Truth-seeking and the principles of discrimination, necessity, proportionality and reciprocity in national security intelligence activity

National security intelligence is information or other data collected, analyzed and disseminated by intelligence agencies (in particular) and done so in the service of these agencies’ primary institutional purpose, at least in liberal democracies. It might be claimed that unlike, for instance, much of the intellectual work conducted in universities, intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination is not an end in itself but rather the means to some further end; that is, the end point of the intelligence process is actionable intelligence, that is intelligence provided to relevant decision makers that is a means to kinetic action. The activities of intelligence collection and analysis are not related to knowledge merely as means to end, but also conceptually. While epistemic actions, including intelligence activity, have knowledge as their constitutive end, kinetic actions, including military activity, do not; rather military activity has the end of winning battles.