Formal intelligence products follow the same basic format, an inverted pyramid. Agencies have their own templates—sometimes multiple templates to fit different types of intelligence products—but all place the most important information at the top, followed by supportive analysis and facts. The overall presentation is sometimes referred to as the “bottom line up front,” or BLUF.Continue reading “Inverted Pyramid: The Format For Intelligence Products”
Category Archives: Base Knowledge
Open Source Intelligence: Good, But Use With Caution
Open source intelligence sites, such as .gov, .org, .edu, and many .com sites, used to be acceptable choices for research for both finished and raw intelligence. They might not always have been neutral, but their biases were generally discernible and could be filtered from the final product. But the trustworthiness of publicly available data isContinue reading “Open Source Intelligence: Good, But Use With Caution”
Hedge Words: Leaving Room For The Unexpected
When I first began to write finished intelligence, it frustrated me when editors recommended revisions that included hedge words, also known as words of estimative probability (likely, possibly, probably, the facts appear to be consistent with, and others). I did a thorough job on my products and the language I chose reflected my confidence. IContinue reading “Hedge Words: Leaving Room For The Unexpected”
Data Sources and Focus Of Intelligence Analysts
Data sources for intelligence analysts may come from within their home agencies, compiled in support of their agency’s mission, or else from external sources, such as from data sets compiled by government and private entities. There is a function in analysis for projecting uncertain futures, however, the role of the intelligence analyst is most oftenContinue reading “Data Sources and Focus Of Intelligence Analysts”
How To Write An Intelligence Question
Revised 29 January 2022 A good intelligence question leads naturally to an analytical thesis. It is distinguished from a research question in that a research question elicits facts; an intelligence question elicits analysis. The answer to an intelligence question offers a “what” and a “so what.” The “what” is a factual statement that might deriveContinue reading “How To Write An Intelligence Question”