Asset
| Asset link (Spycraft) | |
|---|---|
| File:Dennis Nedry.webp Dennis Nedry from the first Jurassic Park movie. | |
| A resource by means of which intelligence is gathered; but also a person through whom things are getting done. |
An asset (or intelligence asset) can be a person within an organization or country, who provides information to an outside party; a HUMINT source (informants). The term can also encompasses a wider range of entities: agents, assassins, saboteurs or technological resources. It can be used to describe journalists who receive their manuscripts, or work orders, from intelligence agencies; as well as somebody who is sent to damage an organization from within, or use his/her position within it for a specific purpose.
General definition for intelligence gathering
An asset can be: "any thing designed, developed, cultivated or utilized to collect [the] information [which is] required." The asset is what is used to get the information.[1]
Politicians as assets
Jeff Gates has expressed the view that: {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Asset |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Jeff Gates|+sep=, |Has text=“An asset is someone who has been profiled in sufficient depth, that if you put them in a time place and circumstance, you know within an acceptable range of probabilities, that they will perform consistent with their personality profile.” |Is about=Asset,politicians|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate= |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=https://archive.org/details/jeffgatesonthecriminalstate }}“An asset is someone who has been profiled in sufficient depth, that if you put them in a time place and circumstance, you know within an acceptable range of probabilities, that they will perform consistent with their personality profile.” [2] By extension of that thought an asset is a person in a position of influence, in politics or other areas, where he/she accomplishes things on behalf of a third party, knowingly or unknowingly.
Adolf Hitler was profiled from the US side as early as 1922 by military attache Truman Smith to: "form an estimate of his character, personality, abilities, and weaknesses."[3]