Inside the Ring

Loose lips

After The Washington Times disclosed internal Army briefings that detailed new plans to put women in combat, Lt. Gen. James Campbell put out a memo ordering officials to better safeguard materials. Here are his four measures:

• “All staff and secretariat offices will keep strict accountability of the number of copies produced.”

• “Staff members … will not list the subject of specific meetings and briefings on their routinely distributed personal calendars. Either indicate pre-decisional briefing or the names of the people attending the briefing.”

• “Within your office, ensure paper-based products with words, regardless of classification, are discarded in strike bags.” [A strike bag means it is set aside for destruction.]

• “Finally, strictly enforce e-mail discipline. Think what you say and who might read it. Take it to the extreme — imagine what you are putting in an e-mail will be on the front page of the paper tomorrow. When in doubt, use classified e-mail.”

Targeting snipers

Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, said recently that Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being used effectively in Iraq to kill insurgent snipers and other terrorists.

Dozens of Predator drones armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles were used against snipers in Fallujah during recent fighting, Gen. Jumper told reporters at a breakfast earlier this month.

“We used a lot of the Hellfire missile capability off of our Predator UAVs to take out individual small targets like snipers and the like that were found by the ground forces,” he said.

“It’s not a thing where I get a daily report on the weird episode of firing Hellfire off a Predator, no. It’s routine.”

Gen. Jumper said he could not say whether the deadly missile shots had forced insurgents to change tactics. “But if I were one of the guys that were the targets of some of the events I saw, I would change my tactics,” he said.

Predators also are now outfitted with laser designators that can be used to direct precision-guided bombs to targets, he said.

Another tactic being used is old-fashioned aerial gun strafing of targets, with an added high-technology twist.

Story Continues →