Source Operations at Company Level
Abstract
Recent developments in Army intelligence collection have emphasized pushing source operations to the lowest levels. The primary reason for this is that Soldiers who are out on patrol everyday are closest to the local population and most familiar with local leaders and personalities. Human intelligence (HUMINT) is unique because only HUMINT allows the specialist to answer intangible questions that cannot be collected by the Army's superior technological assets. However, HUMINT is also one of the hardest to effectively gather. A skilled HUMINT specialist is required to tell if the source is lying or fabricating the information that is being given or if the source has ulterior motives for divulging information. It is for this reason that a "weeding out" process needs to be executed by the companies before possible sources are forwarded up for use by source operations specialists. A Tactical Source Evaluation Team, or T-SET, would perform this task and would be task organized down to the line company level. The company would be trained in a simple method for assessing source usefulness before bringing that name to the T-SET. The T-SET would consist of one O1, one WO1, and an E6. The officer would be responsible for training the companies and coordinating with the S2 on source evaluations. The WO1 would be the lead on HUMINT and would be in command when the T-SET evaluated a potential source. The E6 would also be source qualified and would have the main responsibilities of assisting the officer with paperwork and accompanying the WO1 on evaluations. Once the Soldiers have identified a person they think would be a good source, they debrief the T-SET when they return from patrol. The T-SET checks any previous reports on the person to be assessed for both Accuracy and Importance of prior information. If the potential source is deemed trustworthy, the T-SET will accompany the Soldiers on their next patrol and evaluate the source for Accessibility.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA494915
Entities
People
- Joshua Carlson