Intelligence Cycle

6 April 2002

The intelligence cycle is a process that is utilized in developing products and analysis. The four phases of the Intelligence cycle are direction, collection, processing, and dissemination. The first part is the planning and directing phase. This phase usually begins with a request for information from an agency seeking to gather intelligence. The next step is the collection process, which is simply picking up the different pieces of raw information from various sources (i.e. IMINT, SIGINT, MASINT, HUMINT, and OSINT). Once the data is collected it must go through the processing and collation phase where it is filed or stored. The production phase is the most important part of the cycle of intelligence and is responsible for producing intelligence out of information. The collation portion is responsible for filing the information and intelligence into a comprehensible filing system for future use. The different disciplines are best utilized together and developed into an all-source fused product that includes as much information as possible. Once the information has been analyzed and filed, the dissemination phase decides who and where the information is sent. During this phase the questions of "right to know" and "need to know" come into play. Once the information is received, it is evaluated and used. During this phase, feedback should be provided to the analyst. Feedback is crucial in the intelligence process, because without feedback the analyst has no idea if the request for information was satisfied or not.