Intelligence and Its Role in Protecting Against Terrorism

The art and science of gathering critical operational intelligence has been defined in many ways and is beyond our needs for this writing. Throughout the course of history, many wars have been fought depending heavily on various forms of intelligence. During our most recent actions in the War on Terror, intelligence analysis has played a critical role in both offensive and defensive operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. With such varying fact-finding techniques available and utilized in the defense of our country, it has become an arduous task to collect, decipher, package, prioritize, disseminate, and act upon everything that comes down the pipe.Intelligence is even more important in homeland defense and security. Our society is suspicious of intrusions on personal liberties. Mandated identity cards, restricted vehicle access and random searches of airline passengers are generally not well received. That makes it especially important to prevent terrorist attacks by interdicting the terrorists and their resources before they can reach their targets. The primary means of accomplishing this is through a combination of intelligence and law enforcement work