Making Intelligence Work: A Call to Reform and Re-organize the Afghan Intelligence Community
Tamim Asey
To win this war we need good intelligence. Right now, we are throwing our swords in darkness. Those were the words of an Afghan colonel I met in Farah province one year ago as a part of my visits to various army corps. I thought it the best single sentence I have ever heard - it succinctly defined success or failure in the Afghan war.
The geography and politics of Afghanistan are intertwined with intelligence and intelligence work. The dispatch of envoys and emissaries of the British Raj and the court of Russian czar were all part of influence and counter-influence operations; dissidents from the Russian, British and Persian empires sought refuge in Afghanistan and Alexander the Great to Timur the Lame and Hitler’s Gestapo sent delegations to use Afghanistan as corridors to infiltrate and challenge each other’s spheres of influence - either in India or the Khanates of Central Asia - to carry out sabotage and subversive activities. In between - Afghans were mere beneficiaries at best - and victims of these tournaments of shadows at worst. This history has made Afghans resilient survivors of treacherous games and schemes - but poor intelligence players. Now is the time to lay a strong foundation and reform the Afghan intelligence apparatus.
http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/making-intelligence-work-call-reform-and-re-organize-afghan-intelligence-community
