Robert David Steele

Robert David Steele Vivas (b. July 16 1952 New York City), is a former 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. He is the founder and CEO of OSS.Net, Inc. as well as the Golden Candle Society. Steele also was a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Marine Corps University in the mid-1990s.

Career
He spent his early years, two decades, resident 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 MBA in Public Administration. He resigned from the military in 1993.

He is commonly associated with the Open source intelligence (OSINT) 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 for "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 Central Intelligence Agency has refused to take open source information seriously for decades, and shouldn't be charged with developing new capabilities that are totally outside its existing culture of secrecy.

Steele currently is the No.46 non-fiction book reviewer on Amazon.com.

Books by Steele

 * On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World (2000) OSS International Press, ISBN 0-9715661-0-0
 * The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political (Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Ignorance) (2002) OSS International Press, ISBN 0-9715661-1-9
 * Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time (2006) OSS International Press, ISBN 0-9715661-3-5

Outside Links

 * Open Source Intelligence Website
 * A Summary of Steele's Views
 * Journal Publications
 * Articles published
 * Speaker biography at DEF CON III Las Vegas 1995
 * Open Source Intelligence: Private Sector Capabilities to Support DoD Policy, Acquisitions, and Operations May 5 1998
 * The New Craft of Intelligence - Making the Most of Open Private Sector Knowledge 2002
 * Draft legislation to create Open Source Agency posted November 10, 2005
 * Interview Audio: Robert David Steele, Open Source Intelligence Evangelist Jan 25 2006
 * Open Source Intelligence April 18 2006
 * OSS CEO Praises Mary McCarthy, Calls for Censure of DNI & DCI April 22 2006
 * 911, Iraq, & Bin Laden: US’s $60 Billion Intelligence Failure May 2 2006
 * Call for Open Source Intelligence Inputs to Wikipedia July 5 2006