FRIDAY SURPRISE: A more serious time

Friday, February 15, 2008 Filed in: Friday Surprise!, History, Techniques & Training
Students of espionage and surveillance (which every security-conscious person should be) understand how intelligence is actually gathered, and it isn't the way it happens in Hollywood.

Those who watch too much TV think that security breaches come fully formed - that damaging information is gleaned nearly whole, needing only a few minor details filled in to make it valuable. While that may occasionally be true for satellite imaging, when putting together information gathered "on the ground" it is more like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

In reality, it is the small bits of information, gleaned from many sources, that form the picture one's opponent seeks. Even seemingly innocuous minutiae, in the hands of a skilled intelligence analyst, can help to flesh out a growing body of actionable information. Such little things - usually gathered informally and from the unwitting - are amazing valuable to the right person.

Back in World War II, the military needed to impress this concept on the U.S. population. "Mass media" back then meant radio, newspapers, and - most graphically - posters. Lots and lots of posters. Eye catching, colorful posters - works of art in their own right.

Check out some of the urgent messages they conveyed.
Here's a bunch more.

-=[ Grant ]=-
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