name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to fund the Jihad warriors in Afghanistan .The program inclined vigorously towards supporting activist Islamic gatherings that were supported by the administration of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in neighboring Pakistan. Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most costly secret CIA operations ever attempted. Subsidizing proceeded after 1989 as the mujahideen fought the strengths of Mohammad Najibullah 's PDPA amid the common war in Afghanistan.

An intelligence gathering network is a system through which information about a entity is collected for the benefit of another through the use of more than one, inter-related source. Such information may be gathered by a military intelligence, government intelligence, or commercial intelligence network (Loftus, 2011). An example intelligence gathering is the government monitoring certain activities, gathering and sharing different kind of information.

Intelligence is one of the first lines of defense used by the United States to protect the Country against both foreign and domestic threats (Johnson, 2010). There are many ways and methods of intelligence collections employed by the intelligence community such as “spies, eavesdropping, technical sources, and openly available materials” etc (Clark, 2013). Method used also depends on many factors such as available resources, time, agency involved, and intelligence collection source. U.S Intelligence agencies use different collection and analytical method that suit their collection function, structure and pro¬cess. For example, DNI/OSC relies on open source (OSINT), CIA uses human intelligence (HUMINT) tactic, DIA uses measurements and signatures intelligence (MASINT), NSA employs signals intelligence (SIGINT), and NGA utilizes imagery intelligence (IMINT) techniques for their intelligence collections (Clark, 2013).