Mosaic theory of intelligence gathering


The mosaic theory of intelligence gathering involves gathering many small and seemingly separate pieces of intelligence in order to construct a unified "picture" of intelligence. The theory takes its name from mosaic tile art, because while an entire picture can be seen from a mosaic's tiles at a distance, no clear picture emerges from viewing a single tile in isolation. The theory has detractors, who say that when governments argue any seemingly innocuous scrap of information is part of a larger intelligence mosaic, governments effectively get free rein to argue just about anything is part of intelligence and must be kept secret.
Some legal scholars, for example, argue mosaic theory can undermine transparency and civil rights. The method is used by American intelligence analysts.
As practiced in the CIA's black sites and the United States military's interrogation centers at Guantanamo, Bagram Theater Internment Facility, and Kandahar detention facility, captives who were not themselves suspected of an involvement with terrorism were nevertheless held, and interrogated, because someone they had an innocent association with was suspected of an involvement with terrorism.
Interrogation of these individuals, in great detail, en masse, was believed to allow analysts to fill in the mosaic and the milieu of actual terrorists.
The method was learned by financial analyst Harry Markopolos during his Army Reserve service, and was credited by him as a major tool used in exposing the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.