SPRINGFIELD, Virginia – The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency released its second annual Tearline yearbook – a compilation of articles focused on issues affecting national security derived solely on research and open-source information. 

The yearbook highlights 14 articles published by NGA’s Tearline Project providing open-source intelligence on topics like Russian oil and gas activities in North Africa, Chinese infrastructure investments in Namibia and railroad construction in Kazakhstan.

One article examines the operating status of a North Korean prison camp for political prisoners. North Korea officials publicly announced closing 20 years ago; however, the authors used current satellite imagery and interviews with former detainees to reveal the camp is still active. 

NGA’s Tearline Project, a congressionally supported publication platform, is an ongoing series of collaborations with academia and non-profit groups to create public-facing, open-source intelligence on various strategic, economic and humanitarian intelligence topics that are under-reported. The project supplies open-source intelligence for NGA, federal partner agencies and the public usage to support and assist in the agency's mission. 

For more information about Tearline, including how to propose a research topic, please visit https://www.tearline.mil/ .  

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NGA is a unique combination of intelligence agency and combat support agency. It is the world leader in timely, relevant, accurate and actionable geospatial intelligence. NGA enables the U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Defense to fulfill the president’s national security priorities to protect the nation. 

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