ICYMI: Rep. Steube Pens Op-Ed in The Washington Times on U.S. Intelligence Shortcomings
WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Greg Steube (R-Fla.) penned an opinion piece on the value of Open-Source Intelligence and the need for U.S. intelligence to modernize in the face of growing threats. Read the op-ed in The Washington Times here or below.
U.S. intelligence is sitting idly by
The Washington Times
For far too long, the intelligence community has resorted to admiring problems instead of fixing them, a pattern of behavior that risks our national security and demands intervention.
Deep-rooted institutional inertia is undermining the intelligence community, with bureaucratic managers resisting long-overdue changes to established policies, processes and strategies. Just as once-dominant companies, including Blackberry and Blockbuster, failed to keep up with the times, U.S. intelligence officials have sat idly by while our talent, tradecraft and technology have languished. Turning into an immovable bureaucracy unable to keep pace with the constant modern technological advancements is contributing to the growing deficits of talent, mindset and skills required to meet today’s challenges.
For more than six years, I have had the honor of serving the people of Florida’s 17th Congressional District. As a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I have oversight responsibility for Open-Source Intelligence, along with the subcommittees for the National Security Agency & cyber and defense intelligence & overhead architecture. Since joining the intelligence committee, I have grown increasingly concerned with the intelligence community’s unwillingness to match the accelerating pace of technological change in the world.
While adversaries exploit advances in artificial intelligence, open-source data and cyber capabilities, the intelligence community remains anchored to legacy systems, outdated analytical models and rigid institutional practices. This lack of agility and innovation threatens to render U.S. intelligence obsolete. The intelligence community risks losing strategic advantage, compromising national security and becoming increasingly irrelevant in a rapidly evolving global threat environment.
A vast amount of data is publicly and commercially available that the intelligence community is reluctant to use as a collection source for analyzing and producing intelligence. I have concluded that the intelligence community considers Open-Source Intelligence “less than” other “clandestinely” collected human or signals intelligence.
Right now, there is a belief that top-secret and compartmented is somehow better or more reliable than open source, but that is plain wrong. This dogmatic and outdated thinking has permeated the intelligence community to the point of compromising our ability to identify and eliminate potential threats.
The intelligence community has requested an $81.9 billion budget, which poses the question: Why are we spending billions of dollars to collect secrets if the information is commercially or publicly available? Why are we risking American lives by operating in the shadows to search for and fail at finding information that exists online?
Open-Source Intelligence is the least-resourced and treated as an outcast. Yet when I meet with intelligence officers in the field, they repeatedly emphasize their desire to access this high-value information that the private sector is releasing but that their organizations lack the resources, policies or capabilities to obtain.
What is the point of having access to this vast amount of data if the intelligence community refuses to adapt and evolve?
One of the most glaring issues is how the intelligence community procures and manages commercially available information. Congress must now force a course correction. It is time for the intelligence community to change and work with Congress to identify a solution that maximizes taxpayers’ return on investment while ensuring intelligence requirements are met. Open-Source Intelligence is the future of the intelligence community.
Rep. Greg Steube is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He represents Florida’s 17th Congressional District.
