Intelligence source and information reliability

Last updated

Intelligence source and information reliability rating systems are used in intelligence analysis. This rating is used for information collected by a human intelligence collector. [1] [2] This type of information collection and job duty exists within many government agencies around the world. [3] [4]

Contents

According to Ewen Montagu, John Godfrey devised this system when he was director of the Naval Intelligence Division (N.I.D.) around the time of World War II. [5]

The system employed by the United States Armed Forces rates the reliability of the source as well as the information. The source reliability is rated between A (history of complete reliability) to E (history of invalid information), with F for source without sufficient history to establish reliability level. The information content is rated between 1 (confirmed) to 5 (improbable), with 6 for information whose reliability can not be evaluated. [6]

For example, a confirmed information from a reliable source has rating A1, an unknown-validity information from a new source without reputation is rated F6, an inconsistent illogical information from a known liar is E5, a confirmed information from a moderately doubtful source is C1.

The evaluation matrix as described in the Field Manual FM 2-22.3 (see also Admiralty code): [6]

Source reliability

RatingDescription
AReliableNo doubt about the source's authenticity, trustworthiness, or competency. History of complete reliability.
BUsually reliableMinor doubts. History of mostly valid information.
CFairly reliableDoubts. Provided valid information in the past.
DNot usually reliableSignificant doubts. Provided valid information in the past.
EUnreliableLacks authenticity, trustworthiness, and competency. History of invalid information.
FReliability unknownInsufficient information to evaluate reliability. May or may not be reliable.

Information credibility

RatingDescription
1Confirmed by independent SourcesLogical, consistent with other relevant information, confirmed by independent sources.
2Probably trueLogical, consistent with other relevant information, not confirmed.
3Possibly trueReasonably logical, agrees with some relevant information, not confirmed.
4Doubtfully TrueNot logical but possible, no other information on the subject, not confirmed.
5ImprobableNot logical, contradicted by other relevant information.
6Difficult to sayThe validity of the information can not be determined.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MI5</span> British domestic intelligence agency

MI5, officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and Defence Intelligence (DI). MI5 is directed by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), and the service is bound by the Security Service Act 1989. The service is directed to protect British parliamentary democracy and economic interests and to counter terrorism and espionage within the United Kingdom (UK).

360-degree feedback is a process through which feedback from an employee's colleagues and associates is gathered, in addition to a self-evaluation by the employee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterintelligence</span> Offensive measures using enemy information

Counterintelligence (counter-intelligence) or counterespionage (counter-espionage) is any activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or other intelligence activities conducted by, for, or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations or persons.

An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information which is of use to that organization. The word of officer is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way a "police officer" can also be a sergeant, or in the military, in which non-commissioned personnel may serve as intelligence officers.

Pride-and-ego down is a US Army term for techniques used by captors in interrogating prisoners to encourage cooperation, usually consisting of "attacking the source's sense of personal worth" and in an "attempt to redeem his pride, the source will usually involuntarily provide pertinent information in attempting to vindicate himself."

Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception operation of the Second World War to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. Two members of British intelligence obtained the body of Glyndwr Michael, a tramp who died from eating rat poison, dressed him as an officer of the Royal Marines and placed personal items on him identifying him as the fictitious Captain William Martin. Correspondence between two British generals that suggested that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia, with Sicily as merely the target of a feint, was also placed on the body.

Criminal intelligence is information compiled, analyzed, and/or disseminated in an effort to anticipate, prevent, or monitor criminal activity.

Subjective video quality is video quality as experienced by humans. It is concerned with how video is perceived by a viewer and designates their opinion on a particular video sequence. It is related to the field of Quality of Experience. Measuring subjective video quality is necessary because objective quality assessment algorithms such as PSNR have been shown to correlate poorly with subjective ratings. Subjective ratings may also be used as ground truth to develop new algorithms.

The US Army Field Manual on Interrogation, sometimes known by the military nomenclature FM 34-52, is a 177-page manual describing to military interrogators how to conduct effective interrogations while conforming with US and international law. It has been replaced by FM 2-22.3 Human Intelligence Collector Operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivor Montagu</span> British film maker (1904–1984)

Ivor Goldsmid Samuel Montagu was an English filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, film critic, writer, table tennis player, and Communist activist and spy in the 1930s. He helped to develop a lively intellectual film culture in Britain during the interwar years, and was also the founder of the International Table Tennis Federation.

Special access programs (SAPs) in the U.S. Federal Government are security protocols that provide highly classified information with safeguards and access restrictions that exceed those for regular (collateral) classified information. SAPs can range from black projects to routine but especially-sensitive operations, such as COMSEC maintenance or presidential transportation support. In addition to collateral controls, a SAP may impose more stringent investigative or adjudicative requirements, specialized nondisclosure agreements, special terminology or markings, exclusion from standard contract investigations (carve-outs), and centralized billet systems. Within the Department of Defense, SAP is better known as "SAR" by the mandatory Special Access Required (SAR) markings.

The U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals are seven controversial military training manuals which were declassified by the Pentagon in 1996. In 1997, two additional CIA manuals were declassified in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Baltimore Sun. The manuals in question have been referred to by various media sources as the "torture manuals".

The Admiralty System or NATO System is a method for evaluating collected items of intelligence. The system comprises a two-character notation assessing the reliability of the source and the assessed level of confidence on the information. The Admiralty system is used by NATO member nations and members of the Five Eyes community.

<i>U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B</i> Document claiming to be a classified appendix to a U.S. Army Field Manual

The US Army Field Manual 30-31B, dubbed the "Westmoreland Field Manual," purportedly outlined a strategy called the "strategy of tension," wherein violent attacks are orchestrated and blamed on left-wing groups to justify government action. However, most scholars believe it to be a Cold War-era hoax conducted by Soviet intelligence services.

Intelligence collection management is the process of managing and organizing the collection of intelligence from various sources. The collection department of an intelligence organization may attempt basic validation of what it collects, but is not supposed to analyze its significance. There is debate in U.S. intelligence community on the difference between validation and analysis, where the National Security Agency may try to interpret information when such interpretation is the job of another agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FM 2-22.3 Human Intelligence Collector Operations</span>

Army Field Manual 2 22.3, or FM 2-22.3, Human Intelligence Collector Operations, was issued by the Department of the Army on September 6, 2006. The manual gives instructions on a range of issues, such as the structure, planning and management of human intelligence operations, the debriefing of soldiers, and the analysis of known relationships and map data. The largest and most newsworthy section of the document details procedures for the screening and interrogation of prisoners of war and unlawful combatants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M249 light machine gun</span> Light machine gun

The M249 SAW, formally the Light Machine Gun, 5.56 mm, M249, is the United States Armed Forces adaptation of the Belgian FN Minimi, a light machine gun manufactured by FN Herstal (FN).

Automation bias is the propensity for humans to favor suggestions from automated decision-making systems and to ignore contradictory information made without automation, even if it is correct. Automation bias stems from the social psychology literature that found a bias in human-human interaction that showed that people assign more positive evaluations to decisions made by humans than to a neutral object. The same type of positivity bias has been found for human-automation interaction, where the automated decisions are rated more positively than neutral. This has become a growing problem for decision making as intensive care units, nuclear power plants, and aircraft cockpits have increasingly integrated computerized system monitors and decision aids to mostly factor out possible human error. Errors of automation bias tend to occur when decision-making is dependent on computers or other automated aids and the human is in an observatory role but able to make decisions. Examples of automation bias range from urgent matters like flying a plane on automatic pilot to such mundane matters as the use of spell-checking programs.

The Government of the United Kingdom maintains several intelligence agencies that deal with secret intelligence. These agencies are responsible for collecting, analysing and exploiting foreign and domestic intelligence, providing military intelligence, and performing espionage and counter-espionage. Their intelligence assessments contribute to the conduct of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom, maintaining the national security of the United Kingdom, military planning, public safety, and law enforcement in the United Kingdom. The four main agencies are the Secret Intelligence Service, the Security Service (MI5), the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and Defence Intelligence (DI). The agencies are organised under three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence.

<i>Operation Mincemeat</i> (musical) British musical about Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat is a musical comedy with book, music and lyrics by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts. The plot is based on the Operation Mincemeat, a Second World War British deception operation. The show received six Laurence Olivier Award nominations, winning two for Best New Musical and Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Jak Malone.

References

  1. "What Does an Army Human Intelligence Collector Do?". The Balance. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  2. "Human Intelligence Collector | Army.com". army.com. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  3. "Covert Human Intelligence Sources | MI5 - The Security Service". www.mi5.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  4. "New chief of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, has 30 years of experience in operational, intelligence and executive positions". EIPA. 2015-12-16. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  5. Montagu, Ewen (1977). Beyond Top Secret U. Peter Davies Ltd. p. 21.
  6. 1 2 Human Intelligence Collector Operations. LLMC. Field Manual FM 2-22.3 via Google Books.