Intelligence (information gathering) in the context of "Intelligence cycle"

In intelligence, assets are persons within organizations or countries being spied upon who provide information for an outside spy. They are sometimes referred to as agents, and in law enforcement parlance, as confidential informants, or "CIs" for short.

There are different categories of assets, including people who:

The Situation Room is an intelligence management complex on the ground floor of the West Wing of the White House. Although the name suggests it is a single room, it is a 5,000 square feet (460 m) operations suite consisting of a duty watch station and three secure conference rooms. It is run by about 130 National Security Council (NSC) staff for the use of the president of the United States, chief of staff, national security advisor, homeland security advisor, and other senior advisors for monitoring and dealing with crises, as well as conducting secure communications with outside (often overseas) persons. The Situation Room has secure, advanced communications equipment for the president to maintain command and control of U.S. forces around the world. The Situation Room has been upgraded several times, most recently in late 2023.

Police intelligence refers to an element of the British police. Staffed by police officers and support staff, its purpose is to track and predict crime with a view to curbing it. It is an emerging field that gained momentum after the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) launched the National Intelligence Model, which formalised the contribution intelligence makes to policing. There are also intelligence units at divisional level (DIU).

Intelligence collection management is the process of managing and organizing the collection of intelligence from various sources. The collection department of an intelligence organization may attempt basic validation of what it collects, but is not supposed to analyze its significance. There is debate in U.S. intelligence community on the difference between validation and analysis, where the National Security Agency may (in the opinion of the Central Intelligence Agency or the Defense Intelligence Agency) try to interpret information when such interpretation is the job of another agency.

A military satellite is an artificial satellite used for a military purpose. The most common missions are intelligence gathering, navigation and military communications.

The first military satellites were photographic reconnaissance missions. Some attempts were made to develop satellite based weapons but this work was halted in 1967 following the ratification of international treaties banning the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the process and forward-looking practices used in producing knowledge about the competitive environment to improve organizational performance. Competitive intelligence involves systematically collecting and analysing information from multiple sources as part of a coordinated competitive intelligence program. It is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, suppliers, competitors, and any aspect of the external business environment needed to support executives and managers in strategic decision making for an organization.

CI involves developing an understanding of what is happening in the world outside the business, so as to increase one's competitiveness. It means learning as much as possible, as soon as possible, about one's external environment including one's industry in general and relevant competitors. This methodical program affects the organization's tactics, decisions and operations.

A spy ship or reconnaissance vessel is a dedicated ship intended to gather intelligence, usually by means of sophisticated electronic eavesdropping. In a wider sense, any ship intended to gather information could be considered a spy ship.

Spy ships are usually controlled by a nation's government, due to the high costs and advanced equipment required. They tend to be parts of the nation's navy, though they may also be operated by secret services.

Freddie Dalton Thompson (August 19, 1942 – November 1, 2015) was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor, and radio personality. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican Party presidential primaries for the 2008 United States presidential election.

He chaired the International Security Advisory Board at the U.S. Department of State, was a member of the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, specializing in national security and intelligence.