Center for a New American Security

Londonstani is still processing the news that the suicide bomber who killed the CIA officers in Khost was a Jordanian double agent working for the Pakistani Taliban.

Apart from reading like the backcover of a Fredrick Forsyth novel, this illustrates the point of the CNAS report AM posted in the previous entry.

The former official said that the fact that militants could carry out a successful attack using a double agent showed their strength even after a steady barrage of missile strikes fired by C.I.A. drone aircraft.

“Double agent operations are really complex,” he said. “The fact that they can pull this off shows that they are not really on the run. They have the ability to kick back and think about these things.”

This isn't even the Afghan Taliban, its the Pakistani Taliban. They are supposed to be getting hammered by the Pakistani army.

War among the people shares much in common with the everyday fight of police officers against gangs and narcotics.

For those who wish a good, brief view of Social Network Analysis (Appendix B: FM 3-24), I highly recommend American Gangster as a good way to appreciate how to use the tool.

Sit down with key personnel from your platoon, company, or battalion and walk through the movie, diagramming, as does the main protagonist, the overlapping gang and family networks as well as the infiltration into the police department. You see by the end of the movie just how important understanding those networks is and the unparalleled value of human intelligence.