Article

2009-08-24 Afghanistan

General Petraeus to open intel training center at CENTCOM

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Posted by Besoeker 2009-08-24 10:21|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 CAPE? I don't think so. More like Centcom Intelligence Agency.

Between this, NSC setting up an interrogation shop, DOJ going after CIA interrogators and Panetta's resignation threats, it sounds like the intelligence community is more like Fallujah than Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-08-24 12:16|| 2009-08-24 12:16|| Front Page Top

#2 This needs to belong somewhere outside CENTCOM. If is a training center it should belong to TRADOC, good bad or otherwise. If it is really an analysis center, think tank, or information clearing house then there should be a cell stood up at each of the commands. AQ is not limited to Afghan and Iraq, it is in the Pacific, Europe, the US, South America. Like cancer it has spread. Have we not learned anything....

Posted by 49 Pan 2009-08-24 15:29|| 2009-08-24 15:29|| Front Page Top

#3 For phuechs sake Pan.... TRADOC ?

Posted by Besoeker 2009-08-24 16:06|| 2009-08-24 16:06|| Front Page Top

#4 My thought too, Besoeker.

By linking it to CENCTOM, Petraeus is doing two very good things IMO. Actually, three.

First, he is acknowledging that each culture is quite different and takes time/immersion to master and understand. This tends to get lost in the military's approach to training, other than say in SOCOM. A friend of mine is a social scientist who has worked deeply in Afghan, Thai and other cultures in that area and who works with operators. She's pretty clear that the industrial, set up a field manual and crank them out approach to developing analysts is a disaster.

Second, Petraeus is building the expectation that we WILL have to be involved in those countries fo a decade or more.

And third, by keeping it in CENTCOM and defining it as a miltiary operations need, he's keeping out State Dept & the less helpful elements of the civilian intel community. And this in turn leaves a door open for, say, SOUTHCOM to do the same WRT Latin America .....

I might be wrong but this looks right to me.

Posted by lotp 2009-08-24 16:53|| 2009-08-24 16:53|| Front Page Top

#5 I agree lotp. Petraeus is a game changer, a thinker - planner - doer. You are correct, SOUTHCOM might follow suite. Don't look for AFRICOM to get involved in anything like this however. Overtures have already been extended. They've turned them down cold and with arrogance. They appear to be too invested in the diplomatic solution set which is as we know, always a winner.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-08-24 17:18|| 2009-08-24 17:18|| Front Page Top

#6 A little too pro-consulish to me. Sure it may work well with Petraeus. But what happens when less talented or more venal commanders get control of one of these commands? Too much concentration of power. Insufficient check and balance.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-08-24 18:31|| 2009-08-24 18:31|| Front Page Top

#7 It may be a risk, NS, but the alternative is lousy / bad / atrocious intel that gets people killed.

Posted by lotp 2009-08-24 19:49|| 2009-08-24 19:49|| Front Page Top

#8 Also, these will be military analysts. It doesn't in any way preclude or pre-empt the other agencies from gathering information, analyzing it and arguing for policy decisions.

Not so pro-consul at all, I would argue. Just a commander recognizing the kind of war he's fighting and adjusting fire accordingly.

Posted by lotp 2009-08-24 19:51|| 2009-08-24 19:51|| Front Page Top

#9 Guess nobody read the article Pan...

"Mr. Harvey is a believer in two reforms in developing reliable intelligence. The first involves altering the methods of interpreting raw data. He said the intelligence community tends to rely too much on information from human sources such as spies and from signal intercepts such as wiretaps, to the exclusion of reports from people on the ground such as military officers and aid workers."

...buncha traditional thinkineers here.

Posted by Skidmark 2009-08-24 19:58|| 2009-08-24 19:58|| Front Page Top

#10 skidmark, if you're thinking Harvey is old-school, stick in the mud Army, you've misread him.

This milblog entry from last year is the sort of thing I've heard for a couple years now from people who served in theater in/around him.

Posted by lotp 2009-08-24 21:19|| 2009-08-24 21:19|| Front Page Top

#11 B, I'm not a big TRADOC fan and we do have a terrible issue of managing intel reports. We get locked out due to clearances, service and agency policies, stonewalling, and glory seeking. But that another rant. If the Army, let alone DOD, is not going to fraction off into five or six different mentods of managing intell it has to be standard, TRADOC, spit kuss, is that standard bearer. CENTCOM or SOCOM would be a great place to build the model then transfer it to SWIC or to TRADOC. My poorly argued point was AQ is global, CENTCOM is not. If we, DOD, are ever going to be able to manage intell, and be relevant, we have to be able to do it across the different commands, services, and agencies, not just CENTCOM. We have to get past the notion that the AQ war and intell is just CENTCOM centric and we are fighting a global war.

Posted by 49 Pan 2009-08-24 21:59|| 2009-08-24 21:59|| Front Page Top

#12 Hooah! Valid points Pan.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-08-24 22:18|| 2009-08-24 22:18|| Front Page Top

#13 Sometimes I have a hard time getting the point out.
I'm a product of the public education system and too many jumps at Bragg. Thanks

Posted by 49 Pan 2009-08-24 22:33|| 2009-08-24 22:33|| Front Page Top

#14 Have a delicious cookie...

Posted by badanov 2009-08-24 22:36|| http://www.freefirezone.org]">[http://www.freefirezone.org] 2009-08-24 22:36|| Front Page Top

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