WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- The head of a private research company has challenged the director of national intelligence to an information duel.
Robert David Steele Vivas, the chief executive officer of Open Source Solutions, is a longtime proponent of improving the U.S. government's ability to retrieve and analyze the vast amounts of information available publicly from web sites, magazines, and newspapers.
He has been agitating for more than a decade for the creation of an open source intelligence agency.
On Thursday, Steele wrote an open letter challenging John Negroponte to an 11-day challenge to gather useful intelligence on 10 questions about threats to the United States using only a laptop computer and a cell phone.
He wants Congress to mandate the exercise. Negroponte would be allowed to call on the entire infrastructure of the intelligence community -- funded at about $50 billion annually -- and Steele would ask for $100,000 per question.
"Got game? I don't think you do. You should resign or ask the president to sponsor legislation creating an Open Source Agency outside the U.S. Intelligence Community (under diplomatic auspices), with a director appointed for life and a board of visitors consisting of former presidents, leaders of Congress, and Supreme Court justices.
"I promise you this: if you have the balls to take me on publicly, between us we will make a compelling case for the national intelligence reform you have been unable to inspire from the inside," said Steele.
