Comments on Zarqawi's Laptop Dan Darling at Winds of Change has some interesting snippets on what was found in Zarqawi's captured l...
Comments on Zarqawi's Laptop
Dan
Darling at Winds of Change has some interesting snippets on what was found
in Zarqawi's captured laptop. Some of Dan's comments are:
- I've heard there's a fair amount of porn. Now that could be
disinformation, but given all the drugs, beer bottles, and the like that
were found among the Pious Mujahideen™ in Fallujah I'm certainly not
going to dismiss it off-hand.
- There's information on his medical condition, so we may finally get an
answer on the issue of how many legs he has and what not.
- There is at least some record of the correspondence between him and bin
Laden. Basically, bin Laden gives him a broad outline as far as strategy
is concerned and Zarqawi is in charge of implementing the tactical aspects
of his plan together with his lieutenants and allies, such as the
Baathists.
Dan says the laptop has been in US possession for some time but that the
information has been kept from the press until now. This was indirectly
corroborated by an International
Herald Tribune report on raids resulting from information found in the
laptop.
Using leads found on the computer, troops have taken into custody several
suspected associates of Zarqawi in the past two months and have raided
at least one location in Iraq where bomb-making materials were found, a
Defense Department official said. A senior Pentagon official said, "It's
been very valuable information."
The UAV-intel analysis -action loop implicit in the actions which nearly
captured Zarqawi speak volumes about much tighter the link between intelligence
and operations has become. According to the Daily
Telegraph:
Following a tip off from inside the Zarqawi network about the meeting,
members of the task force were waiting around Ramadi and Predator drones
monitored the region from the air, the report said. The senior military
official said that just before the meeting, troops pulled a car over as it
approached a checkpoint and at the same time a pickup truck about a kilometre
behind quickly turned in the opposite direction. The US believe the militant
leader was in the truck.
"Zarqawi always has someone check the waters," the official was
quoted as saying. US teams began a chase, but when the truck was pulled over
Zarqawi was not inside. The senior military official said they had since
learned that Zarqawi jumped out when the vehicle passed beneath a bridge and
hid before running to a safe house in Ramadi.
The exploitation of the intelligence must have followed the broad outlines
described in the post Spy
Vs. Spy where DIA Strategic Support Teams prosecuted targets immediately in
order to yield more information. It is this marriage between intel gathering and
operations which makes it possible to go after elusive and mobile targets like
Zarqawi.
Just three comments on this incident. First, there's more stuff on that laptop
hard drive than Zarqawi can ever remmber putting there. Second, the US needs a
lower flying slower UAV than the Predator (whose minimum speed is about 80
knots) to track evading individuals in urban terrain. Some of the micro-UAVs
under development might have pursued him under the bridge had they been
available. Third, compare this incident to Curveball.
COMMENTS