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Global Special Operations |
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By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service QUITO, Ecuador, Nov. 15, 2004 Terrorists and other enemies of civil order are smart enough to identify and take advantage of gaps in established security systems -- so nations need to work cooperatively to "be smarter and quicker" to find new ways to foil them, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today. Rumsfeld, here for the sixth Defense Ministerial of the Americas conference, said he's optimistic the meetings will build on groundwork laid at the last ministerial two years ago to help close gaps within existing security systems and "strengthen the inter-American system." Terrorists, narcotraffickers, hostage takers, gang members and other enemies of civil society have become smart enough to capitalize on "seams" in security systems, Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him. "And there are all kinds of seams," he said, many "being used effectively against civil society." These seams, he said, may exist between different kinds of security forces, between countries and in ungoverned and border areas. The only way to close these seams, Rumsfeld said, is for all nations to work together cooperatively to overcome them, through improved information sharing, better cooperation among law enforcement entities, and improved cooperation to stem the financing of illegal activities. "When you think about it, no country, including the United States or any other country in the world, can deal with these problems alone, because these problems are not, contained within national boundaries," he said. The secretary said he's optimistic participants in the defense ministerial, who represent countries Rumsfeld said "are overwhelmingly democratic" and support the rule of lawm will pledge their ongoing support to this effort. "We need to find new ways to cooperate, recognizing that it will take the best of all of us, cooperating to improve the way we do things," Rumsfeld said.
By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2004 President Bush painted the broad outlines of his agenda for a second term, but anchoring the painting is winning the war on terror. Bush spoke at a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building today. He told reporters that America will remain strong and resolute against the terrorists. "We have a duty, a solemn duty to protect the American people, and we will," he said. The president addressed the issue of security for January's elections in Iraq and the need for more U.S. troops in the country. He said the United States is making good progress in training the Iraqi troops. "There will be 125,000 of them trained by election time," he said. He has not yet sat down with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and discussed troop levels. "I read some reports during the course of the campaign where some were speculating in the press corps about the number of troops needed to protect elections," he said. "That has not been brought to my attention yet. And so I would caution you that what you have either read about or reported was pure speculation thus far." Bush said the January elections are important, and the United States will respond "to the requests of our commanders on the ground. And I have yet to hear from our commanders on the ground that they need more troops." The president said he will work with friends and allies around the world against the terrorist threat. "Every civilized country also has a stake in the outcome of this war," he said. "Whatever our past disagreements, we share a common enemy, and we have common duties to protect our peoples, to confront disease and hunger and poverty in troubled regions of the world." He said he will work with all "to encourage freedom and democracy as alternatives to tyranny and terror." The president called for final congressional action on the intelligence reform bill. House and Senate conferees failed to reach agreement on the specifics of the bill before the elections. "Our government also needs the very best intelligence, especially in a time of war," he said. "So I urge the Congress to pass an effective intelligence reform bill that I can sign into law." The president said the United States will work with the Iraqi interim government to hold elections in January. "We're on the path to stability, and we'll continue to train the (Iraqi) troops," he said. "Our commanders will have that which they need to complete their missions." The president said he will ask the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department to work together to bring "a realistic assessment" of what the cost of the war in Iraq will be. Bush said he will continue to push for free, democratic governments in the Muslim world. "There is a certain attitude in the world by some that says that, it's a waste of time to try to promote free societies in parts of the world," he said. "I fully understand that that might rankle some and be viewed by some as folly. I just strongly disagree with those who do not see the wisdom of trying to promote free societies around the world. "If we are interested in protecting our country for the long term, the best way to do so is to promote freedom and democracy," he continued. "I simply do not agree with those who either say overtly or believe that certain societies cannot be free. It's just not a part of my thinking."
By Samantha L. Quigley American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2004 -- America's citizen soldiers are taking an unprecedented role in the global war on terrorism, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said today. While the National Guard has always been in the homeland-defense business, it is being used in a new and different way, Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum told media at the Foreign Press Center here. He noted that the Guard bureau acts as an operational force supporting both the Army and the Air Force overseas and defending the homeland in the United States -- and doing both simultaneously. The Guard is deployed around the globe in support of every combatant commander, Blum said. At home, it has responded to DoD missions and state missions, such as assisting in cleanup efforts after natural disasters. "You can see the National Guard is participating in every single aspect of our national-security strategy," Blum said. "(Defense of the homeland) is always Job One for the National Guard. But it doesn't always mean we have to defend the homeland here at home." At the request of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the National Guard is becoming a more meaningful and useful tool in the global war on terrorism. To this end, the Guard transforming from a strategic reserve -- to be called only in the event of World War III -- to an operational force to be called up as needed -- any time, any place, for any reason, both here at home and abroad, Blum said. But, he cautioned, this presents challenges. "We still have a mandate to the governors to provide them the right force capabilities, in the right mix and the right size and the right place so that they can handle Hurricane Ivan or they can handle al Qaeda should they visit a neighborhood in the United States," Blum said. To meet these needs, the Guard has established a Joint Force Headquarters in all 54 U.S. states and territories to leverage the capabilities of both the Army and Air National Guards, he said. They are set up to provide capabilities in command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, known in the military as C4ISR. Each Joint Force Headquarters is a tactical joint task force-capable headquarters able to manage any military service element -- including active duty, Reserve or National Guard -- individually or in combination with other agency and government responders, needed to respond to an incident in any given state or territory. If needed, the Guard is able to synchronize responses from across the nation, pulling resources from other areas. Blum called it a "very, very powerful model, which means that there is no part of our country that is not protected and would not have the capability to respond if it were attacked or if it suffered a tragedy." To become more relevant, ready, accessible and essential to the defense of the country, the National Guard Bureau is taking on some specific initiatives, Blum said. One is the development of chemical- and biological-response teams that have special training and equipment to perform mass decontamination, treat mass casualties, and perform technical extractions of victims from collapsed buildings. He said that in addition to these teams, each state and territory has an immediate quick-reaction force and rapid-response force capable of delivering a battalion-sized force in less than 24 hours. Some 32 civil-support teams are trained to identify various weapons and advise local first responders. Eventually, 54 such teams will be set up, one for each state and territory. Blum said these teams "can offer an immediate communications bridge so that the local first responders can plug in to the Department of Defense communications system immediately." All elements are tied together through a secure information-technology system, and the Department of Homeland Security's information network has been integrated for maximum effectiveness. Blum called the Guard's efforts "a tremendous capability that has been developed in the last three years that most people in our own nation don't even know about." "I think we have delivered what we promised: a ready force, a reliable force, absolutely an essential force, and an accessible force -- accessible to both the governors here at home and to the president and the secretary of defense and the services when they need them abroad."
By Kathleen T. Rhem American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2004 -- The enemies of freedom "cannot defeat the coalition in a conventional war on any battlefield," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in New York today. So they use weapons of terror and chaos. "They want us to believe that the coalition cannot win, that the free Iraqi and Afghan governments cannot win, that the fight is not worth it, that the effort will be too hard and too ugly," the secretary said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. America and her allies cannot let the terrorists win. "Failure in Afghanistan or Iraq would exact a terrible toll," Rumsfeld said. "It would embolden the extremists and make the world a far more dangerous place." The secretary admitted it is a difficult road from tyranny to democracy, and it has always been so. He said America had its own problems seeking independence, and Germany and Japan suffered setbacks in the years after World War II. Still, there have been many successes in the war on terrorism. Upcoming elections in Afghanistan and Iraq are sure signs that those countries are on the path to democracy, Rumsfeld noted. Osama bin Laden is on the run, and Saddam Hussein is in jail and his sons dead. Libya no longer sponsors terrorists and has renounced its nuclear-weapons program, he pointed out. Pakistan is a major U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. "Thanks to the coalition, terrorist safe havens have been reduced; major training camps have been eliminated," Rumsfeld said. "Their financial support structures have been attacked and disrupted. And intelligence and military cooperation with countries all around the world has dramatically increased." The war on terrorism has also caused the American military to transform its structure and capabilities at a more rapid rate than anticipated. The active Army has increased by 30,000 troops and has been reorganized into "more agile, lethal and deployable brigades with enough protection, firepower and logistics assets to sustain themselves," Rumsfeld explained. The Army is in the process of increasing the number of these brigades from 33 to 43, or even possibly 48 in the next two to three years, he pointed out. The military's active and reserve components are being restructured to "achieve amore appropriate distribution of skill sets," the secretary continued. He said this restructuring should "improve the total-force responsiveness to crises so that individual reservists and guardsmen will mobilize less often for shorter periods of time and with somewhat more predictability." The war on terror has also increased the military services' ability to work together. "Joint operations are no longer an exception," he said. America's task is to remain steadfast in its resolve, the secretary said, asking the audience to consider what the world would be like if extremism were to prevail. "Today, as before, the hard work of history falls to our country, to our coalition, to our people," Rumsfeld said. "We have been entrusted with the gift of freedom. It's ours to safeguard. It's ours to defend. And we can do it knowing that the great sweep of human history is for freedom, and that is on our side."
By John Valceanu American Forces Information Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2004 -- A nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing terrorism on U.S. soil has launched a Web site that provides extensive information on global terrorist incidents and organizations. The National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, known as MIPT, is funded by the Department of Homeland Security. The institute created the Terrorism Knowledge Base over the past four years. It was made available to the world in early September, said James Ellis III, MIPT research and program coordinator. "The goal of this site is to create a system that gives users a much more comprehensive picture of terrorism than is available anywhere else," Ellis said. "We've given people a much better window into where terrorism is happening, how it is happening and who is carrying it out." The Terrorism Knowledge Base provides a variety of terrorism-related resources, including original data gathered over a 35-year period, encompassing information on more than 18,000 separate terrorist incidents. In addition to searchable data, such as fact sheets on terrorist organizations and court records of terrorism trials, the site also offers interactive analytical tools capable of developing individualized reports and analyses on various aspects of terrorism. "Part of our mandate is to act as a national point of contact in the search for the social and political causes of terrorism," Ellis said. "We feel that this project helps fulfill our mandate." Because the site provides not only a very broad overview of terrorism but also considerable depth on specific subjects, Ellis said that it is useful to a wide variety of users. These may range from researchers and policymakers to emergency responders or simply interested members of the general public. Defense Department personnel are an important segment of the audience, according to Ellis. "This is a global system, capable of global reach, and for that reason it should be useful to military people or defense officials," Ellis said. "The defense community can certainly be considered a core audience." Since information available on the site is not classified and freely available to the public, Ellis said, it has been useful to some military and other government personnel operating in overseas locations without access to secure networks. "We've received feedback from personnel who have been able to get information they needed from the site while functioning in an operational capacity. Because they didn't have access to secure connections at the time, they couldn't get that information through the classified channels they would normally have used," Ellis said. "We are not a real-time intelligence system, but we can serve as a source of accurate and credible information." Army Lt. Col. James Cassella, director of U.S. Army Public Web Communications and the Army home page, said he feels the amount of information on the site will be of great value to users. "This site offers a tremendous amount of content, so much so that we're considering adding a link to it from our own 'Timeline of Terrorism' Web special on www.army.mil," Cassella said. "Terrorism continues to pose a grave threat, and the more we know about it, the more effective we'll be in countering it." One of the most useful tools provided by the site is the ability to compare and contrast groups of data, according to Ellis. For example, a visitor to the site can view side-by-side terrorism-related statistics of two countries. Or they might choose to compare two terrorist organizations. The system's tools can also generate reports and graphic representations of the research queries. "The site offers a deep system with lots of functionality. We don't expect to be the last stop in terrorism research, but we could and should be the first stop," Ellis said. "Our site should have wide appeal. It's not just for the hard-core analysts. Whether it's someone looking up terrorism information for the first time or a high-end user doing advanced research, they should find our site useful." Sgt. 1st Class Jacquelyn Jones, who serves as the senior intelligence analyst with the U.S. Army Reserve's 9th Theater Support Command, based on Fort Belvoir, Va., said she is impressed with the site and its ability to efficiently deliver information. "I think it's awesome. If my commander requires some quick background information on a geographic location or some basic information on which terrorist groups might be active in a potential area of operations, this site would help me find that information quickly and easily," Jones said. Though he said he believes the Terrorism Knowledge Base already offers the most comprehensive information package on terrorism available to the public on the Web, Ellis said the site will be continuously updated and improved. "Our project is meant to be dynamic, user-friendly and interactive. It will only get better as people use it and give us feedback," Ellis said. "I think our site can revolutionize and raise the level of terrorism research. Hopefully, it will also have a positive impact on policy making."
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2004 -- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said today that the target of terrorism is not so much America, but freedom itself. At a daylong conference sponsored by the Rand Corp. that addressed steps to deal with the war on terrorism, Wolfowitz told Rand terrorism experts that the Sept. 11 attacks were a "wake-up call" for the United States. He called the deaths of more than 3,000 Americans and foreign citizens "cold-blooded murder." "We learned in one shattering and horrific attack that evil remains on the loose," he said, adding that "the target is freedom itself." Wolfowitz said that winning the war on terrorism will mean "sowing the seeds of hope and expanding the appeal of freedom in the Muslim world." During his speech, the deputy secretary referred to four basic principles that must guide the U.S. strategy in combating terrorism. First, the U.S. must realize that the struggle against terrorism will be a long struggle. Terrorism is "not something we will win in three years, or eight years, or perhaps even decades," he said. "But we will win, even though victory will probably not be marked by anything so dramatic as a signing ceremony on the USS Missouri or the collapse of the Berlin Wall." Second, the U.S. must use all the instruments of its national power, including military force, against terrorists. Next, the war on terrorism must be waged in multiple theaters, including in the United States. "We need to sequence our efforts so that we focus our energies in the right places at the right time," Wolfowitz pointed out. Finally, the struggle against terrorism is ideological as well as physical. "We must do more than simply kill and capture terrorists," he said. Quoting President Bush, the deputy secretary said the United States must work to build "a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror and particularly in the Muslim world, so that we can offer a vision of life and hope and freedom to counter the terrorist vision of tyranny and death and despair." Wolfowitz noted that the war on terrorism will be a "long and determined" campaign, "one that will use all the resources of the United States to win." He added that the United States will not stop until the terrorist networks are destroyed. The deputy secretary also thanked U.S. service members for their roles in helping win the war on terrorism. He said because of their actions, 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq have been freed from brutal tyranny. "Afghanistan and Iraq are one their way to becoming America's U.S. allies in the fight for freedom," he noted. During the conference Rand researchers presented findings of their research on several terrorism-related topics, from how terrorists think to how to defend against a suicidal terrorist. Other topics included curbing al-Qaeda recruitment, preventing terrorist use of nuclear weapons, and applying lessons learned in fighting terrorism in Iraq.
Military Working Dogs Protect Forces, Bases During Terror War By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas, Sept. 3, 2004 Army Col. David Rolfe's military career has gone to the dogs. As director of the Defense Department's Military Working Dog Program based here, Rolfe and his staff are responsible for the health and welfare of some of the most unheralded members of the fighting force: its estimated 2,300 working dogs. These dogs, along with their handlers from every military service, are deployed worldwide to support the war on terror, helping to safeguard military bases and activities and to detect bombs and other explosives before they inflict harm. With an acute sense of smell five to 10 times stronger than a human's, working dogs are able to detect minute traces of explosives or drugs and alert their handlers of their presence, Rolfe explained. But at the same time, dogs have ability to inflict fear in an aggressor in a way a human, even if armed, often can't, and will defend their handlers to the end. "People see a dog and don't want to mess with it," said Staff Sgt. Andrew Mier, a military working dog trainer who has deployed to Southwest Asia three times as a handler, twice to Saudi Arabia and once to Qatar. "A dog creates a strong psychological deterrent." The vast majority of U.S. military working dogs are German and Dutch shepherds and Belgian malinois, breeds Rolfe said are "very aggressive, very smart, very loyal and very athletic." "We expect so much of them that we need them to be strong and athletic," he said. "We want a high-strung dog with aggressive tendencies because that's what the mission demands." Dogs have long been recognized as "force multipliers" by military fighting forces around the world, Rolfe said. The Romans put razor-sharp collars around their dogs, then sent them into the enemy's ranks to bite and cut their foes. The U.S. military has used working dogs since the Revolutionary War, initially as pack animals, and later, for more advanced uses, such as killing rats in the trenches during World War I, he said. But World War II witnessed the biggest surge in use of working dogs to support military operations. The U.S. military deployed more than 10,000 specially trained canines, most as sentries, but others as scouts, messengers and mine detectors, Rolfe explained. Today, "a couple hundred" working dogs are serving with U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan as patrol dogs and explosives and drug detectors, Rolfe said, adding that contractors use additional dogs in the theater. Nearly 2,000 more working dogs provide similar services at U.S. bases and operating posts around the world. Meanwhile, the military is increasing its reliance on working dogs. Before Sept. 11, 2001, Rolfe said Air Force security forces trained about 200 working dogs a year for the Defense Department. That number is up to more than 500, with the vast majority of dogs being trained as sentries and bomb-sniffers. The 120-day program teaches the dogs basic obedience as well as more advanced skills, such as how to attack and how to sniff for specific substances. Rolfe said the initial training program, conducted by the 341st Training Squadron team, is based on "positive rewards" -- generally a ball or rubber toy rather than food. "We learned long ago that food works only so long. What the dog really wants you to do is play with it." Once the dogs receive their initial training, members of the 37th Security Forces teach the dogs and their trainers to work as a team. "One of the biggest challenges is getting a handler to recognize what a dog is showing him," said Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Luloffs, an instructor at the school. "But the big gratification is watching the teams improve and be able to perform at a higher level, and knowing that you had a part in it," added Mier. While the Air Force trains military working dogs and their handlers, Army veterinarians posted around the world help keep them fit for duty and treat their ailments. Telemedicine, so popular in the civilian health realm, is being used to provide expert consultation for military working dogs. "We want them to stay in the field and be treated in the theater," said Army Maj. Kelly Mann, chief of radiology for the Military Working Dog Program at Lackland Air Force Base facility. In addition, Rolfe and his staff operate a fully equipped veterinary hospital at Lackland. As working dogs become increasingly important to the military mission, work is under way to help protect them from enemy threats. Rolfe oversees a research and development program that's looking at improved body armor and gas masks for military working dogs. No good method exists to protect a dog from a nuclear, biological or chemical attack, he said. "But it's definitely something being looked at," he added. Meanwhile, the Walter Reed Institute of Research is studying the use of pills that can help military working dogs survive a nerve-agent attack. Research is also under way to create an "artificial nose" capable of duplicating a dog's but Rolfe predicts it's a long way down the road. "Some people say it could be 50 years before we'll have an artificial nose that can replace a dog," he said. Besides, dogs possess something Rolfe said a machine probably never will: immense loyalty and a desire to please. "A machine doesn't care if it finds something," Rolfe said. "But a dog wants to please its handler. A dog will go looking for something on its own where a machine won't." The bottom line, he said, is that "dogs have a heart, something that makes them an invaluable asset to our fighting forces."
By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2004 Iraq and Afghanistan's transition to democracy will be a long and hard effort, but it is worth the pain and sacrifice of so many, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Marines and sailors at Yuma, Ariz., Aug. 26. Rumsfeld spoke at the Marine Corps Air Station. He thanked the Marines and sailors for their willingness to serve in the global war on terrorism and said they would look on their service in this fight the same way their grandfathers looked at their service in World War II. Many scoffed at the United States after World War II for trying to mold Germany, Italy and Japan into democracies, Rumsfeld told the Marines and sailors. But through persistence and example that change was made, and now those three countries are among the world's staunchest democratic allies, he said. "It will not be an easy transition to democracy in Afghanistan or Iraq," he said. "It think it was Thomas Jefferson who said of our own transition that one should not expect to be transported to democracy in a featherbed. It is a tough thing to do." The secretary said the global war on terror is a "brutal reality of our times." While many Americans believe the war on terror began Sept. 11, 2001, it really started many years before. He pointed to the al Qaeda bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the attacks against Air Force personnel in Saudi Arabia, the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa and the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. It wasn't until Sept. 11 that Americans treated the conflict as a war and not as a law enforcement function, he said. During the same era, Saddam Hussein dispatched a squad of killers to assassinate a former U.S. president, Rumsfeld said. "The Iraqis were firing almost daily at U.S. aircraft that were enforcing the no-fly zones, and Saddam Hussein was paying $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers to encourage still others to go out and kill innocent men, women and children," he said. Americans must understand this is a war unlike any the United States has fought, the secretary said. "We must not make the mistake of thinking the absence of a traditional war or traditional conflict means that we're at peace, because we most certainly are not," the secretary said. Americans also must understand that the United States must fight these enemies where they live. The idea that terrorism will simply go away is wrong, he said. "It will not go away," the secretary said. "Indeed, it will increase out vulnerability by inviting still more terrorist attacks." Rumsfeld told the Marines and sailors they have helped liberate 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan from cruel regimes. He thanked the coalition members who have contributed forces to those efforts. He told the servicemembers that during his recent trip to Afghanistan he was impressed by the energy and attitude of the Afghan people. "The third anniversary of Sept. 11 is coming up soon," he said. "None of us will ever forget that day. "I just returned from Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda leadership planned and launched their attacks," he continued. "They did it with the support of the Taliban government. Now, despite a continuing campaign of violence and intensive intimidation, Afghanistan has more than nine and a half million people ready to vote and more than 40 percent of them (are) women." He said Afghans obviously are eager for the presidential elections in October. Once again, Rumsfeld told the Marines and sailors they are doing a great job. "You are an all-volunteer military," he said. "You said you'd like to serve. Your countrymen are proud of you, and they thank you for all you do."
By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 11, 2004 The Defense Department's No. 2 official compared radical Islamic terrorists to Adolph Hitler's dispensers of death, the dreaded "Schutzstaffel," or SS -- during Aug. 10 testimony on Capitol Hill. Appearing before House Armed Services Committee to discuss the military's role in carrying out the 9/11 Commission's recommendations to deny terrorists places of sanctuary, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz observed that the United States and its allies "are fighting a cult of death, not life." Accompanied by Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Army Gen. Bryan Brown, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, Wolfowitz observed that preventing terrorism "means more than killing or capturing terrorists." Ultimate victory over global terrorism, he noted, "requires sowing the seeds of hope, particularly in the broader Middle East." The 9/11 Commission report, Wolfowitz told committee members, noted that radical Islamic fundamentalists possess an intolerant, non-negotiable ideology and world view that has no regard for human rights or the rule of law. Global terrorism is another manmade evil "that needs to be eradicated and discarded," Wolfowitz said, "just as piracy and the slave trade were de- legitimized and driven to the margins of civilized life in the past." Terrorists' extremist ideology, he said, must be "replaced by a hopeful vision of freedom." Wolfowitz characterized terrorists who routinely employ suicide-attack tactics as "people who worship death more than they seem to worship anything else." Today's radical Islamic terrorists, Wolfowitz pointed out, "remind you of the notorious Nazi groups like the SS that proudly wore the death's head as their symbol." Under Heinrich Himmler, the SS, which was established as Hitler's elite military force, stamped out dissent and propagated the Nazi vision of establishing a pure, "Aryan" race in Germany and in conquered territories. Millions who didn't fit into the Nazis' world view, including political prisoners, gypsies, Jews, and mentally or physically challenged persons, were summarily killed or perished in labor and concentration camps. Like the long-gone Nazis, Wolfowitz noted today's Islamic radicals also rely on terror and "their ability to kill innocent people" to attain and retain power. The cures for radical Islamic terrorism "must come from within Muslim societies themselves," he said, and the United States "must support such developments." Such a goal is "ambitious," Wolfowitz acknowledged. But, he pointed out, "the threat we face is ambitious" as well as "enormous and unprecedented."
By John D. Banusiewicz American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2004 Ideological extremists can't be appeased, so they have to be confronted, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wrote in a guest column published in today's Chicago Tribune. "The phenomenon of ideological extremism -- of which terrorism is the weapon of choice -- stands in the way of global political progress and economic prosperity, threatens the stability of the international order and clouds the future of civil society," Rumsfeld wrote. "Because it cannot be appeased, it must be confronted on many fronts by all civil societies." Terrorists took nearly 3,000 lives in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and would have killed far more if they had the capability, the defense secretary wrote. "This is a different kind of enemy and a different kind of world," Rumsfeld noted. "And we must think and act differently in this new century. The extremists think nothing of cutting off innocent people's heads to try to intimidate civilized people. They have murdered citizens from many countries -- South Korea, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom and others -- hoping to strike fear in the hearts of free people." Rumsfeld cited progress in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. "Courageous leaders have stepped forward to lead their country and crack down on insurgents. Their economy is growing, their currency is strong and they've opened a stock market. More than 2,600 schools have been rehabilitated," he wrote. "They have gone from zero to more than 200,000 Iraqi security force members. We have a good team helping the Iraqis develop their security forces, training them, equipping them and helping them set up a chain of command so they can assume responsibility for their country." Afghanistan, he noted, is moving toward a free election this fall. "Despite the violence aimed at discouraging citizens, and particularly women, from registering to vote, more than 8 million people have already done so, including nearly 4 million women," he wrote. "Under the Taliban, women had virtually no rights at all." The Afghan national army now has 13,000 soldiers, and more than 21,000 Afghans serve in the national police, the secretary noted. Construction of a major road linking major cities is well under way, he wrote, to unify the country and bolster its economy. Afghans have approved a new constitution that protects the rights of all Afghans, the secretary added. In his guest column, Rumsfeld recalled a visit to Korea when that country's parliament was debating whether to send troops to Iraq. A Korean reporter asked him why Korean soldiers should go halfway around the world to be killed or wounded in Iraq. "It was a fair question, one an American could have asked during the Korean War," Rumsfeld wrote. "That day, I had visited a war memorial in Korea that bore the names of every American soldier killed in the war. On it was the name of a close friend of mine from New Trier High School, a wrestling teammate named Dick O'Keefe, who was killed on the last day of the Korean War. I asked the reporter: 'Why should Americans have sent their young people to Korea?'" Rumsfeld didn't wait for an answer. Instead, he urged the reporter to look out the window, where the city of Seoul lay below. "The city was filled with lights and cars and energy and people, a robust economy that's just an economic miracle, and freedom," Rumsfeld wrote. "And I told the reporter that I kept a satellite photo, taken at night, of the Korean peninsula on a table in my office. North of the Demilitarized Zone, there is nothing but darkness, with one little pinprick of light in Pyongyang, the capital. In the south, the country is bathed in light, beacons of prosperity and freedom that 33,000 Americans and thousands of others gave their lives to protect." Though it came at a terrible cost, Rumsfeld wrote, Korea's freedom was worth it "just as it was worth it to liberate Germany, Japan and Italy." The enemy in the global war on terror can't win militarily, but that doesn't mean the enemy can't win, Rumsfeld noted. "Terrorists cannot defeat our coalition on the battlefield; they can only win if we give up or decide the effort is not worth the cost," he wrote. "But if we stay the course, I have no doubt of our ultimate victory."
By Kathleen T. Rhem American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2004 -- Army intelligence officials are working to beef up the amount and quality of intelligence information they get straight from the soldiers who most often interact with the Iraqi and Afghan communities. Working from a concept called "Every Soldier is a Sensor," experts have developed several methods to get information in a usable format directly from foot soldiers into national intelligence databases. Officials described some of these methods in a Pentagon briefing for defense journalists Aug. 5. The first step in the process is to get the best quality information from the source, in most cases individual soldiers who previously had received no training in intelligence collection, explained Lynn Schnurr, director of information management for the Army's intelligence directorate. "If every soldier is a sensor, then they're the ones who are out there on the ground," she said. "They are the ones who are seeing first and understanding first. As they observe, their eyes are on the ground first." When Army leaders realized this through lessons learned in Afghanistan and Iraq, they began sending teams from the Army Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to forward-deployed units to give soldiers pointers on how to be "better observers and reporters of the information they see firsthand," Lt. Col. Steve Iwicki said. Now, all units rotating into Iraq or Afghanistan receive such training before they go into theater, said Iwicki, who is the Army's deputy director for Focus Area Actionable Intelligence. Iwicki's organization is working to transform intelligence practices in future Army units. Soon, all soldiers will receive such training as part of their routine professional-development courses. Army Training and Doctrine Command has signed off on a plan to incorporate these lessons into all basic, noncommissioned officer and officer courses, Iwicki said. "A division commander has about 15,000 sensors on the battlefield when you look at all the soldiers that are out there," he said. "This isn't about intelligence folks. This is about every soldier, whether it's a truck driver, an infantryman, an engineer. They're all out on the battlefield seeing things they need to report and capture that data." The next step in improving intelligence is to get the information straight from the source as soon as possible in a format that can be readily incorporated in national databases for access by analysts. Regular soldiers, and not just intelligence analysts, will soon have a hand in this step as well. Officials are working to expedite fielding of a new device called the Commander's Digital Assistant, a personal digital assistant, or PDA, in a rugged shell that allows individuals to fill in the blanks in preprogrammed reports. The data is then instantly conveyed via satellite to higher headquarters in a format that can be accessed immediately by analysts. "How do we get (the data) into a capability that it can be quickly passed up through the echelons for the division commander, for example, to make a determination of whether he wants to conduct a raid or not?" Schnurr said. "The only way to do that is to make sure that we digitize it at the point of origin andcommunicate it up through the echelons so that it can be analyzed." This allows access to the information much quicker than waiting for the soldiers to return from patrol and be debriefed by an intelligence team. It also provides for better quality information, Iwicki said, because the soldiers are relaying observations while events are fresh in their minds, not hours or days later. Schnurr explained the device is scheduled to be field tested later this month, and officials hope to send 1,000 of them to Iraq and Afghanistan starting in October. Software tools being used in the Information Dominance Center at the Army's Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., are making it possible to forgo filters analysts have historically relied upon to cut data into manageable amounts. Iwicki used the analogy of someone using an Internet search engine to explain how analysts used filters on data. He said if an individual did an Internet search and got back 47,000 sites, the user would refine the search and try again and keep refining the search until reaching a reasonable number of sites. With new software advances, all collected data is available and the programs mine the data for connections and links that are then made available in a visual format for the analyst to study. At one time in the not-too-distant past, Iwicki said, an analyst took two full years to compile a detailed, linked diagram of terrorist contacts. But by the time the diagram was completed, much of the data was obsolete and other data was available, Iwicki said. Today, computer programs can compile a more complete diagram using all available information in about three minutes, he said. "We have some tools now (in which) you can dynamically build that basically on the fly at a much greater level of detail," he said. "That allows the analyst to focus in now on other relationships they may not have caught earlier or other things like that (and allows) them to really pull the relevant information forward." "We're dealing with billions of bits of information daily," Schnurr said. "So how do you handle that? You have to put analytical tools in the hands of the intelligence analysts there so that they can do their jobs better."
By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, July 27, 2004 Osama bin Laden and other terrorists are using Islam as a means to usurp power for themselves, an Egyptian anti-terror specialist noted here July 26. "These people have a political goal they want to achieve, and they are just misusing religion and misinterpreting (Islam) to do it," an Egyptian Army major said during a break from attending anti-terrorism briefings at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. The major was taking part in a field trip to Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., with about 60 other international students in a five-week Program on Terrorism and Security Studies course sponsored by the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany. The center's mission, according to its Web site, is "to create a more stable security environment by advancing democratic institutions and relationships, especially in the field of defense; promoting active, peaceful security cooperation; and enhancing enduring partnerships among the nations of North America, Europe and Eurasia." The center opened in June 1993. After attending classes in Germany, the students traveled to the United States for three days of anti-terrorism briefings provided by the State, Homeland Security and Defense departments, the FBI, and other government agencies, explained course director Nick Pratt. The class, he noted, is slated to go back to Germany for graduation July 30. The major, whose name isn't for security reasons, believes bin Laden's influence has waned since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, with the al Qaeda leader now boxed in somewhere near the Afghan-Pakistani border. "I think bin Laden's days are over," he noted, however adding that Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi's power is "growing." The major said both U.S. and Middle Eastern television networks and newspapers may not be producing balanced coverage of the war on global terrorism, noting the media's tendency to sensationalize in order to attract audiences. "What bleeds, it leads," he pointed out. The major reiterated that the type of Islam professed by bin Laden and Zarqawi "is not true," and asked Americans not to "judge a whole religion" by the actions of ruthless terrorists. "That's not what Islam is," he insisted, "and that's not what Muslims believe." The major had high marks for the PTSS course, noting students from around the world are exchanging their opinions about what terrorism is and how to combat it. "It's really nice to know how other people think about the problem and how they attack it," he pointed out, adding he's also gathering a list of contacts for the future. Another PTSS student, Lauri Lugna, a government civilian security policy adviser from Estonia, also had kudos for the course. "It's a great course," he said, noting the curriculum covers the definition of terrorism, how it occurs, how it is financed, and more. Lugna applauded the course's global approach in addressing the current terrorism threat. Yet, he added, it's also important to look ahead for other challenges. "What are going to be our troubles in 2014, in addition to terrorism?" Lugna asked. The Estonian said he "learned a lot" from the course and would take that knowledge back home with him. "It gives me new perspectives to the counterterrorism fight," Lugna explained, "and to the terrorism phenomena." Pratt, a retired Marine colonel, and another Marshall Center employee, Mike Schmitt, originated the idea of establishing the PTSS course after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. This PTSS class, the first, includes European-based counterterrorism experts like Lugna, Pratt pointed out, as well as specialists from the Arab world, like the Egyptian major, and students from Peru and South Africa. "The gentleman from Peru has been involved in counterterrorism and teaching it for over a decade," Pratt explained, while the South African has specialized in anti-terrorism "all of his career." The PTSS course, Pratt said, provides its students with an understanding of the origins and goals of today's global terrorism, while providing an introduction to anti-terror specialists from other countries. The students, he continued, also learn about international terrorist organizations that want "to get a hold of weapons of mass destruction" and have the ability to mount global attacks. "The class has come to an appreciation that this is a very, very dangerous adversary," Pratt pointed out. Like the Egyptian major, Pratt believes that Islam "has been hijacked by a very, very small minority of people" who "are militant, fundamentalist, radical Muslims." One key to confronting this global terrorist threat is getting moderate Muslim leaders and teachers "to go after the problem," Pratt noted. "And that's happening now," he concluded. (1) (3) (4) (5)
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