ABSTRACT
Introduction In late 2008, a U.S. Army commander in Iraq planned and ordered a combat operation based o‰ intelligence that suggested the possible location of a known Shiite militant.1 To the assigned combat patrol, this action was a seemingly typical combat operation. As on most other days, the soldiers planned and rehearsed how they would storm the target location based on maps and digital imagery intercepted from Predator drones. Œe patrol traveled to the suspected location, stormed the building, and neutralized the target without signi‚cant resistance. After the soldiers subdued, disarmed, and tied up the insurgent, they searched his person and immediate surroundings for anything that could possibly yield actionable intelligence for future combat operations. Among other things, the soldiers found and cataloged a laptop computer.
