CF and HUMINT: "Guys, honestly: Why even bother having a defence critic?"
Colby Cosh discusses a shocking CBC revelation:
The necessity of HUMINT
CBC News scored a fascinating coup on Monday when it disclosed the existence of a dedicated Canadian human intelligence (HUMINT) unit in Afghanistan-- one, according to Brigadier-General Denis Thompson, that has existed in the combat theatre "essentially" since the commencement of hostilities. According to documents obtained by the network, the Canadian Forces (CF) will spend $27-million on equipment for the unit over the next three years.
Unfortunately, the new information in the CBC's story was handled in the usual slightly tone-deaf manner with which civilian reporters treat military news; making matters worse was a canned response from NDP defence critic Dawn Black, who complained that human intelligence gathering in a war zone "raises all kinds of red flags" (say, what have the New Democrats got against red flags?) and stated, "There's never been a debate in Canada that I am aware of on running an intelligence company out of the Canadian Forces."
Guys, honestly:Why even bother having a defence critic?
That scary acronym HUMINT is, in truth, nothing more that mil-speak for any relevant knowledge gathered by an army directly from human sources. Other types include signals intelligence (SIGINT), obtained by intercepting and decrypting the enemy's (or someone else's) information transmissions, and imagery intelligence (IMINT), which comes from the study of photographs taken from the air or space. It is not news that the CF has been trying to strengthen its HUMINT-gathering capacity for years; indeed, it has been openly recruiting bright, curious soldiers for the purpose...
Tips and reports from Afghan civilians opposed to the Taliban must be stored in a way that makes them available for retrieval, rated for reliability and plausibility and turned into memoranda for the timely use of soldiers and staff. The toughest task of all is linking multiple fragments of intelligence together so that they combine into a trustworthy picture of, say, the location of a bomb factory or the date of an attack. Military software developers have been putting a great deal of effort into applying artificial intelligence to HUMINT gathering: arming computers with natural-language recognition abilities would help them navigate databases and put up flags when pieces of evidence point in a common direction.
It is absurd to demand a "debate" on whether a fighting force abroad should have a HUMINT apparatus; it would be exactly like debating whether it should carry ammunition [emphasis added]. And the existence of such an apparatus can only raise "red flags" in the eyes of a person who has never devoted a moment's thought or study to how armies fight.
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 10:22 a.m.
5 Comments:
Ms. Black's statement that "There's never been a debate in Canada that I am aware of on running an intelligence company out of the Canadian Forces." may in fact be accurate. The debate (not that there was much debate required) and need was established and put into practice well before she was born. http://www.intbranch.org/history.html
The current version on the Intel Branch celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.
Apparently Ms. Black is the best the NDP can do. A search of parliamentary records shown a grand total of 0 members of her caucus with any military service. I guess that's equivalent to their level of expertise on the topic.
A search of parliamentary records shown a grand total of 0 members of her caucus with any military service.
You missed Bill Blaikie, who apparently "served in The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada from 1967 to 1972," according to his wikipedia page.
Of course, he's announced he's not running again, so the minimal expertise in the NDP caucus will soon be reduced even further.
I stand corrected.
The parliamentary search drew zero when I includeded "New Democratic Party" as a search variable.
Leaving party affiliation blank shows two Dippers with military service. The other was Wayne Marston, who was an "Apprentice Sapper" from 1963 to 1964.
Looks Like Mr. Blaikie 's 1972 service is a recent as the NDP experience gets.
When it comes to military service, it's slim pickings throughout the House of Commons, Gord, but the NDP is particularly weak.
Using NDP and military in the same sentence is a complete oxymoron. I have been 'blessed' by growing up in a rabidly CCF/NDP family. One of my uncles was even a 'back-seater' in an Avenger that flew off the decks of Canada's last aircraft carrier. Even with that kind of history, he was adamant that Canada didn't need a military at all! I was dumbfounded by his statement.
On my dad's side of the family, two uncles that were Vets. One fought in Korea, the other as a Submariner in the U.S. Navy. Luckily, neither of those two caught the 'disease' of socialism.
There will never be any hope for the NDP on foreign policy. They have neither the depth, nor critical thinking skills to manage in the real-world of international relations. I am sure their inability on that portfolio is because they don't think themselves capable of ever having to actually deal with it.
Let's pray they never have to.
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