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Essay on Intelligence Analysis

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If you had that one piece of the puzzle that would have prevented the bombings of the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon on September 11 2001 would you know it? If you saw someone do something weird or suspicious before the attack on September 11 2001, would you have called the police? If someone had walked into a United States Embassy in a foreign country and said that they know someone was going to use a plane to destroy New York in two days, could this have stopped the attack? Intelligence Analysis puts the raw sources of information together, make predictions based on the data, and finally publish the results. Stephane Lefebvre wrote that “ intelligence analysis is the process of evaluating and transforming raw data …show more content…

Putting the data into related groups that will either confirm, enhance or disagree with each group of data. The process of synthesizing the information, using the current data, past history of the subject(s), and additional relevant information, begins toward a final conclusion. Different predictions, conclusions or scenarios are made based on both the data and the analyst insight, training and past experience. The results are sometimes rated based from most likely to occur to the least likely to occur. As the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, writer Stephane Lefebvre points out “Of course, accurate estimates depend at least as much upon the mental model used by the analyst as upon the accuracy and completeness of the information itself” ( 236). The analysis is then given to consumers and policy makers, once it is checked by the analyst supervisor and peers. The analyst should also be ready to give a briefing on short notice. But both the analyst and the policy maker or consumer have to be aware of at all times, is that the intelligence field does not know everything. “On any given subject, the intelligence community faces what is in effect a field of rocks, and it lacks the resources to turn over every one to see what threats to national security may lurk underneath” (Pillar).

While the intelligence analysis field is a small discipline, it can have its

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