Top Intel Official : U.S. Facing ‘Unprecedented’ Array of Threats | Foreign Policy
▻http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/26/top-intel-official-u-s-facing-unprecedented-array-of-threats
U.S. special operations forces now face a widening array of “non-geopolitical threats” that challenge them in realms in which the United States once held undisputed sway, a senior Pentagon intelligence official said Wednesday.
As an example, Garry Reid, a top deputy to Michael Vickers, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, cited the widespread availability of commercial satellite imagery. “Where once you could assume that only you had the bird’s-eye view of the target area, now just about anybody can have [it],” he said during an address to a gathering of current and former special operations personnel here.
Reid said the proliferation of “quite challenging” commercial encryption capabilities also threatens U.S. dominance in signals intelligence, the difficult act of cracking into phone, Internet, and other forms of telecommunications networks around the world. “It’s not as easy as it once was to exploit adversary communications,” he said.
And without saying so in as many words, Reid suggested that technological advances are making it increasingly difficult for the United States to place intelligence operatives undercover. “Global biometrics, identity management, and the ability to track people [using] your electronic signature around the world becomes a challenge for us,” he said.
In his remarks, Reid led the audience on a global tour of what he described as an “unprecedented” plethora of challenges facing the United States, from the rise of the Islamic State and other violent Islamist extremist groups to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and Russian aggression against Ukraine. The confluence of so many asymmetrical challenges will continue to place a high demand on U.S. intelligence and special operations forces well into the future, he said.
Bref #c'était_mieux_avant mais on a toujours beaucoup de pain sur la planche.
“We’re sitting on top of the most powerful military arsenal … ever assembled,” he said, but added that most “conventional forces and strategic forces are barely applicable to any of these problems. That is quite a vexing scenario.”
C’est quand même fou que les méchants ne s’arrêtent pas au constat de notre supériorité classique écrasante. C’est même la preuve qu’ils sont vraiment vicieux qu’ils cherchent à la contourner…
Sinon, qu’on se rassure,…
Disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward #Snowden have exposed many of the agency’s techniques for intercepting foreign communications, but Reid said that “despite leaks and despite exposures, [the U.S. ability to tap overseas phones and computers] continues to be an area of dominance.”