Spies, Espionage & Intelligence – Life Is Like a James Bond Movie

I’ve had high-level security clearances for much of my career, but it wasn’t until late in my career when I was admitted to a specific handful of sensitive, compartmented programs that I sat back in my chair one day and whispered to myself, “Wow. This is really like a James Bond movie.” Colonel Chris Costa, US Army (Ret) lived in that black world, and now he is the Ex. Dir of our International SPY Museum in DC. He joined me on the show this week: https://frontlinesoffreedom.com/show-981/

A little context…with the exception of Israel, no other nation comes close to our technical means of collection capabilities. In fact, our collection capabilities are so good that the sheer quantity of information acquired through SIGINT, MASINT, COMINT, ELINT, GEOINT, IMINT, FININT, OSINT, etc.., can rapidly overwhelm us. As human beings, we can only consume so much. Key info gets overlooked in the noise.

The bigger challenge, however, is that we can become so enamored of technical collection methods, that we hamper the deeper understanding of human will. Understanding the WHY behind an enemy’s decision-making is no less important than the where/when/what the enemy has done or is capable of doing. We need to know HOW an enemy thinks, so to speak. What motivates him? What does he consider important? How does he see the world? How does he see himself?

This is why the best spies operate inside the enemy’s mind. They build rapport with potential intel sources and find ways to penetrate the enemy circle of trust. Their heads are inside the enemy’s culture. We will need more of this in the future.

Why? Because the enemy’s increasing employment of hybrid capabilities that intentionally target the gray zone between war & peace, and crime & combat, confuses us as to how to respond AND almost infinitely expands the range of potential threats requiring a response. So, a strategy based overwhelmingly on responding can never be enough.

That means placing more priority on engaging MUCH earlier in the enemy decision cycle. That means not waiting until we detect the enemy assembling the parts and pieces for a strike but rather disrupting his plan at its earliest point…ie when he first conceives of it in his mind. THAT requires a much more robust human intelligence effort and a much deeper understanding of human will. It will also require us to get comfortable with a military that is no longer purposed to just “Deter, Fight and Win,” but also to “Deter, Fight, Win, and Disrupt.”