Intelligence - It is really why I buy Frosties

I have been reading widely over the last couple of days that is the product of Marion having more rehearsals with her choir. I have also enjoyed a debate on the blog with my son. But first a weather update, we did not suffer snowmaggeddon last night; in fact there is no snow at all. Just proves that the forecasters this side of the Atlantic suffer the same problems as those in the US!

So I was reading a long article about the use of surveillance techniques since 9/11 specifically under the provisions of the Patriot Act. One of the conclusions was that because the volume of material gathered intelligence has become data driven, and is subject to the same sort of analytical techniques as your supermarket loyalty card. What you are getting is analysis rather than intelligence. I suppose to use an analogy it is like me buying Frosties at the supermarket, the data analysis is able to determine that I have bought Frosties, but it does not know that I have bought Frosties because my grand daughters are coming to stay, not because I a have developed a sweet tooth. Now if we extend this to links to terrorist organisations. If I am a Somali man who regularly sends money back to Somalia, that is significant but only if you know what the money is for, if I am supporting my family that is entirely legitimate, if it is sent to a known terrorist that is interesting but not conclusive. Again old fashioned on the ground intelligence can only determine the latter.

I was surprised that the Intelligence Services of various countries have known about the perpetrators of all the major acts of terrorism in the west since 9/11 in advance of the event. Where they have failed is in realising the significance of what they know. So these people were on the radar, the intelligence agencies were gathering information about them, they failed to discern the importance of what they were gathering. What this suggests is that data is not the problem, but old-fashioned intelligence knowledge is. So to go back to the Somali sending money overseas, what the intelligence agencies need is great links to the Somali community, and also the trust of that community that the authorities are acting it its best interests. It is a truism I know but there is no substitute to talking to people!

A brief return to yesterday’s blog, my son reminded me that the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities were actually performed by the majority of the populace rather than a power crazed Nazi elite. This is brilliantly written about in a book titled “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. He bases his theory on the meticulous records that the Nazi’s kept. Recommended reading if you can find it.

Oops and at 13:30 it is snowing, and I am supposed to be going to Leeds for a beer tasting evening!!!