Training-Bound
Like most other government agencies, no one begins their work without first training. We weren't exempt from this expectation. At the beginning of April 1994 the NDIC sent the analysts of my class to the FBI Academy for training. There we would receive basic training from DEA analysts assigned to the task. Mike McCrane, a member of NDIC's first analyst class, served as class counselor.
I'll return to Mike later on this essay. He was quite a character and he deserves separate treatment.
The FBI Academy
Since the FBI was NDIC's managing agency, they sent us to their Academy to learn. Nestled within Marine Corps Base Quantico, the FBI Academy was a self-contained world. It felt like being in a moon-base, its separate buildings joined by windowed, climate-controlled corridors. Donated patriotic artworks covered its walls. It had a great gym, a cafeteria, library, even a bar. Bedrooms were spacious with two occupants each. The grounds were ample, woody, and green.
That's where we went to learn or relearn the art and craft of intelligence analysis. We wrote reports, drew arrows, and connected geometric figures symbolizing entities. This was all before computers invaded training rooms all over the Federal world, mind you.
What do Intelligence Analysts do?
Forget any notions you might have about intelligence analysis being sexy or adventurous. The most basic task of an intelligence analyst is to interpret information. He or she obtains information from different sources. These sources might be "open" like news reports. Or the sources might be the property of private businesses to which the agency pays for access. Or the information sources might belong to law enforcement or national security agencies. In the latter cases the information might be classified or be of limited distribution.
Analysts then analyze the information they'd collected from the above sources. They seek to answer the questions their customers had posed to them before.
Analysis involves breaking up the information into smaller, discreet, meaningful entities. Once broken up, the analysts studies the connections between them. He or she might discover new entities and connections. Examples of these include a name to an address; an officer to a company; a name to an event; and so on. Then the analyst builds a new explanatory picture of the connections s/he built. The customer then has new, enriched information that will inform their decision-making.
The analyst, then, must also be a writer, an author, an editor. Sometimes s/he has to be a mapmaker and a graphic artist; a network administrator and a translator. Analysts need to be public speakers and learn to tailor their messages to a variety of audiences.
In fact, an analyst is also a little bit of a journalist. After adding insight to their product, analysts must write a meaningful story. They must capture the who, what, where, when, and how of what they see happening. They must distinguish between facts and opinions, inferences and proof. Analysts have an ethical mandate to pursue the truth as best they can and then report this truth to those who must do something about it. Analysts better be sure of the veracity of what they report as lives depend on it.
It is a high moral and professional bar.
I was about to learn and relearn all these things, and do them for the rest of my career. It was a challenge I faced with joy and self-confidence. This career was tailor-made for me. I was determined to learn from it, but also to have fun.
Mike McCrane
All this Mike McCrane coordinated day and night. He was quite the character. At times, gruff, at times funny, he was the quintessential former Marine. He was ubiquitous, always carrying a then rare perk: a government-issued cell phone. Every time a call came in he would answer it by saying his last name, "McCrane", in a serious Joe Friday monotone. We ended up taking off our shoes and speaking into them a la Maxwell Smart whenever he got a call. In fact, our class picture portrays us in that manner.
I would get to work with McCrane a lot, since he too was a DocEx member. Many memorable things took place with him during our travels.
In the long run McCrane became a Secret Service agent. He created new idiosyncratic memories while there, I'm sure. Once he stopped a robber at a convenience store with nothing but a coffeepot. He proved that hot, boiling coffee can deter an aggressor if the handler has talent. And Mike McCrane had that talent.
Mike McCrane passed away from natural causes a month ago as of this writing. He was only two years older than me.
On with the mission
We finished our training by the end of April, 1994. I was then ready for my first mission.