2RHPZ
05-27-2004, 02:20 PM
US needs human intelligence in anti-terror war
International Institute for Strategic Studies argues good human intelligence could have prevented misinformation used in Iraq war.
LONDON - The London-based group's annual Strategic Survey 2003/2004 said the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq "reflected a critical failure of intelligence that has compromised the credibility of the global counter-terrorism coalition."It cited US Secretary of State Colin Powell's display of technical intelligence -- communications intercepts and satellite imagery -- to prove Iraq had such weapons in the run-up the war and cautioned against such "increasingly complex" and "ambiguous" types of information collection
But the IISS equally slammed bad human intelligence provided by then-Iraqi exile and now one of the nine rotating presidents on the US-backed Iraq's Governing Council, Ahmed Chalabi, as not coming from an objective source.
Instead, the report advocated "closer and more effective integration of technical and human intelligence collection" as a priority in US anti-terror efforts.
Human intelligence, it stressed, "will remain critical to US counter-terrorism and non-proliferation efforts, but will require considerable additional effort to keep up with the new challenges that new targets present."
"It remains unclear whether existing American intelligence organizations... can address these issues effectively," concluded the report, as it urged the US government to learn from its European partners.
It mentioned Britain, which managed to often contain the separatist Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland over a period of 25 years, relying on human intelligence.
The IISS also predicted Al-Qaeda's increased enlisting of hardline Islamic militants in Western countries, who will be "less religiously absolute in mindset, close to their enemies in background" and hence more likely to respond to human intelligence.
US President George W. Bush's administration and the country's intelligence agencies have faced harsh criticism for failing to prevent Al-Qaeda's attacks of September 11, 2001.
Some of the reproaches center around the agencies having forsaken spying, recruitment and infiltration of enemy countries in the post-Cold war era to favor high-tech and remote information gathering.
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International Institute for Strategic Studies argues good human intelligence could have prevented misinformation used in Iraq war.
LONDON - The London-based group's annual Strategic Survey 2003/2004 said the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq "reflected a critical failure of intelligence that has compromised the credibility of the global counter-terrorism coalition."It cited US Secretary of State Colin Powell's display of technical intelligence -- communications intercepts and satellite imagery -- to prove Iraq had such weapons in the run-up the war and cautioned against such "increasingly complex" and "ambiguous" types of information collection
But the IISS equally slammed bad human intelligence provided by then-Iraqi exile and now one of the nine rotating presidents on the US-backed Iraq's Governing Council, Ahmed Chalabi, as not coming from an objective source.
Instead, the report advocated "closer and more effective integration of technical and human intelligence collection" as a priority in US anti-terror efforts.
Human intelligence, it stressed, "will remain critical to US counter-terrorism and non-proliferation efforts, but will require considerable additional effort to keep up with the new challenges that new targets present."
"It remains unclear whether existing American intelligence organizations... can address these issues effectively," concluded the report, as it urged the US government to learn from its European partners.
It mentioned Britain, which managed to often contain the separatist Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland over a period of 25 years, relying on human intelligence.
The IISS also predicted Al-Qaeda's increased enlisting of hardline Islamic militants in Western countries, who will be "less religiously absolute in mindset, close to their enemies in background" and hence more likely to respond to human intelligence.
US President George W. Bush's administration and the country's intelligence agencies have faced harsh criticism for failing to prevent Al-Qaeda's attacks of September 11, 2001.
Some of the reproaches center around the agencies having forsaken spying, recruitment and infiltration of enemy countries in the post-Cold war era to favor high-tech and remote information gathering.
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