CENTCOM

The head of the U.S. military’s Central Command says more U.S. troops will be needed on the ground in Afghanistan in the fight against the Taliban and other forces. General Joseph Votel told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on March 9 that he thinks “it will involve additional forces to ensure that we can […]

President Donald Trump made his first official appearance before the U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, on Monday, and he used the opportunity to let America’s military know that his administration sees the nation’s armed forces, and its ongoing fight against terror, as its number one priority. “We are going to be taking care of our great […]

The Pentagon released video clips from 10-year-old Al Qaeda propaganda on Friday to justify the weekend raid by Navy SEAL Team 6 in Yemen in which “almost everything went wrong.” US Central Command uploaded video it said was seized from a computer during the operation, which featured a masked man teaching “would-be terrorists” how to […]

The US Central Command announced today that a U-2 ‘Dragon Lady’ high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, piloted by Major Ryan reached 30,000 hours of flight time in support of CENTCOM operations. “It takes a lot of people to launch and recover a jet and to keep this going,” Ryan said. “It’s always been my […]

ISIS, or the Islamic State, has had a fair amount of success spreading their message and recruiting people through social media—a task that is far more challenging than many might consider. Think about the level of effort and expertise McDonald’s uses to engage millennials in the digital sphere, and despite a marketing budget that would […]

KABUL—The U.S. Air Force dramatically increased the number of airstrikes it carried out in Afghanistan in 2016, data released by the military shows, a further sign of growing U.S. involvement in the war following the withdrawal of most coalition troops two years ago. The increased engagement follows the U.S.’s decision last year to widen the […]

Editor’s Note: The North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco was developed back in the 1960s specifically for counter-insurgency (COIN) operations, and another one of its primary missions was flying Forward Air Control-Airborne (FAC-A). The airplane can carry up to three tons of external munitions and is able to stay on station for over three hours. A […]

Reports have emerged claiming that a veteran spy has handed over information to the FBI alleging a Russian operation to cultivate Donald Trump. There isn’t a lot of authority behind this claim and media development. But is there a direct connection, relationship, between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump? Probably not. Trump’s connection to Putin may […]

The Islamic State relies on religious precedence to absolve responsibility for the individual and group. As such, they’re finding authority to run from the battle. Nearly everything that the Islamic State does, in their view, has some kind of canonical precedent. They wish to create their own currency, based on the Quranic meaning of currency, […]

Why is this important? The intelligence community deals with such a large amount of data, you can’t always assume people who have the “need to know,” and who should have access to the data, have seen all of the available information on any topic. The challenge of the intelligence professional is to rapidly sort through all of the data in order to develop usable intelligence analysis, enabling decision makers and warfighters to make informed decisions. Depending on the scenario, these decisions sometimes have to be made within minutes. Sometimes seconds.

Think of someone shoving you into a room filled with thousands of puzzle pieces, and then telling you to put it together in a few hours.

Last week, the Daily Beast reported, fifty CENTCOM intelligence analysts filed a formal complaint with the inspector general after they felt like their reports were being altered by senior officials in order to downplay the strength and capabilities of ISIS and al Qaeda. The article alleges, that the senior officials, to include the director of intelligence and […]

CENTCOM established an intelligence “fusion center,” a specially equipped JIC facility staffed around-the-clock, to serve as a “focal point” for Daesh-related intelligence. Interviewees recalled only informal communications noting the center’s establishment, and some were also uncertain about the center’s organizational structure, responsibilities, and how it was determined which JIC analysts would participate.