Page 22 - WBG March 2025

FEATURE
THE SIX

PLANNING
Policymakers—including the president, presidential
advisors, the National Security Council, and other major STEPS IN THE
departments and agencies—determine what issues need
to be addressed and set intelligence priorities. The IC’s
issue coordinators interact with these officials to identify INTELLIGENCE
core concerns and information requirements.

Those needs, in turn, guide our collection strategies and CYCLE
allow us to produce appropriate intelligence products.
We begin with an awareness of what has previously been
collected to inform plans for new intelligence gathering Source: How the Intelligence Community Works,
and analysis. Some issues, like terrorism, cybercrime, and U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence
weapons proliferation, are ongoing subjects of interest. https://www.intelligence.gov/how-the-ic-works

COLLECTION
The IC uses many methods to collect information, 2. HUMAN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE (HUMINT)
including face-to-face meetings with human sources, Information collected from human sources, the oldest method for
technical and physical surveillance, satellite surveillance, collecting information.
interviews, searches, and liaison relationships. Information
can be gathered through open, covert, and electronic
means.All collection methods must be lawful and are
subject to oversight by Congress and others. Information
collected must be relevant, timely, and useful. At
this stage, the information is often referred to as raw
intelligence, because it hasn’t been thoroughly examined
and evaluated yet.

There are six basic types of intelligence collection.

1. GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE (GEOINT)
Imagery and geospatial data produced through an integration
of imagery, imagery intelligence, and geographic information.
3. IMAGERY INTELLIGENCE (IMINT)
Representations of objects reproduced electronically or by optical
means on film, electronic display devices, or other media.

20 W.A.D Beyond Global