Intelligence Professionalism in the Americas - National Intelligence ...

Certainly, a lot has been written about what intelligence is. The author’s own works arecontributions toward clarifying this question. 125 It is also useful to note Michael Warner’sanalysis regarding the difficulties involved in conceptualizing intelligence, which concludes:Intelligence is something that is: dependent upon confidential sources andmethods for full effectiveness; performed by officers of the state for state purposes(this implies that those officers receive direction from the state’s civilianand military leaders); focused on foreigners — usually other states, but oftenforeign subjects, corporations, or groups (if its objects are domestic citizens,then the activity becomes a branch of either law enforcement or governance);...Hereis my definition: Intelligence is secret, state activity to understandor influence foreign entities. 126Although as time goes by it becomes more debatable whether to define intelligence interms of secrets, more than a secret activity, it is an activity with secrets, given the greatamount of open information sources typical of the “information age,” that include the Internet,scientific networks, and the like, and the increasing need to resort to outsiders — academiciansor researchers in topics of interest, the increasing availability of public informationand academic activity relative to intelligence — there is no doubt that intelligence continuesand presumably will continue to be characterized by secrets. This is because there will alwaysbe some things that a State will want to keep others from knowing; what a State wants toknow about other States is the same information that the first State seeks to keep secret.Let us now examine the meaning of intelligence in Latin American countries.Brazil’s law number 9,883 (1999) — the first sanctioned, organic law on information andintelligence in Latin America since the Cold War — instituted a National Intelligence Systemand established the principle of parliamentary control over intelligence. Article 1, paragraph 2of this law also established that:For the purposes of the application of this law, it is understood that the purposeof intelligence is to obtain, analyze, and disseminate information on foreignand domestic events and situations of immediate or potential influence on decisionmakingand government action and on the safety and security of the State. 127The law’s article 2, paragraph 2 further established that:The Brazilian intelligence system is responsible for the process of obtaining,analyzing, and disseminating the necessary information required for the125 José Manuel Ugarte, Legislación de inteligencia: especialización y control, legitimidad y eficacia(Buenos Aires, Dunken, 1999 and Washington D.C. and Guatemala city: WOLA-SEDEM, 2000),and Conceptualizacion de la inteligencia, in Carmen Rosa de León-Escribano Schlotter (comp.)Inteligencia Policial, Compilación de Textos (Guatemala city: Cuadernos de IEPADES, 2000), 93-117.126 Michael Warner, “Wanted: A Definition of Intelligence,” Studies in Intelligence 46, no. 3 (2002)(Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence), 21. URL: http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/vol4no3/articles02.html.127 See http://www.abin.gov.br/apresenta.asp?O=100&T=16.85