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MILNET: Intelligence Defined
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According to Jeffery T. Richelson in his tome The U.S. Intelligence Community: 1
"...intelligence can be defined as the "product" resulting from the collection, evaluation, analysis, integration, and interpretation of all available information which concerns one or more aspects of foreign nations or of areas of operation which is immediately or potentially significant for planning ." 2
Intelligence agencies typically include divisions tasked with key intelligence elements, such as research, analysis or operations. This usually includes the separation of covert and overt as well as intelligence gathering versus countering collection efforts of other counteries upon their own.
In the U.S., for instance, Intelligence collection is conducted by many agencies and counter intelligence, i.e. anti-espionage, is also conducted by a number of agencies. The lead agency for intelligence gathering overseas is the C.I.A. whereas domestic collection is conducted by the FBI. Similarly, the FBI leads counter intelligence activities domestically. In fact, legally, the CIA cannot conduct operations inside the U.S. and against U.S. citizens unless they are clearly following an investigation that began outside the country. In nearly every case, the CIA informs the FBI as soon as the investigation falls into the U.S.
In the U.S., Intelligence activities are based upon a chain of legislation over the years prior to and after World War II.
Also, U.S. intelligence activities are directed by the executive branch and scrutinized by committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
In terms of what data is to be gathered, the U.S. Government defines a set of Intelligence Questions which then become the basis for prioritization of intelligence operations. Known as the SIR questions (SIR - Strategic Intelligence Review), these questions begins as a list of a dozen issues defined by the office of the Director of Central Intelligence, identifying both the actual intelligence needs as well as rating which disciplines (the INTs) that will contribute to the answers. 3
A National Intelligence Daily (NIDs or more commonly known as the "dailies") reports day-by-day the status of answering these questions. More often than not, the status consists of interim reports and tracks direction to the answers, rather than a full and complete answer.
For instance in May of 1994, the National Intelligence Council identified (via the SIRs), a total of 376 questions that needed to be acted upon in this time period.
One example of a need at the time:
Obviously this would require the collection, analysis and integration steps to provide U.S. counter forces to plan for the execution of a counter to that attack.