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Analysis With Ken Robinson

Aired December 22, 2003 - 13:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: What exactly is a strategic indicator and what do you do with it once you've got it? Ken Robinson is CNN's national security analyst or a veteran of the INS, or the ins and outs of intel. Not INS, quite different, but you know. Intel comes through INS also, right?
KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Here we go, Intel 101, we'll put it in perspective. Let's start with the dissemination of information. We put together a simple graphic for folks on kind of where the information starts and how we come around the process. Bush and his advisers, of course.

ROBINSON: This graphic here can display two things. You can look at it from both from Bush and his advisers, because they're the national consumers of intelligence from the intelligence community.

And also at the tactical level you have commanders who are standing side by side. And they identify what they feel and the priority intelligence requirements, the things they need to know and that they don't have answers to.

And what they do is they ask collectors. They ask people in the field that have airplanes, signals intelligence capabilities, imagery analyst, satellites, ships, everything in the intelligence community to go out and fill the gaps, to find out that which they do not know.

And when they collect that information from all these sources, they can all source collection. They put that into a processing environment and they process it and evaluate it for exploitation. When they did that, when they process it, they do what's called cross cuing.

By cross cuing they look to see if there's any information items that they're collecting that are also showing up in other pieces of equipment, other intelligence collectors. And if they start seeing spikes in certain areas, they analyze that and from that comes evaluated intelligence.

So the information that you have Governor Ridge elevating the national threat warning to today is specifically about the evaluation of that intelligence and they feel that as much of that has come to, has said that there's something clear and present that is a likely threat.

PHILLIPS: Now when we talk about the analysis and processing all this, we're talking about all of the different agents, right? CIA, FBI.

ROBINSON: The entire intelligence community. And I think we have a graphic that can display that also.

If you look at the graphic, you see that there are a lot of players defending the homeland. You start with the director of Central Intelligence is also the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He's dual headed. And in that capacity he is the man responsible for intelligence collection, through the entire national security system. And around that globe is everyone else who supports that process.

PHILLIPS: And, Ken, we know Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine. We expect all these. I was shocked to hear the National Reconnaissance Office was on there. You know we were talking this earlier. And you said that's right. There was a time when you just did not talk about this office.

ROBINSON: There was a time when you couldn't say the initials anywhere. And after the wall came down with the former Soviet Union, the National Reconnaissance Office came out of the closet.

That office is specifically part of the management of the space- based systems that we have to give us indications and warning around the world to prepare us for things like potential missile launches being prepared where you might see two states fueling their missiles in preparation for indications of potential launches to where we can prepare ourselves and possibly warn allies.

PHILLIPS: All right, now whether it be tips of Saddam Hussein or tips to why the U.S. should raise the security threat level, let's talk about getting the goods and all of the different ways that you get tips. First of all, signals intelligence.

ROBINSON: Signals intelligence is your cellular phones, your BlackBerrys, your pagers. Radio communications at the tactical level where you have a -- where you'll have radio communications or what they call two-meter band communications, what you see a typical security guard using, whether in this country guarding a Wal-Mart or in a foreign country guarding a site.

Those signals are then collected, analyzed and processed and evaluated. And that information which is deemed valuable is processed from information into intelligence. So I imagine the vast amount signals flying in the system, just in this office right here on this set.

PHILLIPS: Could intercept a lot. I thought we could use a lot of that during the war. It could be intercepted.

ROBINSON: Correct.

PHILLIPS: All right, imagery.

ROBINSON: Imagery intelligence is those satellites, again. The Central Management Office, the imagery intelligence takes pictures all over the world and they look at things both at the tactical level -- like right now the imagery analysts are focusing on Libya and looking at the sites where the weapons production and storage facilities were known to be in Libya. And those sites have been evaluated trying to figure out whether he actually has stopped his weapons of mass destruction program or not.

PHILLIPS: Whether he admits to it or not.

Measurement and signature, the most expensive and also one that isn't really talked about a lot.

ROBINSON: Measurement and signatures intelligence is really interesting because it may be one of the best tools for us to be able to determine whether North Korea, whether Libya, Iran or any other state that the United States is concerned about has separated itself from its WMD programs.

What MASInt did is does is it measures electromagnetic spectrum. It measures emissions. It has an ability to be able to look through a cloud, look through a smokestack and gain and evaluate the particular matter that's coming out of it and determine whether there are precursors which can be identified as associated with WMD production.

PHILLIPS: That's incredible. Finally, human source. That's people walking in saying, I have something you need to know.

ROBINSON: Since Biblical times the most important thing to have is a spy. And a spy's got to have two feet and he's got to be able to use his two eyes and he's got to be able to walk into an area and with his own eyes see what's happening.

The tips that brought us -- the United States the ability to find Saddam Hussein apparently have been derived strongly from good, intelligence analysis and human intelligence.

PHILLIPS: Coming up in the next hour you'll join us again and we'll talk about the spider web, Mafia type web that Saddam had and how intelligence led to Saddam.

All right. Ken Robinson, thank you.

ROBINSON: Thanks, Kyra.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 22, 2003 - 13:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: What exactly is a strategic indicator and what do you do with it once you've got it? Ken Robinson is CNN's national security analyst or a veteran of the INS, or the ins and outs of intel. Not INS, quite different, but you know. Intel comes through INS also, right?
KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Here we go, Intel 101, we'll put it in perspective. Let's start with the dissemination of information. We put together a simple graphic for folks on kind of where the information starts and how we come around the process. Bush and his advisers, of course.

ROBINSON: This graphic here can display two things. You can look at it from both from Bush and his advisers, because they're the national consumers of intelligence from the intelligence community.

And also at the tactical level you have commanders who are standing side by side. And they identify what they feel and the priority intelligence requirements, the things they need to know and that they don't have answers to.

And what they do is they ask collectors. They ask people in the field that have airplanes, signals intelligence capabilities, imagery analyst, satellites, ships, everything in the intelligence community to go out and fill the gaps, to find out that which they do not know.

And when they collect that information from all these sources, they can all source collection. They put that into a processing environment and they process it and evaluate it for exploitation. When they did that, when they process it, they do what's called cross cuing.

By cross cuing they look to see if there's any information items that they're collecting that are also showing up in other pieces of equipment, other intelligence collectors. And if they start seeing spikes in certain areas, they analyze that and from that comes evaluated intelligence.

So the information that you have Governor Ridge elevating the national threat warning to today is specifically about the evaluation of that intelligence and they feel that as much of that has come to, has said that there's something clear and present that is a likely threat.

PHILLIPS: Now when we talk about the analysis and processing all this, we're talking about all of the different agents, right? CIA, FBI.

ROBINSON: The entire intelligence community. And I think we have a graphic that can display that also.

If you look at the graphic, you see that there are a lot of players defending the homeland. You start with the director of Central Intelligence is also the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He's dual headed. And in that capacity he is the man responsible for intelligence collection, through the entire national security system. And around that globe is everyone else who supports that process.

PHILLIPS: And, Ken, we know Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine. We expect all these. I was shocked to hear the National Reconnaissance Office was on there. You know we were talking this earlier. And you said that's right. There was a time when you just did not talk about this office.

ROBINSON: There was a time when you couldn't say the initials anywhere. And after the wall came down with the former Soviet Union, the National Reconnaissance Office came out of the closet.

That office is specifically part of the management of the space- based systems that we have to give us indications and warning around the world to prepare us for things like potential missile launches being prepared where you might see two states fueling their missiles in preparation for indications of potential launches to where we can prepare ourselves and possibly warn allies.

PHILLIPS: All right, now whether it be tips of Saddam Hussein or tips to why the U.S. should raise the security threat level, let's talk about getting the goods and all of the different ways that you get tips. First of all, signals intelligence.

ROBINSON: Signals intelligence is your cellular phones, your BlackBerrys, your pagers. Radio communications at the tactical level where you have a -- where you'll have radio communications or what they call two-meter band communications, what you see a typical security guard using, whether in this country guarding a Wal-Mart or in a foreign country guarding a site.

Those signals are then collected, analyzed and processed and evaluated. And that information which is deemed valuable is processed from information into intelligence. So I imagine the vast amount signals flying in the system, just in this office right here on this set.

PHILLIPS: Could intercept a lot. I thought we could use a lot of that during the war. It could be intercepted.

ROBINSON: Correct.

PHILLIPS: All right, imagery.

ROBINSON: Imagery intelligence is those satellites, again. The Central Management Office, the imagery intelligence takes pictures all over the world and they look at things both at the tactical level -- like right now the imagery analysts are focusing on Libya and looking at the sites where the weapons production and storage facilities were known to be in Libya. And those sites have been evaluated trying to figure out whether he actually has stopped his weapons of mass destruction program or not.

PHILLIPS: Whether he admits to it or not.

Measurement and signature, the most expensive and also one that isn't really talked about a lot.

ROBINSON: Measurement and signatures intelligence is really interesting because it may be one of the best tools for us to be able to determine whether North Korea, whether Libya, Iran or any other state that the United States is concerned about has separated itself from its WMD programs.

What MASInt did is does is it measures electromagnetic spectrum. It measures emissions. It has an ability to be able to look through a cloud, look through a smokestack and gain and evaluate the particular matter that's coming out of it and determine whether there are precursors which can be identified as associated with WMD production.

PHILLIPS: That's incredible. Finally, human source. That's people walking in saying, I have something you need to know.

ROBINSON: Since Biblical times the most important thing to have is a spy. And a spy's got to have two feet and he's got to be able to use his two eyes and he's got to be able to walk into an area and with his own eyes see what's happening.

The tips that brought us -- the United States the ability to find Saddam Hussein apparently have been derived strongly from good, intelligence analysis and human intelligence.

PHILLIPS: Coming up in the next hour you'll join us again and we'll talk about the spider web, Mafia type web that Saddam had and how intelligence led to Saddam.

All right. Ken Robinson, thank you.

ROBINSON: Thanks, Kyra.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com