So, exactly what is "intelligence architecture?" Take a look at the unit or organization's TO (Table of Organization) line-and-block-chart. Think "blueprint," think "schematic," think of a machine with many moving parts and functions. Think of those "parts" as being "humans." Those blocks on the chart are much more than one-dimensional names and titles. They are living, moving, and working parts of an intelligence production machine. Each part has a purpose and interacts with other essential parts in a special and important way. Just one part that is not fully functioning or missing altogether, will degrade the machine's overall efficiency. Sound architecture strengthens the pillars which support the entire intelligence edifice; Data, Analysis, Products and Customers. Those lines connecting the blocks are more than lines, they are pipelines through which flow data. The architecture described in this book will not entail much delving into "systems compatibility," "computer connectivity," "knowledge platforms" or other IT and cyber issues. It will be describing people and the Intel work they are assigned to do. September 11, 2001 changed everyone's life in the United States to various degrees and also in many other parts of the world. Fundamental understanding about intelligence became mainstream. Suddenly, intelligence awareness and knowledge has been subtly insinuated into nearly everyone's mindset and daily routine. Like it or not, nearly everyone is now in the intelligence business. This book will: -Describe how - in Perfect World - critical players in an Intel shop are supposed to do business, which include, but not limited to, the commander, the senior intelligence officer, the collection, management & dissemination officer, analyst, OPSEC officer, OSINT specialist and field collector and those positions mirrored in a law enforcement Intel shop -Detail the best utilization of some of the important tools each of these aforementioned key players have in their Intel tool boxes -Show how the various critical positions in an Intel shop are designed to interact with one another to turn out timely, actionable intelligence products -Give examples of what happens when there is a malfunction (or absence) of a critical component of the unit's intelligence architecture -Take off the side panels of this Secret Sausage-Making Machine for a better understanding of how Intel architecture is supposed to work and how hands-on adjustments and continuous maintenance can make it work better Nor does it change with time or technology. Some 3,300-years-ago, as recorded in the Bible's Book of Numbers, Chapter 13, verses 1-27, Moses sent out a dozen spies to explore and come back with a report on the land of Canaan. "Go through the Negev and then into the mountain region. See what the land is like and whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. Is the land they live in good or bad? Do their cities have walls around them or not? Is the soil rich or poor? Does the land have trees or not? Do your best to bring back some fruit from the land. (It was the season when grapes were beginning to ripen.)" The four pillars which support the intelligence architecture edifice; Data, Analysis, Products and Customers, will be no different 200 years from now when a United States recon and surveillance team heads out from its fortified city and travels to the far side of the planet Mars to collect on China's fortified city.
About the Author: Lieutenant Colonel Jim Nicholson is a retired Army Counterintelligence Officer. He has done tours of duty as an intelligence officer at the Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agency, US Central Command, US Forces Command, Joint Task Force-Six, Ft. Bliss, TX, Central America, the Mexican Border, Iraq and two multi-agency counterdrug task forces. He has stood up intelligence units or evaluated and re-configured intelligence architecture for the military, the US Government and law enforcement at nine different locations in CONUS and OCONUS. Colonel Nicholson is the author of "Because No One Else Can; Inside the Military Intelligence Secret Sausage Factory" (Amazon, 2012.)