NCJ Number
191444
Date Published
1998
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines the critical role of intelligence gathering and processing in a context of United States citizens contemplating violent politics.
Abstract
Intelligence gathering about a violent group has the purpose of preventing political violence from occurring and assisting political leaders in responding to it in ways in addition to prosecution. Where the rules for gathering information are more lenient than the rules for criminal investigations, it is because greater importance is attached to preventing violence from occurring and because, not being targeted toward particular suspects, the need for protection of individual rights may be less. The primary objective of intelligence gathering is to deal with future danger, not to punish past crimes. Intelligence gathering at an early stage might be focused on any suspicious activity around unusually attractive targets. Efforts would be made to scan or patrol the environment carefully to identify those who might otherwise never be suspected. Midway between such a “patrol” and knowing about at least the existence of a violent group lies the intelligence gathering focused on individuals or groups that are more likely than others to embark on a course of political violence. There may be a greater effort to protect the sources and methods involved in intelligence gathering and there may be a far more sophisticated effort to bring together bits and pieces of information from many sources and to draw conclusions. Two types of rules are important: the rules regulating on what basis an organization can be monitored at all, and the rules regulating the techniques available for gathering information that citizens would like to keep private. Government monitoring of political and social groups and keeping records of what is said by whom gravely inhibit free discussion and free association--two values whose importance to democracy is reflected in the Bill of Rights.