ISIS and Intelligence Collection to Counter its Operations

The group is currently led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who took over from took over Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in April 18, 2010. The group has several operational councils including; Shuria, Sharia, Provincial, Media, Military, Finance, Security and Intelligence, and Religious Affairs council. The group is driven by jihadist ideology which has several aspects including political, economic, and social. The ISIS fights to secure a state. Moreover, the Jihadists have to fight and kill those who are opposed to the Islam and its doctrines. ISIL/ISIS Origin and Leadership The origin of ISIS can be traced back in 1999 when Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, a terrorist organization was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The organization had its operations up to 2004 when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, the then leader of Al Qaeda Network (CNN Library, 2017, para.

Debaathification of military and civil services in Iraq fueled the insurgency against U. S. military deployed in the country (Al-Saiedi & Sissons, 2013, para. The Jihadists have to fight and kill those who are opposed to the religion and its doctrines. This ideology has political, economic and social perspectives goals and objectives. On the social aspect, the ISIS believes in the jihadist ideology and therefore their activities and operations are geared towards spreading the belief to the nonbelievers (Eckman, 2014, para. Political goals include creation of Islamic states and control of regions Bunzel, 2015, p6). Formation of a state would translate into income generation for the group. Training programs ISIS training programs are vast and encompass both religious and paramilitary training. The religious lessons precede everything else in the program.

The religious lessons start immediately after the recruitment (Hassan, 2017, para. d. Communications methods ISIS has incorporated technology to advance its communication methods. S. withdrew her military from Iraqi. However, the ISIS captured these weapons during the various conquests they conducted in Iraq and Syria. There are claims that Saudi Arabia finances and helps ISIS in terms of logistics and therefore some of these weapons are delivered through the country. However, the claims have been denied by the Saudi Authorities (BBC, 2015, para. 22nd day of the months March, May, and July is one of the days marked to bear significance on terror. However, these dates do not hold owing to the fact that there are other attacks that have happened in various places in different dates.

Intelligence Collection State governments around the world have a big role to play in order to gain sufficient intelligence with regards to the groups supply chain and logistics. These are major areas that the U. S. Therefore, the government’s intelligence service units should endeavor to know the exact political goals apart from the formation of the Islamic state. Other goals such as those enshrined in the social perspective are supplementary to the political goals. The religious doctrines taught by the group are majorly a recruiting tool for the group so as to gain the necessary manpower to execute its various plans (Dearden, 2017, para. Through the religious teachings, the organization makes an emotional appeal to the recruits and inspires the zeal and commitment exhibited during its operations (Paine, 2017, para 3).

Some of the mistakes made by the U. There are ways which the organization can change its tactics and techniques to suit the changing environment. On the other hand, the intelligence service system should be in the forefront to weigh out other options that the organization might result to in order to avoid losing information and track of them (Wainwright, 2016, para. Strategic Partners There are sympathizers who make donations to the group and also those who provide technical and logistical support to the organization (Graham, 2017, para. These are key drivers in the development of the organization. It would be important to observe the movement of such partners. “…the number of US and Saudi supplied weapons in Isis’ arsenal goes “far beyond those that would have been available through battle capture alone” (McKernan, 2017, para.

The question remains; who is behind the supply of U. S. weapons to the terror group? Recommendations This study recommends that National Clandestine Service (NCS), a part of the Central Investigations Agency (CIA), should conduct research to bring more light on the ideology of the ISIS since there is limited information about it. This will help in formulating counter-actions to neutralize the terror group plans in the country. It would be prudent if NSA becomes more vigilant in collecting HUMINT and SIGINT. Increased frequency will help to keep pace with terror plans organized by the group. Data collection goes hand in hand with analysis procedures. This study recommends Analysis of Competing Hypothesis (ACH) for use by the homeland security agencies as a tool for data analysis.

This tool is quite useful in making judgement about important issues with various alternatives and/or conclusions. This analysis method supports the generation of specific estimative judgment about various situations. This method is usually logical, rigorous, and thoroughly validated in terms of the steps in the process. Moreover, this method is usually very flexible and can be used analyze information from virtually every issue. It is recommendable that the Federal government increases funding to all strategic plans meant to equip homeland security agencies with the current data collection and analytical technologies. More importantly, the security agencies have to develop vigilant strategic plans to keep pace with the changing technological aspects that may aid terror groups in their operations. Iraq's de-Baathification still haunts the country.

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