U.S. 'Connects The Dots' To Catch Roadside Bombers

npr ^

[newbie2008]

With his doctorate from Princeton, Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has become the prime example of a special breed of soldier: the warrior-scholar, trained in history and politics as well as how to fight wars.

Now there's a variation on the theme: the warrior mathematician, adept in the complex modeling that has become a key part of military planning.

With roadside bombs the leading killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, military commanders have turned increasingly to the use of social network analysis to identify the key players in the groups responsible for the bombs, which the military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

[indthkr]

Petraeus bump for later.......

[Cheetahcat]

They catch the bomber what then?? I know Issue a ticket and a promise to appear in court? Start Killing them and their Gene pool.

[huldah1776]

Well, at least algebra is good for something! :)

[miele man]

Looks like elementary calculus and dare I say it, profiling! The horror!!!!

[The Comedian]

And yet somehow, on NPR's super-sensitive edu-warrior's watch, actual warrior deaths are on a hyperbolic upward curve.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[glorgau]

the use of social network analysis to identify the key players...

This is probably also in use internally. In the US, would be suicide bombers are turning up talking to FBI agents.

[sinanju]

Damn fascinating! Of course the article reiterates that garbage in makes for garbage out BUT the egghead and his algorithm can take the same info and filter and narrow down the players in fifteen minutes while it takes the old school intel chap five days to reach the same conclusions.

The big deal with the FBI is that they probably know exactly who the big kahuna “nodes” are that the would-be suicide bomber kiddies are networking with and taking direction from but they’re almost certainly ensconced in the mosques or have diplomatic cover and are under Eric Holder’s protection.