Interview: The guru's assistant

摘要

I would like to tweak your question with a slight modification because I don't want to say that it's solved. We learn things, adapt and overcome and then perhaps that problem doesn't present itself any longer. I don't know if you've solved the problem but you've contained the issue. I'm going to give you [an example] of success. I am a big proponent of distributed operations [because] you don't have as many people forward. You are going to reduce cost but you likewise must invest in data-link architectures, comm architectures, and tactics, techniques and procedures to ensure that information is to the right decision-maker at the right time. What am I talking about? How we took down [al-Qaida's Abu Musab al-] Zarqawi. Thousands of all-source analyst hours went into the databases stateside, and some forward, to look at patterns-of-life analysis. [Analysts] scrubbed imagery, full-motion video files, signals intelligence databases, to see: Could we find pattern of life? Once that happened, there was a Predator on orbit to ensure we could track that HVT [high value target]. That Predator was forward, but the crew that was flying that Predator was not forward. They were at Creech Air Force Base [Nev.].