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September 22, 2005

Interesting report from SOCOM's hometown

Tampa is also home to CENTCOM. From the Tampa Tribune earlier today:

According to the draft version of a report prepared for the Pentagon's top intelligence official, federal oversight regulations ``were frequently cited'' by military organizations across thecountry ``as limiting factors to robust open-source collection.''

Public information includes items as generic as newspapers and professional journals and more sensitive documents such as legal filings, driver's license applications and property records.

In particular, the regulations have been a barrier for U.S. Northern Command, which has its headquarters in Colorado and is responsible for guarding U.S. borders, the report states.

The concerns, however, appear to be unfounded, according to the report.

Written by the Defense Open Source Council, the study says a review of current regulations and policy found no ``restrictions on collection and exploitation of publicly availableinformation.''

The Defense Open Source Council was established by Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence since March 2003.

The council is made up of representatives from Cambone's office, the four military services, and the defense agencies that gather and analyze secrets stolen overseas.

The May 24 draft report is labeled ``for official use only.'' The Tampa Tribune obtained excerpts of the study....

Using open-source information as an intelligence tool is not new.

Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command, both at MacDill Air Force Base, are significant consumers of public information.

Within SoCom, the open-source effort is known as ``the Pit,'' a reference to a large electronic repository where information from public and private databases is gathered and sorted by computers.

Yet the practice of tapping open sources remains largely unregulated, a point underscored by the Defense Open Source Council....

Wait for it:

James Woolsey, President Clinton's CIA director from 1993 to 1995, said the decision not to pass the information to law enforcement agents was made before Sept. 11 and passage of the PatriotAct, which has expanded the government's ability to track terrorist threats inside the United States.

``There are all sorts of things that lawyers, during peacetime, advise their clients to do to stay within legal bounds,'' Woolsey said.

Posted by Mike at September 22, 2005 01:19 AM

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