[Ispy4u]

If the CPL was a school house trained 96B he should have been familiar with Link analysis. The training period for it was short, but it is really a simple tool. Analyzing 9,000+ links with physical descriptions is a long process these two soldiers performed exceptionally. Hooah! Army Intel, Always Out Front!

[MindBender26]

A 31 year old, 11 year service lieutenant? A 36 year old E-4?

[martin_fierro]

The duo read through sheaves of interrogation reports from detainees and interviews with local Iraqis. They plumbed a huge database provided by central military intelligence. Eventually, they created what they nicknamed "Mongo Link," a four page, 46-by-42-inch color-coded chart with their 300 names on it.

It helped them separate the Known Knowns from the Known Unknowns and the Unknown Unknowns.

[leadpencil1]

intelligence ping

[af_vet_1981]

Impressed, grateful, thankful, nostaligic and just a tad jealous

Cpl. Harold Engstrom, Lt. Angela Santana, and Maj. Stan Murphy,

Well done !

Your country thanks you.

I thank you

[mylife]

104th Military Intelligence Battalion.

Go 104!!

[rhombus]

Nice article. A tribute to the skills of our military and America's very great ability to learn and adapt.

[Jonah Hex]

"And I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those darn kids!"

[samtheman]

The informant, who is described as middle-age and from an area near Tikrit, escaped capture several times. Finally, he was arrested in a house raid in Baghdad last Friday and immediately brought to Tikrit for interrogation. Mr. Hussein was captured the next day.

The skill of the interrogators. Now being turned on the big guy himself.

[Moonman62]

The two say the task of creating Mr. Hussein's Who's Who chart was beyond the scope of their training. "Completely surreal," is how Lt. Santana describes the job. "Like we are detectives suddenly."

I have to wonder why we are paying billions upon billions for professional intelligence bureaucracies. Where were they?

[cynicom]

Must be a West Point colonel there somewhere that will get a box of medals for really doing the brain work.

[SamAdams76]

I do not think it is possible to overstate the magnitude of what was accomplished here. For all we knew, Saddam wasn't even in Iraq anymore yet that didn't stop our military from tracking him down anyhow. Finding one man in a spider-hole in a country the size of California is sort of like trying to find a particular grain of sand at the beach (without knowing whether or not the grain of sand you are looking for was moved to another beach altogether).

I hope this capture of Saddam takes the wind out of the anti-war "Where's Saddam?" crowd that taunted us for months. But I doubt it. They will simply switch back into the "Where's the WMD's" mode. Of course, we could have cannisters of nerve gas buried 20 feet under the ground under a children's hospital or out in the desert and it could well take thousands of searchers a hundred years to find them. These nimrods have no clue how difficult it is to find these kind of things. I have an acre of land in back of my house. If I was to bury a baseball out there, I would bet $100 that any one of these jerks couldn't find it even if I gave them the whole weekend to search for it. And we are just talking one acre here. Iraq consists of many millions of acres.

[steplock]

"Their first thought: "Is he joking? This is impossible. We can't even pronounce these names," says Lt. Santana. "

I hate to say it, but if that quote is true - that is what is wrong with the Army!

If we got that same request in the NSG/MarSptBn (USMC) we would have simply said "Can Do!" and done it.

Gotta jab - can't have the army get a swelled head.

[tang-soo]

Over the years, I have discussed with friends many of the Clinton scandals involving many different people. It had occurred to me this kind of analysis of the who's and where's would be useful in documenting and maybe proving many of the scandals ignored by the media. For instance, how many know the owner of a small Chinese restaurant in Little Rock became acquainances of Barry Seal and Terry Reed. Later he was named to an important post by Clinton where he would attend CIA economic briefings then walk across the street and fax the information to China. Give you a hint, his first name is Charlie. How many know Webb Hubbell's father in law was Seth Ward - the same man that strong - armed Terry Reed into having a piece of the machine gun manufacturing project used to send guns to the contras.

[IGOTMINE]

There are computer programs that greatly assist in the process, too.

I can't believe that a national agency hadn't already produced such a product. I would not be surprised if they never thought of disseminating it down to someone who could actually use it.

[hosepipe]

The OTHER side of the story.... eat you're heart out Paul Harvey.... Hoo Ah!..

[aculeus]

The two officers say Maj. Murphy's orders to them were: "Figure it out, draw the lines, make me a chart and find every crucial person connected to Saddam."

Great article but "cpls" are not officers.

[headodenton]

From an old OB Tech, an excellent example of sound, imaginative and innovative Order of Battle analysis. Congrats and "Well done" to these two fine soldiers.

[daylate-dollarshort]

All I have to say is Well Done

[Tallguy]

What bothers me a bit about this article is that they released the actual names of those involved on the Intel side. Not a good idea in a guerilla-war. They are now potential targets for the other side.

Heck the Israelis don't even ackowledge the names of their combat pilots because of the fear of retribution.

And a final thought: regardless of their experience or preparation, this 1LT & CPL are now the resident experts. They'll be teaching this stuff when they get back to the States.

[Gritty]

This was a great job these analysts did. This was difficult, tedious work done well by inexperienced people. No fancy degrees or ivory -tower credentials - just a system, determination, and legwork. It just goes to show what Americans can do when they put their mind to it.

They deserve the congratulations of all Americans and indeed the World.

Well done!