Office of the Director of National Intelligence. DNI Open Source Conference.
Participant Contact Information. Ronald Reagan Building and International
Trade Center, Washington DC, September 11-12, 2008. 56 pages.
This list contains 985 names, their government or corporate
affiliation, a telephone number, and an email address. "Open source
intelligence" refers to information gleaned from sources that are not
classified. Many experts argue that 80 percent of all information worth
analyzing is available from open sources. Public sources are not processed
adequately, and over-reliance on data mining from classified sources (such
as satellites, fiber-cable tapping, and related processing systems) is not
cost-effective. The inbred culture of the intelligence bureaucracy, they
argue, often assumes that if the information isn't classified, then it
cannot be worth knowing.
Beginning with the Clinton administration and expanding dramatically
in the wake of 9/11, the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy outsourced work that
used to be done by federal employees. By 2008 some 70 percent of the U.S.
intelligence budget was consumed by private-sector contracting, and comments
about regaining control over contracting were finally being heard at the
highest levels. The participants in the 2008 DNI conference reflect this
new demographic, in that roughly half on this list are employed by
corporations, and the other half by assorted federal agencies.
Extract the names from this source
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