Intelligence gathering network

An intelligence gathering network is a system through which information about a particular entity is collected for the benefit of another through the use of more than one, inter-related source.

An agent handler directs the activities of a number of persons and sources in order to obtain the necessary facts about the target of the intelligence gathering operation.

A penetration agent would already be in place in the target area, and is recruited by the handler, often by means of the MICE principle.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the last Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, demanded daily intelligence reports called djournals (from the word "journal).

After decades, he had saved millions of them in "a whole building to itself in the War Office, where a Government Commission is now," Francis McCullagh wrote in 1910, "wading slowly through this amazing accumulation.