Government needs more online spies

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

A piece in the USA Today this week highlights the use of open-source information in the U.S. intelligence community. As more information is available on the Web, it is becoming an increasingly important piece of the intel pie — even making the President’s morning briefing. There’s a clash since some in the intelligence community feel that the classified sources are the most reliable, but others argue you can learn about your enemy by what he or she says in sources available for all to read. Robert David Steele, ex-CIA and Marine officer, advocates a flip-flop of spending in favor of open-source over more hush-hush sources:

I’m not a librarian saying open sources are cool and we can do this…I’m a very good former spy saying open sources are cool and we can do this.”

Though it’s always a battle to tell fact from fiction online, it’s sure easier than getting access to classified material. Given that 19,000 FBI personnel are still waiting for desktop Internet access, it seems reasonable to devote some more resources to this type of intelligence.

In his piece “The Next Generation of Terror” for the current issue of FP, Marc Sageman describes the new reality of “leaderless jihad,” in which extremist ideology and terrorist tactics spread through online social networks rather than hierarchical organizations. In light of this, it’s encouraging to see some intelligence professionals shifting their focus to the dangers in plain view.