The Collection Activities of the Intelligence Community Essay

The Collection Activities of the Intelligence Community - Essay Example In regard to the foregoing, experts have traditionally divided the intelligence cycle into five parts: requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, and analysis and production. After the needs of the intelligence consumers have been sorted out, it is important that there is a collection. Some requirements need specific types of collection while others require several types of collection. The question on how should or can be collected to meet specific requirements is also fully settled. It must be noted that the collection merely produces information and not intelligence. It is only after the information has undergone processing and exploitation that it can be deemed as intelligence and handed over to analysts. This process includes translations of the information gathered, decryption and interpretation of the stored data (Carello, 2012). The four steps (identifying requirements, information gathering and processing and exploitation) are then subjected to experts in differen t fields for analysis and production. These analysis and production convert the intelligence gathered, processed and exploited into reports which serve the needs of policymakers (Morrison, 2011). Presently, there are experts such as Lowenthal (2011) who have added two more processes to the five steps above, so that there are seven steps in the intelligence cycle. These processes are dissemination and consumption and feedback. The reason behind the addition of the two steps is the hat how policymakers consume intelligence reports is important and that it is of great value that policymakers report back how their intelligence requirements were met to allow room for adjustments and improvements.