View source for Intelligence gathering network

{{Multiple issues|
{{More footnotes|date=October 2013}}
{{original research|page|date=October 2017}}
}}

[[File:ELAS Intelligence Network Aigialeia.jpg|thumb|[[ELAS]] intelligence network in [[Aigialeia]] during World War II.]]

An '''intelligence gathering network''' is a system through which information about a particular entity is collected for the benefit of another through the use of more than one, inter-related source.{{according to whom|date=February 2015}} Such information may be gathered by a [[military intelligence]], [[government intelligence]], or [[commercial intelligence]] network.

[[Intelligence assessment]] employs [[intelligence analysis]] to refine information. Foreign [[embassies]] subscribe to the newspapers and keep tabs on the news channels of their host countries &mdash; the information doesn't have to be classified to be considered useful intelligence; indeed, so-called OSINT, or [[open-source intelligence]], is increasing in both quantity and utility with the ascendancy of digital media. Researchers may also be employed to dig through archives and check facts. An important form of intelligence is so-called "[[signals intelligence]]", which attempts to intercept electronic communications and other signals sent between parties working for a hostile, or potentially hostile, entity, or between neutral or even friendly parties but ''discussing'' that entity.

In established intelligence agencies, such networks usually follow a [[linear]] rather than distributed structure. An [[agent handling|agent handler]] directs the activities of a number of persons and sources in order to obtain the necessary facts about the target of the intelligence gathering operation.  The two main [[HUMINT]] agent types used are ''infiltration'' and ''penetration'' agents.  An infiltration agent is someone who enters the target of the operation from the outside, but on a suitable pretext so that they are not suspected of espionage.  A penetration agent would already be in place in the target area, and is recruited by the handler, often by means of the [[Counterintelligence#Counter-HUMINT|MICE principle]]. The information so gathered is processed by one or more analysts and turned into an intelligence product.  Information is conveyed between nodes of the network by a variety of secure/clandestine means, be they physical or electronic.

==History==

===Turkey===

At the turn of the twentieth century, the last Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, demanded daily intelligence reports called ''djournals'' (from the word "journal). After decades, he had saved millions of them in "a whole building to itself in the War Office, where a Government Commission is now," Francis McCullagh wrote in 1910, "wading slowly through this amazing accumulation."<ref>{{cite book|last1=McCullagh|first1=Francis|title=The Fall of Abd-ul-Hamid|url=https://archive.org/details/fallofabdulhamid00mccuuoft|date=1910|publisher=Methuen & Co. Ltd.|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fallofabdulhamid00mccuuoft/page/18 18]-19}}</ref>

==References==
* {{cite book|author=Jan Goldman Ph.D.|title=The Central Intelligence Agency: An Encyclopedia of Covert Ops, Intelligence Gathering, and Spies &#91;2 volumes&#93;: An Encyclopedia of Covert Ops, Intelligence Gathering, and Spies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8DgVCwAAQBAJ|date=14 December 2015|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-092-8}}
* {{cite book|author=Christopher Vasey|title=Nazi Intelligence Operations in Non-Occupied Territories: Espionage Efforts in the United States, Britain, South America and Southern Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuPIDAAAQBAJ|date=30 June 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-6353-1}}
* {{cite book|author1=Jan Camenisch|author2=Doğan Kesdoğan|title=Open Problems in Network Security: IFIP WG 11.4 International Workshop, iNetSec 2015, Zurich, Switzerland, October 29, 2015, Revised Selected Papers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2tEYDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA33|date=30 April 2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-39028-4|page=33}}

{{Reflist}}
{{espionage}}
{{intelligence cycle management}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Intelligence Gathering Network}}
[[Category:Espionage]]
[[Category:Open-source intelligence]]


{{espionage-stub}}