Separating Source From Content
Early in the collection process, the specific identity of the source is removed from reports, to protect clandestine sources from being discovered. A basic model is to separate the raw material into three parts:
-
- True source identity; very closely held
- Pseudonyms, cryptonyms, or other identifier(s)
- All the reports from the source
Since the consumer will need some idea of the source quality, it is not uncommon, in the intelligence community, to have several variants on the source identifier. For the highest level, the source might be described as "a person with access to the exact words of cabinet meetings." At the next lower level of sensitivity, a more general description could be "a source with good knowledge of the discussions in cabinet meetings." Going down a level, the description gets even broader, as "a generally reliable source familiar with thinking in high levels of the government."
Read more about this topic: Intelligence Collection Management
Famous quotes containing the words separating, source and/or content:
“Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides States and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The practice of S/M is the creation of pleasure.... And that’s why S/M is really a subculture. It’s a process of invention. S/M is the use of a strategic relationship as a source of pleasure.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
“Crude men who feel themselves insulted tend to assess the degree of insult as high as possible, and talk about the offense in greatly exaggerated language, only so they can revel to their heart’s content in the aroused feelings of hatred and revenge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)