From: Ralph McGehee Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE; AND, ANALYSIS by Ralph McGehee Two Reviews On: "The weaknesses of technical intelligence;" and, "analysis." A second edition of Robin W. Winks' book, Cloak & Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939-1961. Winks, a Yale historian, served in the Research and Analysis Division of OSS, and was active in the organization of CIA. Winks provides an excellent outline of what analysis is, or ought to be. "Research and analysis are at the core of intelligence....[Most] `facts' are without meaning; someone must analyze even the most easily obtained data." Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1996. Review by Richard S. Friedman, "US Intelligence at the Crossroads?" Parameters, Summer 1997 131-53. Count Alexandre de Marenches, longest serving Chief of French Intelligence, authored, The Fourth World War: Diplomacy and Espionage in the Age of Terrorism. This focus on electronic data-gathering might have been of some value in the military and intelligence realities of the Third World War, the East-West conflict. But in the South-North War, human intelligence plays a much more significant role. Our new enemies are backward nations. Their communications are often primitive. The thought processes are intricate and involve personal dynamics that are essential to understand and penetrate. Decisions and calls to action are communicated with the utmost discretion. There is no role for electronic intelligence until the die is cast -- until the troops begin to move or are already under way, until the terrorist is launched and irretrievable, the courier already delivering his plastic explosive to the unsuspecting target. Human intelligence can intercept him at the source. Electronic intelligence can only signal an alarm -- and often, too late. Marenches, Comte Alexandre de. The Fourth World War: Diplomacy and Espionage in the Age of Terrorism. New York: William Morrow, 1992. Review by Richard S. Friedman, "US Intelligence at the Crossroads?" Parameters, Summer 1997 131-53. Ralph McGehee CIABASE ----------------------------------------------------------------------