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(S//SI) Drawing Up a SIGINT Strategy for Latin America
FROM: MG Richard Quirk, USA
Signals Intelligence Director
Run Date: 05/25/2005
Talking to customers to ascertain their "must-have" intelligence needs, and making a plan to
fulfill them (S//SI)
(S//SI) I recently returned from a community-wide session in San Antonio, Texas that focused
on developing a new SIGINT strategy for Latin America. It was a great event, and the processes
we are using to forge this strategy should serve as a model we can apply across all of our
targets.
(S//SI) The SIGINT strategy for Latin America expands upon a strategy developed in 2002 that
focused on US. Southern Command -- answering the question, "What are SOUTHCOM's most
critical SIGINT needs on Latin America, and how can we best fulfill them?" The new strategy pilot
program will apply the same questions to all major customers who are interested in Latin
America.
(S//SI) The core principle guiding the process is a "decision-based needs assessment," meaning
that we ask senior customers what key decisions they will need to make regarding Latin
America. We then determine how best to apply our limited resources, USSS-wide, to provide the
SIGINT that will help them make those key decisions. The Issue Management Teams (IMT's) are
crucial in both conducting the needs assessment and formulating the SIGINT strategy
(S//SI) We are now dealing with about 20 customers in this effort, developing truly close
relationships to understand their needs and weaving it all together into a plan of attack. This
process takes a lot of effort, but it saves effort in the long run, because it allows us to realize
the things the giant global SIGINT system should really focus on. Or to put it another way, this
how the "intelligence discipline disciplines itself." Moreover, the needs assessment includes
customer prioritization of intelligence gaps, which helps the SIGINT system focus on truly
essential elements of information and provides a concrete metric against which to measure SID's
performance. It is really the operationalization of the Customer Relationships Directorate, which
is tasked with informing the rest of the system of the crucial priorities.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108