Posted on 12/08/2006 4:19:42 PM PST by SandRat
This is the second in a series following a media event at the Intelligence Center on Fort Huachuca on Wednesday.
Herald/Review FORT HUACHUCA — Interrogator training on this post has gone from fewer than 300 students a year in 2002 to an expected high of more than 1,500 in two years.
The critical need for human intelligence collectors, commonly called interrogators, has increased since the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
That day of terror began the Army’s need “to significantly increase the size of its humit (human intelligence) capabilities,” said Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, who commands the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca.
In the past, human intelligence took a back seat, especially during the Cold War years when intelligence gathering was focused on technology.
There have been other changes going on within the Intelligence Center, including a new Army manual on human intelligence collector operations, published in September.
“We have had to change and adapt,” the general told media representatives at a daylong event primarily designed to show how the interrogators are taught.
Col. Timothy Quinn told members of the media that there is no stagnation in what is taught and how it is taught.
The main part of the day was about human intelligence collector training, but that is a part of the overall picture of what happens on the fort, Quinn said.
Changing doctrine drives intelligence training, said the colonel, who is the Intelligence Center’s and fort’s chief of staff. Those who collect intelligence information pass it along to analysts, who then “paint a picture” for commanders, he said.
Commanders may need specific information and human intelligence collectors are tasked with what needs to be gathered. The aftermath may be a commander wanting even more information, so the process is done again.
Answers are more rapidly provided due to today’s technology.
On one of the Power Point slides he showed was a statement: “MI (military intelligence) is more operation than ever before.” The words “more” and “ever before” were underscored.
Other sides showed breakouts of some statistics about the Military Intelligence Corps, such as:
— When looking at the total Army, active, National Guard and Reserves, the service has slightly more than 1 million soldiers of all ranks.
— Of that number, 4 percent, or 37,000, are military intelligence soldiers.
— In all the Army components, 9,300 are human intelligence soldiers, which is 25 percent of the 37,000 figure.
— The active-duty Army of slightly more than 482,000 people includes 22,000 military intelligence soldiers, or 5 percent of the total force. Of that number 4,400, or 20 percent, are human intelligence soldiers.
— Within the entire active-duty intelligence disciplines, besides the 20 percent engaged in human intelligence functions, 35 percent are analysts, 30 percent signals intelligence, 8 percent imagery intelligence and 7 percent counter-intelligence.
Quinn said the intelligence staff sometimes will inform a combat commander information needs to be gathered.
The center’s mission is to lead, train, equip and support the Army with intelligence professionals, the chief of staff said.
Training done at the fort. It also is done at a soldier’s home station though distance learning with connections to the Intelligence Center and by sending out mobile training teams to help officers, warrant officers, noncommissioned officers, junior enlisted soldiers and civilians.
The mobile training team process provided help to more than 11,000 soldiers in the last fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, 2005, and ended on Sept. 30, 2006.
At the Intelligence Center, there is an intertwining of functions because more than one function may be needed in the information gathering and disseminating process, Quinn noted.
The key is not to graduate soldiers, NCOs, warranty officers and officers only having knowledge of their own spheres.
The training on the fort, and follow-on instructions, provides as much of a complete picture of how everything works together as possible, Quinn said.
Field training exercises are ongoing at different sites on the fort. Other functions on the post support those exercises, just as it would be in a deployed area such as Iraq.
Due to today’s threats of people such as insurgents and terrorists, the enemy must be seen differently, Quinn said. And looking at more conventional threats, such as North Korea, cannot be ignored.
The soldiers who are training to become intelligence soldiers, and those returning for refresher or new courses, must be trained to respond to all potential threats against the nation, the colonel said.
herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Maybe one for your MI Ping list...
MI Ping
Thanks, It's pung
J2 list?
S or G also.
Wonder what the JQR is for torturers? How do they make rank - by demonstrating proper water boarding techniques?
"Wonder what the JQR is for torturers? How do they make rank - by demonstrating proper water boarding techniques?"
I'll bring the car battery...you can bring the cables and water buckets...it'll show "initiative and creativity" on our parts. That alone should be worth a few extra promotion points.
Locals who volunteer or contractors hired to teach interrogation technique's.
The first is an oxymoron and the second is redundant. ;-)
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I have a bumper sticker that reads, "I was an oxymoron."
Spy Navy
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Changing doctrine drives intelligence training, said the colonel, who is the Intelligence Center’s and fort’s chief of staff. Those who collect intelligence information pass it along to analysts, who then “paint a picture” for commanders, he said. "
This has little if anything to do with the cold war. Intel has been screaming for more analyst and interrogator translators for at least 25 years. But the builders of multi–billion dollar analyst or interrogator programs have no teams of Washington lobbyists.
I knew an old gunny from imagery who claimed that analysts can do well after making lateral moves into specialties like imagery, signals etc…, but not the other way around. I think it’s because analysts are sandwiched between ops and collection while forming their model of the big picture. Even that may be skewed to over value formal intelligence processing, but collection peoples’ models are twice removed from the center operations and are a barrier from taking ownership of inherent flaws in the intel/ops relationship.
Good one!
I had a bumper sticker made reading "Pacifists are Parasites on Freedom". Good thing I ordered two since a "pacifist" attacked my first.
That's a little harsh, but very true.
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