Remember Fusion GPS, massive leaks, fake dossiers, and rogue FBI counterintelligence agents? Oh, and how about the 51 ex-intel officials who smeared the New York Post's report on Hunter Biden's laptop as “Russian disinformation?"
President-elect Donald Trump has more than good reason to distrust the intelligence community and ensure that we have real reforms within the IC, as well as have true American patriots in leadership positions.
However, Trump is not the first president to have real concerns about the American Intelligence Community. President Dwight Eisenhower, in the 1950s, also had good reason to distrust the IC, much of it stemming from the fact that the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) couldn't get along, and were constantly trying to sabotage the other.
As a result, Eisenhower implemented reforms in order to get a better handle on the activities of the IC. These included the creation of the Office of the National Security Advisor to the President, and the creation of the President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities, which later became known as the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
Yes, both President Eisenhower and President Trump understood that the Deep State is very real.
Today, President-elect Trump has appointed three American Patriots to key positions who will help ensure the intelligence community serves the American people. Michael Waltz as the national security adviser to the president, Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel as the director of the FBI are all “outside-the-box" thinkers who understand how government should work for the American people.
In addition to having true public servants in key positions like Waltz, Gabbard, and Patel, the incoming Trump administration could make great use of open-source intelligence (OSINT) as a further check and safeguard on would-be activities of nefarious actors.
OSINT is a great tool to gather the best information. It is not a new concept, but the internet has taken OSINT to a new level.
The history of OSINT 1.0 began in 1941 with the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, which analyzed broadcasts from the Axis powers. Under the National Security Act of 1947, this organization was reconstituted as the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).
The mission of FBIS was enhanced to monitor all foreign media. By the end of the Cold War, FBIS was regularly translating over 3,000 news outlets from over 60 languages.
In OSINT 2.0, there are advanced search engines that can easily provide this type of information. I've had the great privilege of using some of these advanced search engines. It shows us that OSINT 2.0 requires us to think of new ways where to find relevant information.
For example, in December 2012, I was the first to confirm (on national television) that Iranian experts were at North Korea's December 2012 missile launch. While this was reported in non-Western media sources, it was not on any major Western outlets.
Here it should be noted that Google and other well-known commercial search engines only give individuals the most popular searches and not all open-source information. Using advanced search engines, and using them in different languages, can give you an idea of how limited our traditional searches are in finding useful intelligence.
The late Gen. Sam Wilson, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said, “Ninety percent of intelligence comes from open sources. The other 10%, the clandestine work, is just more dramatic. The real intelligence hero is Sherlock Holmes, not James Bond.”
If 90% of our information comes from open sources, we need to focus more of our resources in OSINT for taxpayers to avoid diminishing returns on our intelligence spending.
To keep America safe, our commander-in-chief must have the latest, most up-to-date and accurate information at his disposal. He also doesn't need to have nefarious characters buried in the bowels of the federal government working against him and the American people.
A dedicated OSINT capability, or OSINT cells, within organizations like the National Security Council, the ODNI, and even the FBI will not only ensure that all critical information needed for sound decision-making is getting to the president but will also serve as an effective check on bad actors who seek to spread disinformation to harm our nation.
Van Hipp is Chairman of American Defense International, Inc. He is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army and author of "The New Terrorism: How to Fight It and Defeat It." He is the 2018 recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Sept. 11 Garden Leadership Award for National Security. Read Van Hipp's Reports — More Here.