All-source intelligence

All-source intelligence is a term used to describe intelligence organizations, intelligence analysts, or intelligence products that are based on all available sources of intelligence collection information.^[1][2]

History

The definition of all-source intelligence has changed over time. The distinction between intelligence that is single source and that which uses multiple sources has become outmoded. Intelligence analysts that produced intelligence primarily from SIGINT or IMINT, for instance, were considered single-INT producers. Because of the need to incorporate all-relevant information in reporting, IMINT analysts became GEOINT analysts that include not only IMINT but relevant information from other intelligence sources. This was especially important in the aftermath of the 9/11 intelligence failures. In the aftermath of these events, collaborative tools such as A-Space and Intellipedia are used for collaboration amongst all members of the Intelligence Community.^[3]

Sources

Sources considered for use in all-source intelligence analysis include the following:^[3]

• HUMINT – Intelligence gathered by means interpersonal contact
• MASINT – Technical branch of intelligence gathering
• SIGINT – Intelligence-gathering by interception of signals
• Geospatial intelligence – Information on military opponents' location
  • IMINT – Intelligence gathered by means of imagery
• OSINT – Data collected from publicly available sources to be used in an intelligence context
• TECHINT – Information about the weapons and technological capabilities of a foreign adversary

Organizations

The following organizational components of the U.S. Intelligence Community employ analysts that produce all-source intelligence:^[4]

• Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Analysis^[5]
• Defense Intelligence Agency Directorate for Analysis^[6]
• United States Army Intelligence and Security Command's National Ground Intelligence Center
• Office of Naval Intelligence's Farragut Technical Analysis Center^[7]
• U.S. Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center^[8]
• U.S Marine Corps Intelligence's Marine Corps Intelligence Activity^[9]
• United States Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research
• National Security Agency (select components)
• National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
• Federal Bureau of Investigation's Intelligence Branch
• United States Coast Guard's Coast Guard Intelligence
• DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis
• United States Department of Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
• Drug Enforcement Administration's DEA Office of National Security Intelligence
• United States Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence: National Counterproliferation Center (NCPC), National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), National Intelligence Council (NIC), Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX)