Open Source Intelligence

Danger Room has an article about Open Source Intelligence (ie intelligence gathered from publicly available information) and how it is often overlooked by the intelligence community.

Steele showed up with:

• The names of the top 10 journalists covering Burundi (ripe for debriefing)
• The names of the top 10 academics covering Burundi (ripe for debriefing)
• 20 two-page executive-level political-military summaries on Burundi
• Burundi order-of-battle information down to the tribal level.
• 1:50 maps of the country
• 1:50 cloud-free imagery of the country that was less than 3 years old.

The CIA showed up with a PowerPoint chart of nominal value and a regional – not country-specific – economic study. You could pretty much conduct a non-combat operation in Burundi with Steele's info; you wouldn't send your worst enemy to Burundi based on what the CIA provided.