HUMINT

The Defeat of ISIL and the Revival of Humint

In the wake of the Paris attacks of Nov. 13 and new threats from the ISIL of further attacks in other major cities in Europe and the United States, there is only one option for preventing future massacres. Yes, there is now worldwide agreement for a serious military campaign inside Syria and Iraq to wipe out the command center of what has now become a global “blind terrorist” threat. 

However, the new mode of attack by ISIL and allied groups, evidenced in the Paris attacks, the suicide bombings in southern Beirut and the blowing up of the Russian Metro Jet over the Sinai, is no longer primarily confined to the territory of the so-called caliphate along the Iraqi-Syrian border. So long as ISIL and other jihadist groups are going after “soft” targets in major metropolitan areas, and are prepared to die in the course of the attacks, they will succeed in a significant percentage of actions—unless there is a serious revival of the kind of constant, in-depth human intelligence (humint) work, involving law enforcement, intelligence and military services. In the aftermath of the Paris attack, this is the great new challenge facing governments around the world.