FIXING INTEL: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan.

AuthorHandley, John

FIXING INTEL: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan

www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/AfghanIntel_Flynn_Jan2010_code507_voices.pdf

By Major General Michael T. Flynn, USA, Captain Matt Pottinger, USMC, and Paul D. Batchelor, DIA

Reviewed by Colonel John Handley, USA

When, in June 2009, General Flynn became the principal producer and disseminator of intelligence for the International Security Forces in Afghanistan (ISFA), he soon realized that intelligence collected for, analyzed within, and disseminated to ISFA consumers contained systemic problems. Together with Captain Pottinger and Paul Batchelor, he put together a team to interview a variety of intelligence practitioners at every level throughout the ISFA. Despite the "grass roots" intelligence successes mentioned in this report, the investigators found that: (1) much of the information pushed up the chain of command became pigeon-holed or ignored as irrelevant to locating hard targets; (2) most of the information collected at the "grass roots" never made it up the chain at all; and (3) very little of what did rise was later disseminated to personnel on the ground as useful intelligence. The intelligence moving from higher to lower echelons usually told the latter only what they already knew.

The problem is not that the troops are fighting an asymmetrical counterinsurgency war. The problem lies in the lack of intelligence support these war-fighters receive from the brigade and regimental levels and above, who seem to be fighting a more "conventional" "anti-insurgent" campaign. Those at the top hoard information behind classified barriers, fuse it with sensitive source material, further restricting dissemination, and then use it to go after hard targets. The ISAF intelligence community, the report states, must emphasize support to the counterinsurgency war fighters, who are the most important creators and consumers of intelligence.

To rectify this lack of intelligence...

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