Q. Who are you?
The intelNews project is a collaborative effort by two experts, Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis and Ian Allen. They both specialize in the field of espionage and intelligence. You can find out more about them here.
Q. Why are you doing this project?
Our aim in launching this project was to filter through the melodrama and sensationalism of the daily news and bring to the surface intelligence-related developments that rarely make news headlines. Our joint frustration about the state of intelligence-related news reporting was the seed that gave birth to intelNews. For more information, please read our brief mission statement.
Q. What is ‘SIGINT’?
SIGINT is an operational term used in the field of communications interception. It stands for signals intelligence, that is, intelligence-gathering through the interception of signals communicated between people, machines, or a combination of both.
Q. What are your politics?
It is not an easy task to summarize or categorize our politics. As intelligence experts, we want to live in a safe and secure world. At the same time, we object to using this broad goal as a pretext to shield the intelligence community from democratic accountability and administrative transparency. In short, we like the idea of security; we don’t like the idea of a security state. We believe that intelligence institutions, like other areas of government and the state, should operate democratically and be subject to strict popular oversight. Thus we are often critical of some of the corrupt methods and policy myopia that inform the uses and misuses of espionage and intelligence. We view the latter as direct consequences of the long-term absence of democratic accountability in the intelligence community.
Q. Don’t you think it’s wrong to publish intelligence information?
The publication policy of intelNews relies on OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) standards and is strictly limited to information that is publicly available through declassification or, in rare cases, genuine whistleblowing.
Q. How long has intelNews been online?
We began the beta version of this project on November 16, 2008. We went officially online on January 1, 2009.
Q. Is the use of intelNews totally free? How are you compensated for what you do?
The intelNews project does not operate with the aim of monetary profit. We are compensated by seeing our visitor numbers grow day after day, month after month. We also enjoy building a stable, faithful readership mass comprising of both scholars and laypeople. We are always grateful when visitors contact us with words of appreciation, or even complaints about something we wrote, or an intelligence-related news story we posted or failed to detect. The satisfaction that derives from service and communication is far more important than monetary compensation. Nevertheless, if you would like to support this project financially, please contact us. We will be grateful for any assistance you can provide.
Q. Who funds intelNews?
The expenses involved in running this site come from readers’ donations and from our own pockets.
Q. Are you spies?
No.
Q. Is this project part of an intelligence operation organized by some spy agency?
Absolutely not. IntelNews is not affiliated with any intelligence or security agency of any country.
Q. I am a webmaster. Can I repost your news headlines or original content on my site?
Feel free to repost our daily news postings, but please give intelNews research credit by linking to us. You can also repost our original content if you adhere to the following two conditions: (a) you must notify intelNews.org prior to republishing original content found on intelNews.org; (b) you must prominently refer to intelNews.org and the respective author(s) as the sources of all original content found on intelNews.org. Also, please note that we believe in the free sharing of information, but do not encourage plagiarism. Click here to contact us if you wish to republish portions of our original content.
Q. I represent a media outlet. Could I contact you for an interview, consulting on a story, etc?
Yes. You may email us by clicking here, or you may call us on ++1 (423) 742-1627.
Q. I am looking for a public speaker specializing in intelligence. Are you available?
Yes. Please see here for more information.
Q. I am a freelance columnist. May I write for you?
Feel free to send us your intelligence-related articles, but be warned that the chances of us publishing them are slim, unless they are professionally written and represent major contributions to the field of intelligence studies. Click here to email us.
Q. Would you help me find an intelligence-related news report that caught my eye sometime ago, but which I am now unable to trace?
We are always willing to help. Send us an email with as much information as you can gather about the news report in question and we will get back with you with our findings.
Q. What is your comments posting policy?
You can post just about anything in here, so long as you (a) stick to the same identity; (b) don’t resort to all-out racism and bigotry; (c) don’t spam. There will be absolutely no tolerance for anyone who does not follow these three rules while posting in here. For more information on our comments posting policy, contact intelNews.
Q. What is your privacy policy?
Our privacy policy is intentionally straightforward. We do not collect any personal information other than that voluntarily disclosed to us by our website visitors or email correspondents. We are strong advocates of civil liberties, including the right to privacy. For this reason, we will never share any of our website visitors’ or email correspondents’ personal information —including names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses— with any private or governmental organizations, institutions, or individuals outside intelNews.org, unless served with a legal, officially authorized and valid warrant. For any privacy concerns you may have, please feel free to contact us.
6 responses so far ↓
aieght // March 1, 2009 at 6:50 pm
it’s an interesting website you guys have got going.it’s just crazy to read so many stories with so much fat in them.
well we live in the world free information.let the world know what is behind them.
jason brown // March 27, 2009 at 8:28 am
. . .
Thanks for linking to my site about Jean-Pascal Couraud, a former Pap’ete editor allegedly assassinated on orders of “ex”-DGSE spies.
His remote disappearance is casting light on allegations of deep and massive global corruption involving Clearstream bank … I look forward to reading more on your excellent looking site and express support for your professed goals towards more transparency and accountability in the intelligence world – recent events illustrate well the need for more independent information in this area.
Only one thing worries me … why is there so little about any of you online?
Forgive an old hack for being a suspicious wee snark , )
. . .
intelNews // March 27, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Thanks for your positive comments and encouragement. I assure you that we are both monitoring Mr. Couraud’s murder case very carefully. In regards to our relative “invisibility” online, I won’t speak for Ian, except to say that he kept a low profile prior to his retirement, for obvious reasons. In my case, it was only recently that I started writing on intelligence matters for a non-specialized readership. I find your comment interesting, however, on broader grounds. I find it unsettling how, in our “end-of-privacy” era, people who tend to be moderately careful about their online footprint are viewed as inherently suspect. It strikes me as frightening, and perhaps somewhat suspect in itself. [JF]
jason brown // March 27, 2009 at 9:51 pm
. . .
Au contraire!
As a journalist, I am vastly encouraged to be living in end times, although I prefer to refer to an “end-of-secrecy” era.
Myself I auto-publish my own personal deposits online via email alerts from my bank. My withdrawals too, when I get around to uploading the PDFs manually.
Older generations like me may be unsettled by the level of indiscretion shown by younger generations on sites like Facebook, Bebo and so forth, but I find the transparency admirable. If we look at trends towards ever greater transparency, we will, eventually, feel comfortable emailing our curriculum veritas to employers, confident in the knowledge everyone else is being equally transparent.
Or, confident in not giving a toss about old school fretting about secrecy at all costs. It is this approach, after all that apparently lead to this much needed kind of website being set up – centuries if not millennia of secrecy based governance leading us to today’s situation of global meltdown, fiscally and environmentally.
I have to admit to no small amusement at the thought of a spook expert finding it “unsettling” and “frightning” that some people might look at their details online – the pen truly is mightier than the sword !
But the “us folks” ambience of your concern is either astonishingly naive or, as you suggest, somewhat suspect in itself.
Let me recap: this is a public website. You two have worked in spookville for decades. Neither of you are by any definition aw-shucks “us folk” but by your own definition two leading experts in what is a hugely controversial area known for endless layers of front men, front organisations, occult (as the French say) funding, so much so that it would be easily unprofessional of me or any other journalistic to take such thin identities at face value. To lay back of hand to fevered brow, and declare how frightful this all is seems … yeah, well, thin, too.
I completely respect the fact that intelligence operatives don’t go around updating their Bebo page! That most of their activities need to stay secret to be effective, comments above notwithstanding.
However we slice and dice the secrecy aspects, what this comes down to is a question of credibility – and there are not enough links in your curriculum vitae – actually there’s no curriculum vitate at all ! – for me, at least, to feel completely confident I’m getting the real deal. No doubt you are well known amongst your peers and colleagues, but this is the world wide web, emphasis on the world bit.
Apologies if I sound somewhat combative, and I may be guilty of thin-slicing, so let me finish by saying your aims and goals are admirable, just work on the execution part a bit harder , )
jas
. . .
jason brown // March 27, 2009 at 9:52 pm
. . .
My other project:
http://www.curriculumveritas.blogspot.com/
. . .
intelNews // March 28, 2009 at 2:56 am
Thanks for your explanation. Since launching this effort, Ian and I have been contacted by several media outlets and have been happy to supply our professional credentials, including academic affiliations, whenever requested to do so. We have, however, made a conscious decision to keep intelNews separate from our institutional affiliations, in an effort to protect both. Nevertheless, I do want to stress that neither Ian nor I have ever claimed to be “leading experts” in the field of intelligence. We simply have practical and scholarly interests in intelligence, and advocate for increased transparency (within reason) in all related aspects. Our scholarly and practical expertise aside, we respectfully request that the value of our contribution be judged primarily by its content, rather than by the perceived “thickness” or “thinness” of our identities. Nevertheless, we encourage people who find us, or our effort, suspicious to seek other sources of information.
Just for the record, by far the largest part of the intelligence-security complex has to do with protecting privacy from those who conspire to invade it. The people who work in this field are usually intensely private and markedly respectful of privacy as a principle. It is therefore erroneous to assume that intelligence work and respect for privacy are mutually exclusive.
Again, I appreciate your encouragement. [JF]