By Dave Hodges on May 09, 2016

To my friends and colleagues in the Independent Media, the following revelation is extremely simplistic. However, we have reached a time in the present course of events, that the general public, who is fast becoming an important source of information, needs to be minimally educated about the general nature on how we in the media frequently reach conclusions for the stories that we write and how we ascribe credibility.

In my work with both the general public’s anecdotal observations that they share with the Quayles’ and the Hagmanns’ of the intelligence reporting world, to the direct revelations of insider sources, the art form known as intelligence gathering is complex and takes special skill to accumulate into an intelligible story or event.

Open Source vs. Closed Source Information

The world of intelligence gathering is a very complex process. Some people in the world of intelligence gathering, to be used a data/trend fathering tool is also not a perfect science. However, there are some elements of the process that one can generally count on.

With regard to intelligence information, called open source intelligence information, is readily available to the public, if one knows where to look and how to interpret data in a current context as well an historical context. Although nobody knows for sure, but open source information may account for as much as 75 to 80% of all intelligence information. In this regard many of us in the media, who work this side of the street for data, will evaluate reasonable sounding intelligence information which is grass roots (i.e. anecdotal). With the advent of the Internet, open source information is becoming increasingly timely and accurate. In fact, Steve Quayle even created his “Q-Alerts” page with regard to this phenomenon and many of the revelations have led to stories of importance.

Many times when I am approached by a person with critical information, they will refer me to open source intelligence information in order to stay out trouble by not revealing classified information that is not publicly available. Some will use open source information to validate the unauthorized release of “protected” information as well.

The hardest part about intelligence information, other than vetting the intelligence source and the existence of possible ulterior motives connected to the release of information, is the connecting of dots and trying to establish a time frame for what is coming based upon what is already known.

Why am I revealing this very small broad brush information? Because I believe that our American political events are so fluid and in some cases so dangerous, that anyone with any persistence and desire will stumble upon open source intelligence information which could prove valuable in terms of exposure to stop the event, or to predict where an event is headed.

SNIP