about Burundi published in the past couple of years in
Jane's Intelligence Review,
International Defense Review, and
Jane's Defense Weekly.
From LEXIS-NEXIS, a listing of the top journalists in the world whose by-line reporting on Burundi suggested their intimate familiarity with the situation;
From the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia, a listing of the top academics in the world publishing
on the Burundi situation, together with contact information;
From East View Publications in Minneapolis, a listing of all immediately available "Soviet" military
topographic maps for Burundi, at the 1:100,000 level.
From SPOT Image Corporation (USA), it was determined that SPOT could provide digital imagery for
100% of Burundi, cloud-free
and less than three years old, at a ten meter resolution adequate for creating military maps with contour lines at the 1:50,000 level as well as precision-munitions guidance packages and nape of the earth interactive aviation and ground mission rehearsal simulation packages.
The above effort has received wide recognition among those who are responsible for oversight of the
U.S. Intelligence Community, and was described by one very senior Hill staff manager as "John Henry against the steel hammer-only John Henry won." In fact, it is very important to stress again and
again that open sources are not a substitute for spies and satellites (the author has been the first and worked with the second), but rather that both common sense and fiscal realities suggest that it is imperative that the policymaker be able to exploit open sources to the fullest in their public diplomacy, military acquisition, and
economic competitiveness roles, while relying on classified intelligence-classified intelligence presented in the
context of open sources-for those unique insights and details which cannot be obtained through other means, and which in fact are demonstrably so precious as to warrant the risk and cost of espionage.
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