OSINT USA.

This is coolbert:

“'It’s not as if we’re not using it,' . . . 'We can’t do this at scale because it’s not funded.'” - Army Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley [Ret.].

Devoted readers to the blog are strongly encouraged without reservation or qualification to read this archived item from "The Wall Street Journal" of great interest to one and all.

Open source intelligence [OSINT] is not just merely going mainstream open source intelligence is mainstream.

"Rise of Open-Source Intelligence Tests U.S. Spies"

"China outpaces efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to harness power of publicly available data"

Article by Warren P. Strobel | Dec. 11, 2022.

"WASHINGTON— As Russian troops surged toward Ukraine’s border last fall, a small Western intelligence unit swung into action, tracking signs Moscow was preparing to invade. It drew up escape routes for its people and wrote twice-daily intelligence reports."

"The unit drafted and sent to its leaders an assessment on Feb. 16, 2022, that would be eerily prescient: Russia, it said, would likely invade Ukraine on Feb. 23, U.S. East Coast time."

"The intelligence shop had just eight analysts and used only publicly available information, not spy satellites and secret agents. It belonged to multinational chemicals company Dow Inc., not to any government."

Comments:

* Current OSINT as employed is now available only because of widespread use in the Internet and information that can be processed as obtained from same. Technology means and methods at one time that were only available to those persons operating at the very highest echelons of federal government is now available and useful for any almost any individual who owns and is adept at using a computer.

* In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center I remember very well that the government of New York City established their own individual counterintelligence agency with International reach. The federal government had been found to be tardy and recalcitrant in sharing intelligence information that might have been very useful to the police and government of New York City. An unwillingness to share vital information and do so in real time was a great catastrophe for the American people.

* General Sir if you do not have sufficient funding for your efforts why don't you ask these various patriotic .com billionaires to chip in a few tens of millions here and there to cover your cost for increased OSINT effort DIA?

coolbert.