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(U) Field Station Rattler
FROM: CW5 Wally Price
SIGINT Director Special Assistant
Run Date: 04/05/2005
(C) On 1 April, the SID team with MG Quirk traveled to the
International Zone, which is an area of Baghdad formerly known as
the Green Zone. This area of the city has a great concentration of
US personnel as well as other high-level organizations and
representatives of Iraq and other nations. It is a key sector of the
city, and has been identified by the CJSOTF-AP as an important
locus in the battle with the insurgency.
(C) While there, we visited the embassy, and met with several
high-level officials, including Ambassador Jeffrey, the Baghdad
Chief of Station, Brigadier General Kett, British Army and Deputy
C2 for MNFI, and Brig Gen Select Allston, USAF, Deputy Chief of
Staff STRATCOM. These gentlemen are all enthusiastic customers
of SIGINT analysis and reporting, and passed along their
impressions of the issues of greatest importance for national
decision-makers and for progress in the democratization of Iraq,
many of which have been shared with you in notes from MG Quirk
and others on this trip. Suffice it to say that their interest and
concerns focus on defeating the insurgency and improving security,
personified by the hunt for Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
(S//SI) We also had the opportunity to meet and talk with teams
from Data Acquisition, FAD, and RAD, all of whom are engaged in
work to improve the SIGINT system in Iraq, and to help build a
competent domestic Iraqi SIGINT organization. In the afternoon,
we left the relatively plush surroundings of the embassy and
environs to meet with another, perhaps somewhat less flashy,
element of the global SIGINT system.
(U//FOUO) Headquartered at a building dubbed the "No Heads
Palace" (so-named because it had been framed by four huge busts
of Saddam Hussein, all destroyed), the 4th Brigade Combat Team
(4 BCT) of the 3d Infantry Division is tasked with patrolling and
defending the International Zone, and defeating elements of the
insurgency encountered in its AO (Area of Operations).
(S) Arriving at the "No Heads Palace," the team found itself huffing
and puffing climbing eight flights of dusty, cracked marble stairs in
full "battle rattle" (helmet, body armor and weapons). Coming up
to a SCIF'd area at the top of the building, we entered the world of
a tactical SIGINT site. Outside the site, someone has scrawled the
title "Field Station Rattler."
(S) 4 BCT is an example of the Army's modular "Unit of Action"
that it is trying to develop while fighting a war. It is one of four
brigades controlled by 3d Infantry Division. The brigade is served
by a SIGINT platoon led by
, and
. The platoon
operates a PROPHET HAMMER system with ONE ROOF server, and
target high-powered cordless phone (HPCP) targets in their local
area, as well as GSM targets forwarded to their unit's ONE ROOF
server. The platoon has six Arabic linguist operators-collectors, all
SERIES:
(U) SID Leadership '05
TDY to CENTCOM AOR
1. MGQ's Notes from
the Field - Part 1
2. Field Station Rattler
3. Hello from Iraq!
4. MG Q Iraq Theater
TDY: Day 3, April1,
2005
5. The Art of Sharing:
Insight and
Continuity
6. MGQ's Notes from
the Field - Part 2
7. MGQ's Notes from
the Field - Part 3
8. Summing Up the Trip
9. The Trip in Photos
10. Seeing into the
Global SIGINT
System - A View
from the Field
TSSI/TK-cleared soldiers, so they have the ability to shift effort
from HPCP, to GSM, or to whatever other target they need to work.
(S//SI) Thanks to DIRNSA's tactical initiatives, the platoon has
NSANet connectivity, and operates in concert with counterparts at
COBRA FOCUS/GRSOC. One of the linguists told me that they
routinely seek assistance from Fort Gordon when they get a cut of
traffic that is difficult but they believe to be important. Also, they
receive some support from the CST integrated at 3d Infantry
Division.
(S//SI) The SIGINT platoon has two analysts who have attended
GEO Bootcamp, and should have access to the "big six" national
databases, but unfortunately do not yet have them. It seems there
are some matters in their "Annex P" process that have yet to be
completed before the access will be turned on. In the meantime,
they are definitely feeling the problem of not having access to
those databases. Without that, they are unable to do effective
target development on handsets of interest for their AO. They try
to do some tasking based on "lead" information they derive from
local HUMINT reports, "pocket litter," and confiscated handsets.
(U//FOUO) The soldiers of 4 BCT SIGINT platoon do manage to
provide some local area situational awareness, and they prepare a
periodic summary of activity for the Brigade Commander and the
S2 (Intelligence Officer). They do this after sanitizing all activity to
the SECRET level.
(S) The SIGINTers are operating under very austere conditions;
their SCIF is hot, dusty, and has few accessories beyond a couple
of laptops, some hard copy working aids, and a few maps. But it is
apparent that they are performing their mission as effectively and
professionally as they can. On the small white board over the OIC's
desk, there is a bullet under a task list that reminds them to
complete the "USSID 18 download" for their local training. It is
evident that they are able to maintain their adherance to all the
appropriate policies and guidance because they are "plugged in" to
the global network, and maintain contact and dialogue with some
of their counterparts in CONUS. We take away from our visit the
tasker to help them learn about all the organizations and activities
in CONUS with which they can partner, and to whom they can turn
for support.
(S//SI) At last, as we all circle out on the roof top for a series of
group shots with our team and theirs, one of the soldiers relates to
MG Quirk how the SIGINT Director had visited them in the 3d ID in
Kuwait before the invasion of Iraq. The sergeant told MG Quirk
that he had given them an inspiring speech about their mission,
and how they would be breaking new ground in the targets they
would be pursuing in the coming battle (encrypted voice, frequency
hoppers, etc). He says it was a speech they all remembered. Now
they are back in Iraq, this time fighting a counter-insurgency war,
and again breaking new ground against the personal
communications that are the medium of their new foes.
(S) We leave them, having tried to remind them that they are part
of a wider, global team. But as we all scramble back down the
eight flights of stairs, and load back into our armored transport, we
privately have to admit our admiration for those young SIGINTers
manning "Field Station Rattler" and defending the International
Zone of Baghdad.
"(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