Department of National Security, Intelligence, and Space
IN519 Collections
Spring C 2008
3 Credit Hours
16 Weeks
Table of Contents
Instructor Information / Evaluation Procedures
Course Description / Grading Scale
Course Scope / Course Outline and Weekly Schedule
Course Objectives / Policies
Course Delivery Method / Academic Services
Course Materials / Selected Bibliography
Instructor Information

Instructor: Dr. Jerry Gideon (Bio at Appendix A)

Email:

Phone:703 769-2649

Fax: 703 769-3797

Office Hours: 9 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., USA Eastern Time, Monday – Friday

Table of Contents

Course Description (Catalog)

IN519 Collections (3 hours)

This course is a study of intelligence collection and information gathering. It focuses on a variety of aspects related to how both the United States and foreign nations gather and process intelligence. The student will develop a comprehensive understanding of the role collection plays in the intelligence community, how various policies affect collection, and how different intelligence agencies monitor and collect intelligence.

Table of Contents

Course Scope

IN519 Collections (3 hours) Collections is covers a broad area of intelligence disciplines. Much of the work and nuance of collections fall into the arcane world of compartmented classified sources and methods. However, the general concepts of collections, theories and approaches of collections, and the general systems of collections can be discussed in an open forum such as a graduate seminar on collections.

The scope of class will cover collections systems and concepts of the Cold War through the present time. The focus will be on technical collection, overhead systems, and air breathing systems. While signals intelligence and human intelligence are part of the world of collection, theses disciplines are covered in greater detail in other courses, so discussion on these programs will be limited.

Table of Contents

Course Objectives

Course Objectives: At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to:

·  Examine and discuss the emphasis on U.S. collection since the end of the Cold War.

·  Evaluate the lessons the history of intelligence collection, processing, and analysis, and apply the lessons to specific issues.

·  Assess and debate intelligence collection successes and failures.

·  Examine and evaluate intelligence technology advances.

·  Determine how special operations are used in intelligence collection procedures.

·  Describe and evaluate the current missions for intelligence gathering.

·  Assess how the various INTs are used in Intelligence collection and analysis.

·  Determine modes of intelligence collection for the 21st century.

·  Determine the need for better economic intelligence.

·  Examine and discuss critical future issues.

·  Write a carefully done original, graduate level historical essay and research paper in this field; and support the statements and conclusion(s) with properly documented evidence.

Table of Contents

Course Delivery Method

This course will offer the student an interactive virtual classroom. Each week’s lesson will have a course announcement, assigned readings. At least three discussion group questions, based on either course readings or related course topic, will complement the course materials.

Since the student is expected to fully participate in discussions and interact with the instructor and other students, reading assignments and assigned projects should be completed in a timely manner.

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Course Materials

Required Texts and Readings:

Bamford, James. Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency. Anchor; 1st Anchor Books ed edition (April 30, 2002).

Peebles, Curtis. Twilight Warriors: Covert Air Operations Against the USSR. Naval Institute Press, 2000.

Tart, Larry. Price of Vigilance: Attacks on American Surveillance Flights. New York, NY: Ballantine Publishing Group, 2001.

Temple, L. Parker, III. Shades of Gray: National Security and the Evolution of Space Reconnaissance. AIAA Press, 2005.

“Dr. G’s Corrections Page.” This is found in the Writing Tools folder and should be used to edit papers before submission. Pay particular attention to items (5,6,7a,16a-f, 18-20, and 39, as these are the most common issues I see.)

Supplementary Readings and Web sites:

Cherkashin, Victor, with Gregory Feifer. Spy Handler -- Memoir of a KGB Officer: The True Story of the Man Who Recruited Robert Hanssen & Aldrich Ames. New York: Basic Books, 2004.

Lindgren, David. Trust but Verify: Imagery Analysis in the Cold War. Naval Institute Press, 2000.

JCS. Joint Electronic Library - WelcomeJoint Electronic Library. http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/s_index.html

CIA. “Electronic FOIA Reading Room.” http://www.foia.cia.gov/

CIA. “Studies in Intelligence” Index by subject, author, title. http://www.cia.gov/csi/kent_csi/Default.htm

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Contact information and Evaluation Procedures

CONTACT

Students are expected to maintain routine contact with Professor Gideon throughout the course. While the number of these contacts may vary according to individual student needs, the University requires a minimum of four contacts during the semester. The required contacts are outlined below. If the student needs to contact Dr. Gideon, at other times, the preferred method is email. If phone conversations are desired, please arrange times via email. Dr. Gideon’s email address is , alternatively, his secondary address is .

FINAL EXAMINATION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

The final is a take home examination. Final, official grades will be issued by the University on the grade report form. Professors have 30 days from the end of the semester to submit their grades to the University. Students should not telephone the University looking for grades until, at least, 30 days after the end of the semester.

FINAL GRADE BASED UPON:

TASK / TOTAL POINTS
Research proposal
Historical/analytical paper
Research paper (bibliography=15 pts)
Discussion participation (each=10 pts) / 25
100
200
100

ASSIGNMENT COMPLETION:

Research proposal: The research proposal has three parts. The first part is your initial discussion of the problem or issue you are going to research. In order to do this, one may have to do a bit of initial research. At the graduate level, one is required to spend some time thinking through the issues or problems one wants to explore.

The first part of the proposal will be a multi-paragraph It is this part of the proposal that sets the tone and the parameters of your research. Remember you only have a total of 13 weeks to complete the paper, and have an analytical paper due prior to that. So your topic has to be narrow enough so you can fully discuss and develop your idea. It must be such to lead to a unique conclusion which will be discussed later.

Once you have described the issue or problem and set the parameters of the paper, then you transition into the second part of the research proposal. This part lays out how you plan on approaching the paper, the type of research you plan on conducting, and in general, the direction the paper will take.

Finally, the most important part of the research proposal is the conclusion. Or, more specifically, what you hope to conclude. For a thesis statement, one may refer to the conclusion as the hypothesis, which ideally will be supported to reach a solid conclusion.

The conclusion is the whole purpose behind the paper. It is nice to do research so you, the student can learn more about a topic, or to inform a reader about a problem and the surrounding issues, but that is not the purpose of the paper itself. The purpose is for you to draw a conclusion.

A conclusion may be a recommendation or recommendations based on your research for whomever reads the paper, the lessons learned from the examples you gave, lessons that can be applied to a current situation, or a lesson that was not learnt and therefore a mistake had been made in either a current or past situation, or your unique opinion or perspective on how history developed based on the research you did and your analysis.

So, the research proposal must have a working conclusion, hypothesis, in mind. The conclusion may change based on further research, but in order to conduct research one must have a goal in mind. Take time and think about how you want to end the paper.

A well written thesis statement can then serve as the introduction of the paper itself when you begin writing it. But be sure that you edit the thesis statement to reflect the final paper itself.

Once you have a working proposal, you can then develop an outline. An outline is not elementary school work; professional writers nearly always use outlines. It not only helps organize one’s thoughts, but helps one to focus on the topic. The more detailed the outline the easier it will be to write the paper.

There are some writers who prefer to think through an outline and then write the thesis statement. If this is what works best for you, then by all means follow that pattern.

Finally, with an outline and research proposal in place, you can begin to think about your research questions. That is the questions you will need to answer, quotations you will need, and any data that will be required for your paper. Then you can build your requirements list. That is where to find the sources you will need find the answers to your research questions.

Historical Essay: The historical essay is an analytical paper on a relevant incident or concept of the student’s choice. The student may select any historical event or concept associated with the broader concept of intelligence collection, with instructor approval. The format is flexible, but the content must be graduate level. I am not looking for a simple review which outlines the event or idea, but rather a paper which provides the reader with the key points and an understanding of the importance of the event or idea. The student will then draw a conclusion based on what he or she has developed. While the paper is not as developed as a research paper, a bibliography and proper footnoting is expected.

Research Paper: The research paper topic will be selected by the student with approval of the instructor. The topic may be on any topic related to collections. There is no length minimum or maximum. This is a graduate level course and a paper commensurate with graduate level work is expected. The paper length is determined by the parameters the student sets in his or her introduction and the amount of writing necessary to fully develop the topic. All sources of information must be footnote and selected bibliography of all sources used or referenced expected. In text citation is not acceptable.

Threaded Discussions: There will be five discussions. Active, multiple participation is expected from all students. Each thread should be focused on a single thought. Use multiple threads to discuss multiple ideas. Do not try to cover everything at once. If the general topic has already addressed your basic thoughts, then there is no need to repeat what has been stated, except perhaps for the second threaded discussion which is an exception to this rule. Joining a discussion in progress and participating is equally has valid as coming up with an original discussion point.

Use proper paragraphs, spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. Use salutations so I and your fellow students know who the thread is directed. All, To all, Class, Dr. G, Professor, Doctor Gideon, Sam, Mike and Mary, Dr. G and Fred, are all examples of salutations depending on who you want to address the comments to. Anyone may respond to any thread.

The threads open about every three to four weeks, but one can always go back and participate in older threads. They remain open all class. I usually will grade the first two threads after I open the third or fourth threads. This way I have most if not all the contributions for that thread.

You will earn 20 points for multiple, substantive participation. 18-19.5 points for multiple, not as substantive participation, or minimal substantive or mixed participation. One time participation may result in points ranging from 12-17.5. No participation earns a zero.

The threads once opened, remain open for the entire term. I grade the first two threads around week nine or ten, so I can assure maximum participation; but, will upgrade points if further discussion through the end of the term warrants such upgrading. Weeks 3 – 5 will be graded the last week of the term.

Supplemental material:

Grading:

-Appendix B describes the historical paper and the weekly newsgroup contribution requirements.

Term Paper:

-Appendix C describes the research proposal and research paper.

Table of Contents

Course Online
Wk / Dates / Primary Lesson Subject / Admin Info
1 / June 02-08 / Introduction to course and collections; Historical aspects of intelligence collection / Course begins
First contact via introductory thread
2 / June 09-15 / Cold war analysis
3 / June 16-22 / Technical and Signals Intelligence, part 1 / Historical/analytical proposal due via discussion thread
4 / June 23-29 / Technical and Signals Intelligence, part 2
5 / June 30-July 06 / Technical and Signals Intelligence, part 3 / Research proposal due
6 / July 07-13 / Airborne collections, part 1
7 / July 14-20 / Airborne collections, part 2
8 / July 21-27 / Airborne collections, part 3
9 / July 28-August 3 / Human intelligence/open source collection, part 1 / Analytical/historical paper due
10 / August 4-10 / Human intelligence/open source collection, part 2
11 / August 11-17 / Overhead collection, part 1
12 / August 18-24 / Overhead collection, part 2
13 / August 25-31 / Intelligence collection management; Collections issues and problems
14 / Sept. 01 -07 / The future of collections
15 / Sept. 08-14 / Research and review week / Research paper due
16 / Sept. 15-21 / Course wrap up / Course ends

Table of Contents

Week 1

Introduction to Course; Historical Background; and, Introduction to Collections

Learning Outcome:

·  Study how the United States organizes collection methods.

·  Examine the importance of collection intelligence data.

·  Look at the shifts in balance between military and civilian intelligence collection needs.

·  Analyze collection allocations

Required Readings:

Week 1:

Bamford, Chapters 1 and 2.

Temple, Chapters 1-2

O'Connor, Dr. Tom. “Intelligence Collection.” Lecture notes. Wesylan College. http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/427/427lect02.htm A copy is also available in documents folder in course materials.