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"Collection can be defined as the purposeful acquisition of any information that might be desired by analyst, consumer, or operator." 1
The collection of Intelligence information can be categorized under a number of traditional collection methodologies:
New "INTS"
Collection can be accomplished by a number of surveillance or reconaissance methods ...i.e. by the "tailing" of someone as in human surveillance (HUMINT), or as in a recon satellite photographic mission...photographing military equipment on the ground as in overhead reconaissance. Another very important element in collection are the various sensors involved. Also, interpretation of imagery, the analysis of collected information, and the planning that makes the collection operation a success, plays a huge role in the value of that information. The U.S. regularly conducts a vast number of surveillance operations worldwide.
Recently defined are three new, official "INTS", IMINT (IMage Intelligence) replacing, one would suppose, PHOTOINT, as well as adding in other sensor platforms whose output can be placed on media such as film, video tape, or electronic files; MASINT (Measurement And Signals Intelligence which has its own office in the government, The Central MASINT OFFICE (CMO)); and OSINT (Open Sources Intelligence - collection of key information via open sources such as MILNET or other publically available resources. U.S. Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intellience Community.
This same report refers to the U.S. Congress' staff study on intelligence community, IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century. And that report recommends that the U.S. Director of Central Intelligence would be better served to move all clandestine operations to a separate department reporting directly to the DCI ( Clandestine Services - CS). The study also recommends that the MASINT process in U.S. Intelligence should be made part of a system wide discipline such as SIGINT (U.S. SIGINT Systems - USSS) and IMINT (U.S. IMINT Systems - USIS)
Another division of collection resources mentioned in the IC21 report is the Defense HUMINT Services (DHS), which appears to be tasked with DoD HUMINT activities. The IC21 report recommends that those components performing clandestine collection be folded under the new Clandestine Services department.
The formation of a Clandestine Services is a remarkable recommendation for a Congressional study group to make...perhaps creating an even greater power figure in U.S. government than the DCI was before...providing much needed direct management control, yet allowing for single point of failure for all rogue clandestine operations. Of course, in Congress' viewpoint, this is an ideal situation, since there will be a directly responsible person whose high level in the government requires forthrightness to oversight, yet is not protected by the vagueries of the separation of powers provisions of the Constitution (i.e. the President is not all that accountable, whereas the DCI is directly accountable to Congress in its oversight capacity).
Also of importance, is the recommendation (subsection 5b. of the Overview) that the technical ints should all be combined into a single reporting office, the Technical Collection Agency (TCA).