The United States of America has a long history of gathering intelligence to gain the upper hand on military forces inside our borders and out. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency website there are 16 different agencies and offices that work under the umbrella of “Intelligence Community” and are led by the Director of National Intelligence. Eric Brent, the protagonist of The Right Guard, is a member of the CIA or Central Intelligence Agency. The other members of the Intelligence Community are listed below:

• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• Marine Corps Intelligence
• National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
• National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
• National Security Agency (NSA)
• Office of Naval Intelligence
• U.S. Air Force, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
• U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command
• U.S. Coast Guard
• U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
• U.S. Department of State (DOS)
• U.S. Treasury Department
• Drug Enforcement Administration’s Office of National Security Intelligence (DEA)

The DIA also tells us that the DIA and CIA mainly differ in what they report about. The DIA reports on foreign intelligence for combat related missions while the CIA reports to the President and the Cabinet.

The Intelligence Community website says “The Intelligence Community is responsible for supplying accurate and usable information to those who make national security decisions. Generating reliable, accurate intelligence is an active, never-ending process commonly referred to as the intelligence cycle.”

So, all of these agencies and offices utilize the same five step process to gather intelligence starting with **“planning”. **

The planning step involves “determining what issues need to be addressed” and “what information must be gathered to provide proper answers.”

This is followed by **collecting ** and processing. These two steps are done by agents like Eric Brent. The analysis step includes coming up with “alternative scenarios” that help leaders make informed decisions about the threats and opportunities in the U.S. Security.

Finally, all this information is distributed to the policy makers who requested it.

The 16 different agencies of the Intelligence Community all gather information to assist the decision making process of the government. Policy makers rely on this information, like they do in The Right Guard, to protect Americans.