Timeless Philosophies of U.S. Intelligence

1. Timeless Philosophies of U.S. Intelligence Presenter: Bill Studeman AFCEA Fall Intelligence Symposium 17 Oct 2007

2. 10 Philosophies to Consider • First and Foremost: It’s All About Target Access • Optimizing for Customer Support • Analyst/Analysis as the Central Actor/Value-Added Process/; Sharing Biased; Able to Protect Sources • Importance of Talented/World Class “People” Organized for Success • Security, CI/CE and Info Assurance • Having Premier Acquisition, Technology, Systems Engineering and Business Practices • Competent Internal and External Oversight • Optimizingthe Intelligence and Information Warfare Nexus • Operating as an Integrated Intelligence Community • Strong ProfessionalLeadershipandGovernance (and Right-sized and Value-Added Bureaucracy)

3. Target Access/Stealing SECRETS from Adversaries • The Prime Directive - what we were uniquely hired to do • Deep Penetration is the first, most dominant and continuing obligation • Sacred Duty Requiring relentless and dogged pursuit • Survival of the country could be at stake • Consequences of failure can be high • Strategic threats first and command best resources • Requires full dimensional business and personal risk management • Must be done “at scale” (not in ones and twos) • Demands simultaneous and integrated application of best operational and technical competencies • Strong leadership, governance and focused internal processes relentlessly drive results • Best Human talent remains key; Elite teams get best results • Underpinned by Strong “Target Development” processes driven by “What You Don’t Know” arrayed formally & Analyst Driven • Magical when you succeed – Struggling when you don’t (like now) • Must involve customers throughout entire process

4. Serving Customers • Deep Penetration/Understanding of Customer Cultures is key • Connecting with Customers and Providing Context to SA • Work to Improve Customer “Storylistening” capabilities • Customers as the Principal Objects of Sharing • Intel Tempo Tuned to Customer Needs • Facilitating Customer’s “Living in our Data” • Balancing “Credibility” Interactions with Security • Facilitating IT/Comms Architectures are a key major ingredient; Reach-back/Collaboration are important • A key partner with Analysts, esp. in driving Collection • Customers must tell Intel what they are doing/seeing • Integrated Customer/Intel teams are best • Advanced Command Environments can help

5. High Language, Area, Topical, Technical Skills Keepers of What we Know, Don’t Know, Think Drive Tgt Dev/Collection Storyfinders/Storytellers Key Customer Partner & Collaborator Bias toward Sharing Key Security Gateway Truly All-Source Know Sources and Methods/Processing Facility with IT/Comms Tools, Architectures & Issues Works Strategic Problems First Balances Current and In-Depth Research Work Connecting w/Customers and Providing Context are Key Attributes Analysts as Central Actors/Key DriversAnalysts are KeyPartners ofCustomers and Together They are Juxtaposed with Collectors

6. Conference Topic: Balancing Sharing and Security • Analyst Skills & Intimacy with/Knowledge of Customers is Key; IT/Comms/Processes Facilitate/Support • Must be Empowerment along with Accountability • Defining “How” to Share is Critical; We have done this before (historically proven methodologies/case studies) • Analyst must develop strong Security Management Competencies; Security must trust and verify • Different sharing imperatives for peace, crisis and war • Must allow selective customers to live in our data • Collaboration engines, visualization, etc. can help maximize • Rules for Allies and Partners are important • New COTS tools like Intellipedia and A-Space can help • Must be policed for compliance & non-compliance/resistance • Related issues: Effects of Over-Classification/SBU Proliferation, Leaks, Declassification, Public Interest, Support for Historical Analysis

7. Human Capital Drives Success/Failure • IC must identify, recruit, train/educate, career manage top talent; water walkers identified early and challenged • Must be cross-detailed and experience “Community” early and often • NIU/schoolhouses are critical ingredients in producing top talent with skills and intel esprit; use best talent to teach best talent; weak talent eliminated early/often • Instills strong appreciation for intel business history; Manages across several generations of personnel • Security is a constant tension in system; needs new thinking to maintain truly global intel force • Gaming, Simulation and Exercise with realism hone and toughen skills; Crucibles of Fire build character

8. CI/CE, IA and Security • Long Pole in the Tent; Threats are huge and growing (esp. IA); leadership just now becoming aware/taking actions • Traditional Security is tail wagging the dog; Needs new thinking/reform for the info age & cost management • Technical talent more important then gum-shoe talent today; both needed in balance • Too many slow, unproductive and even petty processes; highly inefficient enterprise (eg. clearance passing process; SCIF standards, clearance/adjudication) • No one in charge of national policy; responsibility is local; needs top down review and re-evaluation • Foreign connections/activities need re-evaluation/new ideas for handling

9. Premier Acquisition and Systems Engineering • Management of Gov’t – Industry Partnership is fundamentally Strategic to Intel • Intel has extraordinary and broader authorities (not fully utilized) vs DOD/rest of gov’t • Has exhibited recent continuum & trend of failures which need detailed analysis on both gov’t and industry sides: • Possible Gov’t problems with SE and Acquisition Governance • Possible Industry problems with Domain Knowledge/Skills • Needs to actually be Premier vice un-differentiated; was differentiated in the early days • New IARPA Provides for Improved S&T Opportunities • Enhanced roles for Industry Associations and FFRDCs?

10. Oversight • IC Paid to be at the edge of legality; Oversight protects us from ourselves • Both Congress and IC legal and oversight staffs need to be imaginative about how IC can apply authorities and the law against global players not playing by any rules • Oversight needs subtlety and remain behind the scenes • Long and Continuous Calls for Simplification, Streamlining, & Professionalizing of Congressional oversight have gone complete unheeded. They expect action of others but can’t take actions themselves. • Frustrations notwithstanding, Oversight is still a critical feature of U.S. Intel which must be embraced and, while not pretty, differentiates the U.S. from many other peers

11. Intelligence and Info Warfare • IW/IO is a Contemporary Issue of Critical Importance; a highly emergent national security discipline and warfare area • Battles are for “Hearts and Minds” and Control/Dominance of the Global Info Sphere • Aspects of Info Attack, Defend and Exploit are all highly related, and Intel roles are critical to conduct & outcomes • IW/IO has not fully emerged in the U.S.; Remains Balkanized, doctrine is incomplete and un-evolved, and means are not played together symphonically end-to-end • Intel has not structured for full spectrum support; IC needs to grow organizationally and in expertise • IA is increasingly a major and potentially disastrous U.S. vulnerability area

12. Operating as a Community First • Today, notions of a truly integrated community of professionals does not exist (and not desired by some) • Our people identify with and remain loyal to their own agency first, and full X-IC collaboration, communication, cooperation and sensitivity is a strained notion • I can absolutely assure you that the notion of a truly integrated and seamlessly functioning IC has great power and more efficiency then the current model • Achieving “Community-ness” does not mean abandoning your home agency or discipline, nor having skills and competencies reduced to the lowest level of common performance • Integrating foreign and domestic intel cultures and processes poses significant future challenges

13. Leadership, Governance and the Bureaucracy • Intel is a complex business and should be led by knowledgeable and competent professionals identified and nurtured by strong succession planning programs • In complex businesses, good and effective leadership employs enlightened and industrial grade governance • Good governance is strong, common and interlocking IC-wide strategic planning, operational planning, quarterly reviews, program reviews of staff and line elements, wrapped with some form of quality management notions for strengthening processes and metrics, like Six Sigma. Industry associations can help. • Provides Leadership collective with transparency and metrics on issues and progress/problems • Bureaucracy is a major problem; Staffs must be seen to be value-added an streamlined by the line • Optimizations required in “Tooth vs Tail”

14. Final Observations • Having a “Philosophy” to underpin your role in Intelligence is important • Great supplement to your “In-basket” • Provides a framework/context into which all else fits, and can guide your daily life as an intel professional in today’s complex world • If you don’t yet have an intel philosophy (or at least some principles), recommend you get one/some