any Intel Specialists here?

[tunlrat]

I've got a panel interview w/ "XYZ" agency soon for an Intelligence Research Specialist position. Anybody got the skinny on this type of job--e.g. likes, dislikes? I was hoping I could inquire how former LE (city PD) types like me would or could like this job. :confused:

[SnowLeopard]

Okay, while I haven't been a federal intel officer, I have been a military intel and counter intel officer.

Gee, that rather sounds impressive, doesn't it? What did I do as an intel officer? Coordinated data for who was where each day, why they were there, read data of what people were doing in the electronic world such as sensors, seekers, oceanography, coordinated teams to take pictures, and such. What did I do as a counterintel officer? Ran a physical security unit.

While not to slash the value of what I did, especially in the counterintel, it does rather stress that there is A LOT in the intel world that one can do and still have the title. When counterintel is said, it is thought FBI/MI-5 and catching spies. Of course it can be that but it can also be security where one is doing various measures to ensure that their data stays their own.

That said, is there anything of it that can be summed up in one sentence? Perhaps: Never take data (appearances, evidence, whatever) as valid unless it has been verified. After all, consider that if there are a lot of people out there who put out bad information without a malicious cause, what do you think the ones who are really trying might do?

Is it really like that? Odds are that one could probably go thru a week of news and find various photographic errors. I saw a magazine with a title of America's military weapons after 9-11 and for the Navy on the cover they had a warship with a hull number of 47, ie, perhaps, meant to be CG-47, Aegis cruiser....but it was a Lupo class destroyer (Italian export) from some foreign navy. Navy Times once showed the USS Seawolf on the way to its decommissioning and that was the same photo used in Janes* years earlier. A foreign newspaper showed (in the 80's) a US carrier on the way to the Med but that was unlikely since it had A-1 SkyRaiders on the deck and it was a Viet Nam era picture. A newscaster in voice over is talking about training being done on a 747 yet the film clearly shows a DC-10. A historic documentary talks about the build up of the Soviet nuclear sub fleet yet the film clearly shows several diesal Foxtrot subs. The people doing that work don't care, probably because they don't think that people will check that closely.

*(On Janes Fighting Ships: it's a highly informative GENERAL source of data and while it tells a lot, it can't be taken lock, stock, and barrel as the authority because the data in the book hasn't been verified/authenticated)

But has such misrepresentation been done in reality? In estimation, I would say that one can probably find enough con jobs that have been pulled off because the data given presented the illusion of reality or generated thought sequences to that effect but if that data had been checked out, then it would be found to be false.

In reality, there is the drug boat which uses an old trawler. Show most people a picture of a trawler and one looks like another. But a trawler has one purpose in life and that is to run nets thru the ocean. If it isn't running nets, then it is not monetarily efficient (Soviet AGI's aside, of course), legally, and there is sufficient reason there to give it a closer look. Ie, this is drug boat profiling when one looks at a trawler and looks to see whether it has its nets, rigging, equipment. The story that it is now being used as a cargo vessel doesn't fly because that type of craft is monetarily inefficient to carry noncontraband cargos.

This is two aspects where one's police work can help in that one has the mind to suspect when one might be blowing smoke and one might have analogical experience where they have seen similar.

It could also help to understand people and the way data is spread. Okay, this really gets into the piles of report reading in part such as reading the daily blotters to determine if it is only what is happening on the paper or if something else is triggering it. Ie, what's a good way to pick up data if one is a spy? Go to the local bar.

A story or urban legend that has been around in circles tells of an airman who had the job of pumping up the tires of defunct bombers so they wouldn't appear flat in the satellite pictures, thus reporting false numbers. He wasn't told why he was doing it, probably just "do what I tell you and don't ask questions!". Well, the ploy worked until he was overheard one night complaining about his job on aircraft that don't fly anymore.

It's a story that is probably used to demostrate how one's great plan can be knocked flat if the little people aren't taken care, but it can show how the opposite side might work. And does the opposite side work that way, thru bars? I certainly believe that they might since it was part of my training that initial bar contacts was one way that Soviet spies obtained their sources. Further, the local alcohol police do have an anti gun running mission if guns are being passed thru the clubs.

And about the little people: something I came across while looking at a battered woman's web page. A person was saying that if the police wouldn't give you the information you wanted, search out the dispatchers, the clerks, and such to see if they, being lower in status in the department, are available to talk. To which there are two points: to the web site, I pointed that a person who does such better realize that such action by a clerk or dispatcher would cost them their job (ie, even if the activist is a "good" person, what they were doing was bad); take care of the people in your organization for good security, for good counterintel.

So the point here is: how are your personnel skills, your management skills? Can you use that to highlight your importance in counterintel or to highlight that you can detect ways to gain information?

Now some (actually, a lot) intel gathering involves special skills. Obviously, my experience is nautical and engineering, but a lot of answers have been found by accountants where I would be rather lost. DEA, for example, I believe uses accountants for intel gathering. No doubt somewhere there are lawyers involved and so forth.

But even if one doesn't have direct skills in an area, if they know they have similiar skills in an area, they perhaps should note it. Let's look at the legal standpoint for a moment. As a city police officer, one may know the statute and case law of where they can legally gather intelligence and when they can't.

Which is probably a good point to end this on. If one is gathering intelligence, it should be for an end purpose and not just for reasons of itself. If any end purpose involves court prosecution, then the gathering needs to be legal. If it is for the purpose of finding supporting or authentication data, even if it is for the purpose of confirming/eliminating a group as suspect, then it is probably okay. If it is for building a data base for training or for developing procedures, then it is probably okay. But if one is gathering intelligence and one doesn't have a goal in mind for what it is for, then it is probably time to step back and seriously question what one is doing. Not only might one be wasting precious budget dollars but it is a world where one can be caught up in the romance/power of it. In such a case, one might be trapped in the world of illusion that one is trying to disprove.
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("Yes, I am working for the FBI to arrest you for smuggling. No, wait, I am a MOSSAD agent and we are concerned that your operations are financing attacks against Israel. Really, the actual truth is that I'm with the KGB and we want to make Iran a Soviet republic. Okay, you got me; I'm actually with Interpol and their art theft squad. There, now you don't know which story to believe."--(wtte), Ed Okin to Iranian smugglers, "Into the Night")

[Sleuth]

Our Intel Specialists worked along side us, assembling data into a useable format, reviewing reports, creating link charts, and preparing graphics for court presentation. 9-5, Mon-Fri. No guns, no surveillence, no arresting people. They were very valuable, and let us do the field work.

[tunlrat]

Sleuth:
Which agency is this?
Do you think the Intel position is a good stepping stone to a future 1811 position?

[Group9]

[COLOR=Black]

I've got a panel interview w/ "XYZ" agency soon for an Intelligence Research Specialist position. Anybody got the skinny on this type of job--e.g. likes, dislikes? I was hoping I could inquire how former LE (city PD) types like me would or could like this job. :confused:

My agency has this exact position, ironically. It is not a 6c postition and we get a lot of former and retired LEO's who take this job. It is a better job for a former LEO than for someone trying to switch over to an 1811 position, although I know quite a few former IRS's (they used to call them Intelligence Analysts at my shop) who applied and became 1811's.

A good IRS, who has LEO credentials is usually treated like the co-case agent who cannot go on arrests or warrants. They can still go out and conduct interviews with 1811's and they can very much help direct the case.

I have found that the IRS's who are former LEO's generally hit the ground running. IRS's with no law enforcement experience spend a lot of time learning the things that an experienced LEO already knows.

If you already have grabbing people and kicking doors out of your system, with a full career under your belt, but you still want to stay in law enforcement, this is the best ticket there is.

[Sleuth]

Tunlrat, It was U.S. Customs, Office of Investigations (or, back when I started, the Customs Agency Service), now ICE.

[tunlrat]

Still sounds like a cool job, even though I'd like to see if I can use the position as a way to "put my foot in the door" for a future 1811 position (don't tell my panel interviewers that!). Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), I only have less than 5 years local PD time, so I'm still itchin' for some action BUT I am willing to do this IRS thing IF I can eventually become a Fed LEO; so we'll see...