| Robert David Steele | |
|---|---|
Robert David Steele presents at The Last HOPE July 20, 2008 |
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| Born | July 16, 1952 New York City, New York |
| Occupation | Open source intelligence advocate. |
| Website | |
| www.oss.net | |
Robert David Steele Vivas (b. July 16, 1952 New York City), is known for his promotion of open source intelligence (OSINT).[1] He is a former United States Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer for twenty years and was the second-ranking civilian (GS-14) in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence from 1988–1992. Steele is a former clandestine services case officer with the Central Intelligence Agency.[2] He is the founder and CEO of OSS.Net as well as the Golden Candle Society. Steele also was a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Marine Corps University in the mid-1990s. He's the son of an "oil man" as he said in a previous interview.
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He spent his early years, two decades, in Latin America and Asia as the son of an oil company executive. Steele has an BA in Political Science; an MA in International Relations; and an MPA in Public Administration. He resigned from the military in 1993.
He is commonly associated with the open source intelligence movement and coined the terms "virtual intelligence" and "information peacekeeping". He argues that U.S. intelligence reform is needed, and that the private sector can perform a high percentage of U.S. open source intelligence needs and reduce cost to the U.S. government. He advocates "collective intelligence" or "the wisdom of the crowd" (what Howard Rheingold calls "smart mobs") and for hackers as a national resource.
Steele, an international proponent of OSINT, argues that both reports, while recent, still ignore his decades of advocacy for a proper national focus on OSINT from 1988 to date. He further argues that the CIA has refused to take open source information seriously for decades, and should not be charged with developing new capabilities that are totally outside its existing culture of secrecy.
As of Nov. 2011, Steele crafted a proposed statement called the Electoral Reform Act of 2012 and presented it to the Occupy Wall Street Electoral Reform Committee.[3]