Source recruitment and source operations are two areas that have really been lacking on this blog, and I get questions from time to time about how to develop them. They’re all good questions but the answers have two things in common: they’re much too complex to explain in text over a few short blog posts, and source ops really takes a back seat to analysis. Having all the information in the world doesn’t mean much if you lack the ability to decipher it and synthesize knowledge. But we can at least start with the basics. You need to be building a source network in your AO, even if it’s an informal and loosely-organized one (that many of you already have). So let’s lay these questions to rest!
Source recruiting takes a lot of planning and expertise. We know this because it can be dangerous work and because recruitment still fails. Just like with every other topic on this blog, we need a methodical and rational way to approach sources, which is presented in the Source Recruitment Cycle (SRC).
Source Recruitment Cycle.
1. Identify potential sources based on intelligence requirements.
