ABSTRACT
Now that we have examined how to use the intelligence process to link previously collected biometrics with intelligence information, to develop profiles/dossiers of threat personalities or other persons of interest (PoIs), and to add those individuals assessed as posing the greatest threat to a biometrically enabled watchlist, how can we use this fusion of biometrics and intelligence? In a combat operation, the principal use of biometrics will likely be to identify the enemy and his supporters. Using biometrics to support offensive operations-from targeted operations, like kill/ capture raids, to operations that support control of an area of operations through population management activities-helps ensure that we focus our often limited resources in ways that maximize their utility while helping to avoid unnecessary negative consequences. You don’t have to be a bleeding heart to realize that killing or capturing the wrong people not only wastes our resources (bullets, bombs, soldiers, facilities, and time), but also often alienates the local populace. This alienation can result in a range of negative reactions from the absence of human intelligence reporting to the generation of a cycle of retaliatory violence by the relatives or friends of those affected by our operations. This was certainly the case in the early days of the Iraq war when U.S. forces often seemed to simply vacuum up all the military-aged males in a particular village during operations and then tried to sort them out in overcrowded and poorly managed detention facilities like the infamous Abu Ghraib.
