Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan

On Jan. 4, 2010 the Center for a New American Security released a report entitled "Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan" which examines the relevance of the U.S. intelligence community to the counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.  The report argues "that because the United States has focused the overwhelming majority of collection efforts and analytical brainpower on insurgent groups, the intelligence apparatus still finds itself unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which U.S. and allied forces operate in and the people they are trying to protect and persuade."  The authors, Major General Michael T. Flynn, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence in Afghanistan, his advisor Captain Matt Pottinger, and Paul Batchelor, Senior Advisor for Civilian/Military Integrations at ISAF, recommend "sweeping changes to the way the intelligence community thinks about itself – from a focus on the enemy to a focus on the people of Afghanistan."