HUMINT, IMINT, MASINT, SIGINT, OSINT: Finding What Shouldn't be Found

The October - December 2005 issue of the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, focused on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). It referred to finding valuable and sometimes secret information in the library and in public databases. The issue provides an amazing number of excellent internet sources for information on almost any topic. It is surprising how much is available, for anyone to use.

Some of the training and research for military intelligence occurs at Fort Leavenworth Kansas, home of the Combined Arms ResearchLibrary(CARL). Right from the home page you stumble into an amazing amount of authoritative information. The navigation button at the top Find Books & More leads to the library's catalog. On the catalog page is a link to the full texts of 185 books and monographs on Counterinsurgency. A literal goldmine of information of years of thought and research on a topic that is relevant right now.
If you select the Digital Library link, you are immediately taken to a collection of full text databases which cover topics on military history, or lead to obsolete field manuals , as well as the latest research publications from the Command and General Staff College or the School of Advanced Military Study Monographs.

There are other free sources for government data containing excellent information. One of my favorites is the Google Custom Search Engine(CSE) called Naval Open Source Intelligence
(NOSINT). This source provides information on supposed secrets, covering material that will never attract the attention of the news media. Much of this information would be difficult to locate using a refular Google search.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology