while keeping up with classwork.
Because I retired from the Army as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (DCSINT), a position that involves access to some of the nation's most highly classified information, I am legally prohibited from discussing many details of my work. As with other organizations in the U.S. Intelligence community, current and former members of Army intelligence do not reveal the sources, methods, procedures, or targets of their operations. So any description of my work as an Army intelligence officer is based on unclassified sources. The basics I learned about Military Intelligence at Fort Huachuca have certainly evolved in the last twenty-five years, but have retained many of their past features.
The elements of Military Intelligence I studied in the Advance Course initially seemed rather complex, but I soon learned them thoroughly. Military Intelligence is a highly structured discipline, not to be confused with the romanticized cloak-and-dagger view of civilian espionage made popular in spy novels. As I told Sandra McElwaine when she interviewed me for
USA Today Magazine,
“I am no Mata Hari.”
The major formal disciplines of the branch are Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Counterintelligence (CI), Imagery Intelligence (IMINT), and Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT). The combat arms also rely on Long-range Surveillance and Scouts and Calvary units for battlefield reconnaissance. Electronic Warfare (EW) and Information Operations (IO) are not Intelligence disciplines, but are often supported by MI operations.
My specialty was cryptology or Signals Intelligence. SIGINT is information we derive from monitoring and locating enemy communications and noncommunications electronic systems. Radios and radars are the most common examples. We call intelligence derived from monitoring enemy communications— such as voice transmissions, Morse code, teletypewriter, or digital data—“communications intelligence.” The information we obtain from monitoring enemy noncommunications emitters, including radars, transponders, and radio beacons, is called “electronic intelligence.” Since the modern battlefield is a virtual electromagnetic blizzard, with units from the squad level up emitting all manner of signals across the spectrum, SIGINT becomes an extremely important asset for the war-fighting commander in identifying the enemy forces arrayed against him.
The subspecialty of signal security is an invaluable tool in protecting friendly forces from equally effective electronic surveillance by the enemy. (In the Army of the future, which is currently under development, every soldier on the battlefield will be equipped to send and receive information about themselves and the enemy across this electronic spectrum.) The demanding, often arcane, but vital military specialty of SIGINT would occupy much of my professional life.
Human Intelligence is probably most familiar to people outside the military. HUMINT involves the interrogation of enemy prisoners of war, civilian detainees, and refugees, as well as translating captured documents, to learn the composition of enemy forces, their intentions and morale. The discipline requires some to be skillful linguists with an excellent sense of the adversary's culture.
Counterintelligence protects American forces by evaluating the enemy's total intelligence-gathering capabilities. CI detects, evaluates, and prevents enemy intelligence collection and sabotage. When needed, CI specialists can mount effective deception programs to mask our military operations.
As the name implies, Imagery Intelligence acquires and exploits visual representations of the battlefield that reveal the deployment of forces, aids weapons targeting, and produces more effective battle damage assessment so that targets that are already destroyed are not shelled or bombed unnecessarily. Modern IMINT systems cut across the spectrum and include infrared and
Because I retired from the Army as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (DCSINT), a position that involves access to some of the nation's most highly classified information, I am legally prohibited from discussing many details of my work. As with other organizations in the U.S. Intelligence community, current and former members of Army intelligence do not reveal the sources, methods, procedures, or targets of their operations. So any description of my work as an Army intelligence officer is based on unclassified sources. The basics I learned about Military Intelligence at Fort Huachuca have certainly evolved in the last twenty-five years, but have retained many of their past features.
The elements of Military Intelligence I studied in the Advance Course initially seemed rather complex, but I soon learned them thoroughly. Military Intelligence is a highly structured discipline, not to be confused with the romanticized cloak-and-dagger view of civilian espionage made popular in spy novels. As I told Sandra McElwaine when she interviewed me for
USA Today Magazine,
“I am no Mata Hari.”
The major formal disciplines of the branch are Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Counterintelligence (CI), Imagery Intelligence (IMINT), and Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT). The combat arms also rely on Long-range Surveillance and Scouts and Calvary units for battlefield reconnaissance. Electronic Warfare (EW) and Information Operations (IO) are not Intelligence disciplines, but are often supported by MI operations.
My specialty was cryptology or Signals Intelligence. SIGINT is information we derive from monitoring and locating enemy communications and noncommunications electronic systems. Radios and radars are the most common examples. We call intelligence derived from monitoring enemy communications— such as voice transmissions, Morse code, teletypewriter, or digital data—“communications intelligence.” The information we obtain from monitoring enemy noncommunications emitters, including radars, transponders, and radio beacons, is called “electronic intelligence.” Since the modern battlefield is a virtual electromagnetic blizzard, with units from the squad level up emitting all manner of signals across the spectrum, SIGINT becomes an extremely important asset for the war-fighting commander in identifying the enemy forces arrayed against him.
The subspecialty of signal security is an invaluable tool in protecting friendly forces from equally effective electronic surveillance by the enemy. (In the Army of the future, which is currently under development, every soldier on the battlefield will be equipped to send and receive information about themselves and the enemy across this electronic spectrum.) The demanding, often arcane, but vital military specialty of SIGINT would occupy much of my professional life.
Human Intelligence is probably most familiar to people outside the military. HUMINT involves the interrogation of enemy prisoners of war, civilian detainees, and refugees, as well as translating captured documents, to learn the composition of enemy forces, their intentions and morale. The discipline requires some to be skillful linguists with an excellent sense of the adversary's culture.
Counterintelligence protects American forces by evaluating the enemy's total intelligence-gathering capabilities. CI detects, evaluates, and prevents enemy intelligence collection and sabotage. When needed, CI specialists can mount effective deception programs to mask our military operations.
As the name implies, Imagery Intelligence acquires and exploits visual representations of the battlefield that reveal the deployment of forces, aids weapons targeting, and produces more effective battle damage assessment so that targets that are already destroyed are not shelled or bombed unnecessarily. Modern IMINT systems cut across the spectrum and include infrared and
Similar Books
