WBTW NEWS 13, THE CBS-AFFILIATED television station in Florence, South Carolina, has featured the Chanticleer Intelligence Brief (CIB) COVID-19 Intelligence Project in a news report. The report, by WBTW reporter Lauren Crawford, was aired on WBTW’s Evening News program on Thursday, April 9. It highlighted the CIB’s new project, which allows Intelligence and National Security Studies students at Coastal Carolina University to track and analyze the worldwide outbreak of the pandemic on a real-time basis.

The WBTW report featured interviews with CIB Chief Executive Officer Derrick Storzieri and CIB North America Desk Analyst Ana Maria Lankford. In explaining the purpose of the CIB, and of its new project, to the reporter, Storzieri said: “what better way to get a practice for [providing non-biased intelligence to policymakers] during this rough time than to brief the actual community we are residing in, to make sure everyone knows what’s going on, and properly and effectively mitigate the long-term effects of the coronavirus?”. Lankford spoke about the immediacy of this new project, and the fact that it brings together like-minded students who want to better their future: “I think this is great practice for anyone who is a part of the organization because we all have the same goals in mind” she said.

Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis, who mentors the CIB’s COVID-19 Intelligence Project, noted that “when something like this [pandemic] happens, it transforms the way we do intelligence, [just like] 9/11 was a transformative moment for the Intelligence Community and the way we train intelligence professionals”.

Those interested in listening to the weekly podcast produced by the CIB’s COVID-19 Intelligence Project team, can do so here.