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(S//SI) Forward Production at NCEUR -- Inside the Customers'
Decision Space
FROM:
Customer Account Manager for EUCOM (S112) and
NCEUR staff
Unknown
Run Date: 01/14/2005
Analytic team working at NSA/CSS Europe; success story with Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)
(S//SI)
(S//SI) In early 2003, NSA/CSS Europe (NCEUR) and the Geospatial Exploitation and
Counterterrorism Product Lines initiated a Forward Production effort (at NCEUR) to support our
national goals and strategy in North Africa. Among those goals was to enable African
governments to police their own borders, sustain or enhance stability, and make it clear that
their countries were an environment hostile to terrorist organizations and their supporters.
(S//SI) This small investment of five-to-six analysts has provided a significant return: Forward
Production and headquarters analysts* were able to report the predicted movement of terrorists
operating across Mali, Niger, and Algeria. EUCOM Senior Staff and U.S. Ambassadors in the
region used this information to engage and enable regional governments to conduct successful
counterterrorism operations. Intelligence generated by this Forward Production-NSAW
partnership has been responsible for the capture or kill of over 40 terrorists and has helped
achieve GWOT and regional policy successes in Africa.
(S//SI) While based on the skills of the forward-deployed analysts as supported by NSA HQ, two
other overarching factors contributed to the effort's success. These factors are:
collocation with the primary regional implementer or action arm of the US Government as
well as supporting elements, and
an aggressive effort to release SIGINT to foreign governments supporting truly nontraditional customers (e.g., governments in Algeria, Mali, and Mauritania).
(S//SI) Forward Production's effectiveness is based on collocation and integration with
operational planners and teaming with all-source customers and partners. This allows Forward
Production analysts to better anticipate requirements, to provide better-tailored products and
services, to better operate in the customers' decision cycle, and to better understand customer
needs.
(S//SI) As the title of DIRgram-337 states "It's About Relating, Not Disseminating" and NCEUR
forward-deployed analysts as "our expeditionary force inside our customers' information
space..." are better enabling CT operations and reaching analytic conclusions not otherwise
possible. The Forward Production cell at NCEUR is serving as a model for operational partnering
and analytic collaboration within the customer's environment.
(S//SI) This Forward Production model will be implemented on an industrial scale when the
European Security Center (ESC) in Darmstadt, Germany, becomes fully operational. The ESC is
the realization of a significant investment by US Army Europe (USAREUR) and Intelligence and
Security Command (INSCOM) to perform SIGINT analysis and production against national,
theater, and tactical requirements within the customer domain. (See related story .)
Notes:
* (S//SI) Extended enterprise and HQ communities of the GEO, CT, Regional Targets, and Middle
East North Africa product lines collaborated on this target.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108