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Subject:
The Combat Detectives of Iraq
James Dunnigan
2/15/2005 1:20:32 AM
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In Iraq, military intelligence specialists have been eagerly investigating how
police in the United States investigate, and identify criminal gangs back home.
That?s because the enemy in Iraq typically belongs to a criminal, or terrorist
group, that operates like a gang. There are cultural differences, and dealing
with these quirks causes the most problems. On the positive side, there is a
large industry in the United States that supplies special software to police
departments, for handling investigations. This stuff is basically database
software with formats and analysis abilities tweaked to assist police
investigations. These programs have been revolutionizing detective work over the
last two decades. It took a few months, after the invasion, for the intel
people in Iraq to become aware of this software, and they were helped greatly by
reservists who were police commanders or detectives in their civilian
jobs.
It was discovered that the ?gangs of Iraq? operated in a similar
fashion to ethnic gangs (including Arab ones) in the United States and Europe.
Thus genealogical software came in handy, as did new cell phone tracking and
bugging software and equipment. Regular (land-line) phones are unreliable in
Iraq, and the new cell phones services are more popular. Even when they
discovered how easy it was to track cell phones, many Iraqi gangsters and
anti-government fighters refused to give them up. The genealogy software is
useful in tracking the relations between family members in gangs. Many gangs are
basically family based, with many distant cousins coming together because of
family loyalty.
Terrorist attacks are treated like serial criminals.
This type of criminal behavior is most widely known when it is murder. But there
are many kinds of serial crime, and U.S. intel specialists found that attacks on
Iraqi police and U.S. troops was, in most cases, just another serial crime. The
perpetrators would often follow a pattern, one that the software could pick out.
One thing leads to another, and arrests often result. DNA analysis and all the
tools you see on CSI, are brought to bear. It?s no accident that the 4th
Infantry Division captured Saddam Hussein. The 4th Infantry is the most high
tech outfit in the army, with more geeks per battalion than any other combat
organization.
Financial auditing and tracking assets also proved useful.
Much of the violence in Iraq is financed by billions of dollars Saddam and his
cronies stole. Over a billion dollars of that money, in U.S. currency, was
discovered right after Saddam fell. There is a parallel effort to create Arabic
interfaces for a lot of this software, so the Iraqi police can use it as
well.
There are a lot of new electronic tools being put to use. Cheap
video cameras, especially those equipped with software that can identify some of
what the camera sees, have been very useful. Many of these cameras have
night-vision capability, and have caught a lot of the bad guys sneaking around,
in what they thought was under the cover of darkness. These cameras have proved
useful at checkpoints, providing a record of what went on, and a way to quickly
refute charges that civilians were abused when they were stopped.
The
computerized intel records also make it easier to get replacement troops up to
speed quickly. This process begins before the new intel units arrive, as copies
of databases can be transmitted back to the United States, and video conferences
or chat room sessions held to discuss the data, and the current situation in
Iraq. Thus the intelligence effort continues relentlessly, even with the
American troops being replaced every year.
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