>https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/12/1239829_fyi-.html
Email-ID 1239829
Date 2007-09-05 15:42:07
From gfriedman@stratfor.com
To mfriedman@stratfor.com, eisenstein@stratfor.com
fyi
=The Stratfor Glossary of Useful, Baffling and Strange Intelligence Terms=
>.doc at link
Every profession and industry has its own vocabulary. Using baseball terms to explain a football game is tough. These are some of the terms we use.
Access
Ability of an agent to get hold of information. Difference between having someone on the ground and someone who is actually valuable is access. Having someone on the ground in Washington DC doesn’t tell you if he works for the National Security Council or sells hotdogs on the corner. In intelligence there are three things that matter: access, access and access. Rule of thumb: anyone who says they have access doesn’t.
Actionable Intelligence
Intelligence that can be used by the customer to make decisions. As opposed to metaphysical intelligence valued for the purity of its insight.
Activate
Bringing a source to life. Sources are rarely continually operational. They are put to bed and activated depending on evolving missions or deranged hunches
Active intelligence
Directly developing and operating sources in the field. Requires unique skills. Normally not carried out by analysts, but by intelligence operators. Don’t try this at home kids.
After Action Debrief
Following a completed op, everyone who had anything to do with it gets debriefed. This closes out the Ops Crypt and a sanitized version is entered into a Lessons Learned report and becomes part of the training. In the government, success and failure are equally unrewarded. At Stratfor, we do it differently.
After Action Report
The final report on the conclusion of an Op .Intended for internal use only. Never show the customer. It’s like showing someone how sausage is made. Nauseating.
All-source Fusion Cell
A trans-compartmentalized group of analysts who get to see everything and have to make sense of it. Don’t wish it on your worst enemy.
Analysis
That part of the craft of intelligence which concerns itself with collating and understanding the information that has been delivered from all sources. Analysts sit on their dead asses all day long thinking deep thoughts. They know too much to risk in the field, plus they are too dumb to know when to duck.
Area of Interest
A country, region or industry in which an intelligence organization has an ongoing or current interest. The framework for source development. AOIs are given to an intelligence organization by POTUS or BizDev. Must be tiered.
Area of Responsibility
Area that an individual or group is responsible for. Usually managed by an Intelligence Officer who delegates AORs to staff. Built out of Area of Interest but sometimes designed differently depending on resources, hunches, séances with dead ancestors. For example, you might run all of your Africa ops out of your London AOR because London is the Center of Gravity of Africa intelligence. AOR design is part of the craft.
ATF
Alcohol Tobacco and Fire Arms. Rednecks with a license to kill. Never, ever, ever ask for their help on anything.
Back Brief
After the briefing, the Briefer comes back to the shop and tells everyone what happened. This is the back brief. If you don’t get back briefed, you don’t have a functioning intelligence organization.
Background Check
Check of history of someone to determine reliability. Usually meaningless. A perfect credit rating does not mean you aren’t devious scum. Does run up the client’s bill and makes it appear that you are busy. Clancy move. Pros run tests.
Backgrounder
General analysis that gives the customer better situational awareness. The customer never actually reads the Backgrounder. Its primary use is as cover when the customer screws something up. Backgrounders are the basic intelligence tool for shifting blame to the customer.
Barium Meal
When there is a leak, feed bits of radioactive (traceable, false) information to suspects. See which bit leaks. You will know who leaked it. The leaker will know you know. Livens up a dull day like nothing else we’ve ever seen. Bring the kids.
…
>fun stuff