Unit 4 National Security
Working with 16,500 employees around the world, the DIA is tasked with more than....
80 specific missions
Today, the satellite world is very different-
A handful of satellites do the work the Hexagon used to, but they stay in orbit between five to ten years and take ultra-high-resolution photos of Earth. Instead of dumping them into the earth's atmosphere, the satellites transmit the photos and data directly back to Earth. But government intelligence satellites are certainly not the only satellites in orbit. In fact, anytime you use a cell phone, GPS, or a satellite television system, you benefit from commercial satellites. Between working commercial and government satellites, more than 1,000 objects currently orbit Earth.
How does Electronic intelligence (ELINT) work?
Agencies use radar and satellites to pick up the electromagnetic signature of ships and planes as they use their own radar to navigate. They might also pick up on the radiation that results from the use of a particular type of weapon.
human intelligence (HUMINT) can happen in several different ways:
Clandestine (or secretive) gathering of images, documents, and other material Overt (or open and clear) collection of images, documents, and other material by people stationed overseas Debriefing (or questioning) of foreign citizens or U.S. citizens who have visited overseas Official foreign government contacts
assets
Human intelligence sources used as a last resort. However, because using assets may be life threatening, they are only used when all other methods have been exhausted. CIA officers have lost their lives in the course of communicating and gathering this type of information, as have their sources. Human intelligence and its risks are therefore not taken lightly.
Why would Electronic intelligence (ELINT) matter, beyond the obvious?
If a military analyst can detect where the heaviest weapons concentrations are, or an area that is most heavily defended, they can suggest that a mission be executed elsewhere to save American lives. Seeing a change in the location of these electronic signals can also alert the government that troops are on the move.
How, then, can the government oversee the communications of its citizens?
It does so through wiretaps, as well as through electronic surveillance of Internet activity
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Operations Officers
People who work in human intelligence have to understand human nature well; their understanding of each person's motivation and desires helps them use those motivations to their advantage as they gather information. That may seem cold-hearted, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. For example, if they know someone cares most about his or her family, providing that person with a better chance to feed his or her family creates a bond the Operations Officer can use at a later time.
National Reconnaissance Office
Remember all of those satellites that are responsible for collecting SIGINT? The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) keeps them running for various agencies that need them. This organization works on spy satellites throughout the development, design, launching, and maintenance phases. The NRO is essentially the IT department of the intelligence world—its people are the ones who do the work no one thinks about but is absolutely essential.
That information falls primarily into two categories:
SIGINT and HUMINT
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
Staffed by cartographers (people who make maps) and analysts, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency collects information about our planet's physical and human-made features. Why is this considered an intelligence agency? Because that information is then used to create navigation, national security, military, and humanitarian aid plans. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency was the agency asked to keep an eye on Osama bin Laden's compound as other agencies worked on a plan to eliminate him as a threat.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is essentially the spy agency. Its mission is to provide national security intelligence to U.S. policymakers by collecting, analyzing, and sharing information. The CIA is focused primarily on HUMINT and aims to strengthen national security and foreign policy goals by collecting human intelligence. Much of what the CIA does has been dramatized in movies and television shows, but the details are, of course, classified. The CIA offers many different types of careers, all of which help to collect, understand, and distribute accurate intelligence.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is different from the CIA and the NSA because it has law enforcement powers. More than 30,000 agents, analysts, and professionals investigate crimes at the federal level, with a goal toward improving national security Just like any other large organization, the FBI offers careers that focus on more specialized areas, including science and technology, arts and communication, accounting and finance, business and administration, facilities and logistics, legal, medical and counseling, and police and security forces.
Cryptography is not new to the NSA...
The art of cracking codes has been around for nearly 4,000 years. Even the Founders of the United States used codebooks and letter/number substitutions to conceal their own communications. What we now understand as cryptography began in World War II, with the Allied code breakers working on deciphering German machine codes to intercept their messages. Since then, the NSA has been at the forefront of U.S. cryptography and research. Because the agency plays such a huge role in SIGINT, and in securing classified information to keep it safe from our enemies, it makes sense that cryptography would be at the heart of the intelligence work it does. Encryption is one way that the agency does this. You are no stranger to encryption—Google, Facebook, Twitter, online banks, and even Amazon use encrypted data to protect your privacy. Any tech company that worries about the security of information (i.e., anyone who uses a password, an address, and especially financial information) uses encryption.
Civilian Intelligence Agencies
The people you probably think about when you hear the term "intelligence agency" likely work for civilian intelligence agencies. They're known mostly by a set of letters that may seem like you're playing alphabet soup (FBI, NSA, and CIA, for example). But a few others you may not be aware of also do important work.
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
This agency works with the Secretary of State to provide the diplomatic corps, the men and women who work at embassies around the world, with the information they need to understand global events. This agency is the only one directly focused on providing independent support to ambassadors and embassy staff.
DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis
This division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) focuses exclusively on threats that face the homeland. The job of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis is to make the sharing of information among federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and private entities easier. It does this by establishing what it calls "fusion centers" across the 50 states. Fusion centers are usually in major urban areas and serve as the place where threat-related information is received, analyzed, and shared.
The Marine Corps Intelligence Activity group has much the same mission:
To give tactical and operational intelligence to battlefield commanders by monitoring battlefields
National Security Agency
With a focus on gathering and understanding SIGINT, the National Security Agency (NSA) acts as an eavesdropper, for lack of a better term. The NSA includes the Central Security Service (CSS), a group of military code breakers who became essential to the war effort during World War II. The NSA leads the U.S. government in cryptology, or the study of codes, as a way of cracking the encrypted intelligence it gathers. The NSA is also responsible for keeping our nation's information safe from cybercrime, an increasing problem. The NSA also collects a great deal of foreign intelligence, usually in its original language and dialect and often protected by codes and other security efforts. Skills in encryption, code breaking, and languages are therefore essential to an individual's success in the NSA.
treason
a betrayal of the government
warrant
a document allowing the police to search, arrest, or commit some other action in the pursuit of justice
SIGINT
abbreviations for signals intelligence
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
aims to be the very best source of defense intelligence. In essence, it wants to understand what foreign militaries might do before they do it and share that information with anyone involved in any defense activities. The DIA is not associated specifically with any one branch; it is the lead intelligence agency for the Department of Defense and the link between the military and the civilian national intelligence agencies.
On foreign soil...
all warrant bets are off
The National Security Agency (NSA), under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is...
basically allowed to eavesdrop on any communication conducted outside of the United States. The NSA is assisted by its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters. Their efforts were part of what Edward Snowden exposed in his major leak of NSA information.
wiretapping
eavesdropping on the content of phone calls
Electronic intelligence (ELINT)
picks up non-communication signals such as weapons systems and military vehicles
Two variations of drones exist:
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and remotely piloted aerial (RPA) systems. Drones are 24/7 surveillance options, staying in the air for up to 17 hours at a time and sending images and electronic information to agencies
Intelligence agencies are not that different from any other government agency, except...
for the fact they are more secretive. Besides often requiring a classified security clearance in order to work there, you may not even be able to tell your mom exactly what you do for a living. Beyond that small fact, these agencies all have a similar structure. Headed by a director, each agency has a series of departments that focus attention and energy on a specific task. All intelligence agencies are part of the executive branch and answer to a member of the president's cabinet.
The Office of Naval Intelligence was established in 1882 to...
give naval commanders the information they need about foreign force
In order for law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant, they must create a warrant application in which they:
give probable cause, or the statement of facts and circumstances that justify the application; fulfill the "necessity" requirement, explaining what other investigative actions have been taken and why a wiretap is necessary; give a statement about a period of time that the wiretap will be active; explain all previous applications for communications surveillance.
Army Intelligence and Security Command, in existence since 1775...
gives commanders information they might need on the battlefield, including enemy radio signals, maps, imagery, and details regarding enemy forces.
Geospatial intelligence actually uses...
global positioning systems (GPS) and satellite imagery—the same types of machinery you use to find directions to a friend's house or to look up what the house looks like on Google Maps.
HUMINT
human intelligence
Drones are used...
in the military and national security world for areas where manned flight is considered too risky or difficult
human intelligence (HUMINT)
includes any information that can be gathered from or through people
The foundation of any smart intelligence strategy is...
information
Signals intelligence
information gathered by intercepting communications, either between people or through electronic signals such as radio and radar
intelligence
information of political or military value in the context of the national security world, it is not just information that's gathered; it's also information that can potentially protect millions of people from harm
Because stingray technology does not require any help from a cell phone carrier, unless law enforcement or government agencies don't know where the suspect is...
it can be implemented without anyone knowing and used to locate phones or computers using open wireless networks or sometimes computers using air cards. This technology can also interfere with the ability of other phones, owned by people unconnected to the suspect, to transmit data. The technology essentially forces all phones in the surrounding area into 2G network coverage, which makes it virtually impossible to do much of anything that requires data. If you've ever gone through a tunnel or into an area where the signal to your phone is significantly reduced, you know the slow speed makes activities such as streaming videos or music, or accessing apps using the Internet, almost impossible.
When a national security agency doesn't want to spread the word that it's interested in a particular suspect:
it goes to a secret court established in the 1970s to oversee the national security agencies
communications intelligence (COMINT)
it is interested not only in the communications but also in the electronic information surrounding them. For example, it might be helpful to know that a particular phone call happened, as well as where it originated from and to whom it was directed Information in this arena might include leaks from phone calls and wiretaps; radio frequency scans to discover emails, faxes, and texts; and "friendly" communications looking for signs of espionage.
Coast Guard Intelligence is a bit different, as...
it is the investigative arm of the Coast Guard and completes search-and-rescue, counter-narcotics, and port security missions to keep America's borders safe.
each branch of the military has...
its own intelligence arm
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and reporting intelligence on foreign governments and groups relating to the following topics:
military readiness weapons of mass destruction scientific and technological developments political and military issues transportation and logistics missile and space readiness medical facilities crisis and operational intelligence economics
different types of intelligence refer to the various information gathered by...
national security agencies, organizations established to provide a particular service to the government
Without intelligent intelligence...
no policy maker or world leader can make smart decisions.
Because the Hexagon satellite was launched before the digital era...
once the film was shot, it automatically loaded into capsules and dropped from orbit into the atmosphere in what experts called "buckets." Those buckets fell to about 50,000 feet and then deployed their parachutes just off the coast of Hawaii. Once they landed and then reappeared in the water, the radio beacons on them alerted Air Force pilots to their location; those pilots scooped them up with a special system of cables that were designed for this purpose. Once the Hexagon was out of film, it was essentially a very expensive disposable camera—and the government allowed it to fall out of orbit and burn up upon re-entry.
intelligence agencies often focus on...
one specific type of signals intelligence—wiretaps, radar, satellite, and even drones—with the goal of communicating with each other to help the National Security Council (NSC), the military, the president, and his cabinet understand what they have found
agencies
organizations established to provide a particular service to the government
Agencies take the raw information;
pass it to their translators, analysts, and tech experts; and turn it into something that helps decision makers understand the country and world better
cartographers
people who make maps
The Air Force, for example, uses...
small drones for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions and medium-sized armed drones for more precise missions. The RPA drones are unmanned but not unpiloted. In what might seem like the ultimate gaming experience, a trained crew pilots the drone from a base, steering it and analyzing the images as they come in. The pilot and crew can be nearby, or thousands of miles away. The Army is developing new helicopter-type drones with color cameras as well. Drones are not just used over foreign lands. The Pentagon, home of the Department of Defense, has admitted to using drones to spy over U.S. territories on non-military missions for more than a decade.
multispectral
something that captures information on multiple levels of the electromagnetic spectrum
espionage
spying to gather information about one government for another government's benefit
Authorities can gather several types of information through the stingray method
such as the location of the call, the numbers of incoming and outgoing calls, as well as the content of voice and text communications. Some critics suggest the stingray method can also interfere with a cell phone's software, so the agency involved can use the cell phone to listen to conversations later, after the stingray has been turned off.
Whether agencies are charged with providing radar information about new weapons systems, satellite images of a terrorist camp, or phone calls that indicate who organized crime entities are speaking with outside of the United States, the...
task is complicated
Some of these (FBI) crimes include the following:
terrorism counterintelligence cybercrime public corruption civil rights organized crime white-collar crime violent crime weapons of mass destruction
They must skillfully, and often secretly, gather information and share it, helping it to make sense within the context of larger issues and making sure, especially...
that it is accurate
For more than $1 million...
the FBI hired another company that managed to crack the phone and retrieve the necessary information without Apple's help.
Because wiretapping has existed since the days of communication by telegraph and has continued with the use of the telephone and Internet lines, the rules governing the practice have developed over the course of nearly a century. As early as 1934...
the first law making wiretapping a criminal offense was on the books. As national security concerns and security issues changed, so did the laws.
American citizens weren't thrilled to learn, around that time, of the bugging and surveillance that basically ran amok under...
the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the infamous J. Edgar Hoover. Because of his tendency to bug phones without a warrant or, in some cases, without probable cause, the Senate Intelligence Committee now oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court, which provides warrants when needed for national security agencies.
open source intelligence (OSINT)
the information available publicly through experts and technology They comb through information coming from corporations, universities, researchers, the mainstream media, and the internet itself and find what is most important for a particular area of the world or mission. In order to do this, analysts must not only understand the language of the area of the world they are assigned to but also the culture, customs, and history of the area so that any trends or changes will be clear to them.
diplomatic corps
the men and women who work at embassies around the world
the intelligence community keeps an eye on the whole world as a part of its national security strategy, but...
these agencies are especially interested in certain key regions that have or may pose a continued threat to the United States or the world.
The rules surrounding the overseeing of communications are very different inside and outside the United States. Much—but not all—of the COMINT that is intercepted happens...
through foreign surveillance
one of the primary ways the government works to protect Americans at home and abroad is...
through the gathering of different types of intelligence
Another feature of the intelligence world is monitoring "friendly" communication for signs that anyone is participating in dangerous activities. Essentially, the intelligence community looks for...
treason, a betrayal of the government, or espionage, spying to gather information about one government for another government's benefit. Intelligence officials also watch out for people with important information doing something accidental or foolhardy. This includes unintentional communications about the location of troops, what equipment they have, where they are going, what they plan to do, or any other related information that has the potential to put the United States or its troops at risk. After all, if the United States is listening, so are other countries. Therefore, one of the intelligence community's primary responsibilities is to protect our own information, too.
However, the use of encryption by private companies doesn't always sit well with intelligence agencies who want access to information. In December 2015...
two terrorists attacked a community center in San Bernardino, CA. The FBI investigated the act of terrorism and, in the course of its investigation, discovered that one of the suspects may have had information on a locked iPhone.
the Fourth Amendment protects all American citizens (and those who are visiting the United States) from...
unlawful searches, including searches of communication.
The FBI demanded that Apple, the company that manufactures the iPhone...
unlock the phone. Apple refused, suggesting it was against the law to demand a company to provide decryption services. The company's argument, that software code is a form of speech and that the government essentially would be forcing Apple to write code (or forcing it to speak in a way that could potentially harm its business), demonstrated just how far technology has come and how few laws exist to cover the digital world.
Air Force Intelligence performs reconnaissance for U.S. troops, which...
used to mean flying dangerous missions over potentially hostile areas to take photos and gather electronic surveillance, weather, and mapping data for troops. The Air Force now uses aerial drones for this purpose
Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT)
uses images and geospatial information to keep an electronic eye on objects such as surface-to-air missiles, aircraft, tanks, and other military equipment that may pose a potential threat to the United States.
stingray method
uses technology to simulate cell phone tower signals to trick a cell phone into connecting to surveillance technology rather than a true cell tower
National security agencies and police forces now need a ___to search, arrest, or commit some other action in the pursuit of justice.
warrant
One project, codenamed Hexagon...
was instrumental in helping U.S intelligence analysts keep track of Soviet troops, tanks, aircraft, and missiles. 20 Hexagon satellites were launched between 1971 and 1986—long before you were born! Imagine this, if you can: a satellite the size of a school bus, weighing 30,000 pounds, being launched into orbit around Earth. Photos taken by these satellites showed areas 370 miles wide and were taken from 100 miles into orbit. However, they could still show objects as small as two feet wide—this is like being able to spot the details of the interior of a convertible, including the people in it.
