Assignment:
Assignment Instructions
This is a 6 to 10 page paper in the Chicago Style due at the end of week 7.
This project involves your research and analysis regarding one (1) of three international events of significant notoriety where there are disagreements, or seemingly so, between the POTUS and the U.S. Intelligence Community. You are to produce an OSINT assessment report.
For this project/report you are a senior OSINT analyst in a foreign Open Source Enterprise. You've been ordered to produce an OSINT report and to provide a formal assessment on one of the topics above. Carefully follow the format below.
Please review the attached information literacy tools to help with researching and writing this project.
Select ONE (1) that you would like to explore in more detail.
You are the Director of OSINT for country X--congratulations. The General Secretary has asked for a thorough analysis of the Mueller report, specifically Volume 1: https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf . Before he determines the resources necessary to influence the next American election, he wants to understand the key findings and vulnerabilities exhibited during the 2016 election. What were the vulnerabilities of the American campaigns then and what actions has America taken to mitigate those vulnerabilities since? After providing the key findings, describe, explain, and analyze changes to social media manipulation, network hacking, and campaign interactions with adversarial foreign entities/countries. You may focus on one of these three categories (social media, hacking, or interactions) in order to provide deeper analysis if you prefer.
Did Saudi Arabia and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman direct the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? Here's one video to consider.
Did Chairman Kim Jong Un provide guidance on the handling of, and know the condition of, American college student Otto Warmbier? Here's one video to consider.
For question 1, organize the project as you see fit. This is the format for questions 2 and 3. For your paper please use Centered, Boldface, Headline-style Capitalization for each of the 10 sections.
Introduction with explicit thesis statement.
Background on issue with short summary.
POTUS/Administration viewpoint and explanation of perspective (what is there to be gained?).
Foreign country viewpoint and explanation of perspective (what is there to be lost).
IC viewpoint.
Facts and evidence available in the OSINT realm.
Analysis of the dictator and system of government.
Analysis of 6 and 7 combined; ie., given the facts/assumptions and the system/context what can be deduced?
Conclusion. Summarize. Restate thesis. Using the likelihood standards in IC Directive 203 on page three that span from almost no chance to almost certain, what is your assessment on whether the dictator involved in one of the above events directed and knew of the event?
Postscript. What impact do you believe these differences have had on the U.S. Intelligence Community both domestically and abroad?
Citation and Reference Style
Students will follow the Chicago Style as the sole citation and reference style used in written work submitted as part of coursework to the course. A quick guide may be found at: The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017 available online at: The Author-Date system is recommended.
All written submissions should be submitted in Times New Roman 12pt font with 1" margins, typewritten in double-spaced format. College-level work is expected to be free of grammar, usage, and style errors.