The Pentagon's Brain

  4 Defense Department official: David Rhode, “After the War: Resistance; Deadly Attacks on G.I.’s Rise; Generals Hope Troop Buildup Will Stop the Skirmishes,” New York Times, June 10, 2003.

  5 “There’s more ammunition”: Abizaid, testimony before Congress, September 25, 2003.

  6 greater than the number: Smith, 10.

  7 soldiers killed by IEDs: Ibid.; John Diamond, “Small Weapons Prove the Real Threat in Iraq,” USA Today, September 29, 2003.

  8 “classical guerrilla-style campaign”: Cited in Rick Atkinson, “Left of Boom: ‘The IED Problem is getting out of control. We’ve got to stop the bleeding,’” Washington Post, September 30, 2007.

  9 “A new phenomenon”: Quotes are from interview with Brigadier General Andrew Smith (retired), June 2014.

  10 CREW: Glenn Zorpette, “Countering IEDs,” IEEE Spectrum, August 29, 2008.

  11 study report: Clay Wilson, “Network Centric Warfare: Background and Oversight Issues for Congress,” June 2, 2004.

  12 “Warfare is all about”: U.S. Department of Defense, Report on Network Centric Warfare, 2001; Vice Admiral Arthur Cebrowski (retired), speech to Network Centric Warfare 2003 conference, January 2003.

  13 “Network-centric warfare”: “Transformation for Survival: Interview with Arthur K. Cebrowski, Director, Office of Force Transformation,” Defense AT&L, March–April 2004.

  14 added four new slides: Office of Force Transformation, “Key Barriers to Transformation,” PowerPoint, 2002; “Meeting the Challenges of the New Competitive Landscape PowerPoint, 2004. See also Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary’s Forward, “Transformation Planning Guidance,” U.S. Department of Defense, April 2003.

  15 “That speed of advance”: “Battle Plan Under Fire,” PBS NewsHour, May 4, 2004.

  16 “culture-centric” solution: Major General Robert H. Scales Jr., U.S. Army (retired), “Culture-Centric Warfare,” Proceedings, October 2004.

  17 “Knowledge of one’s enemy”: McFate, “Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of Their Curious Relationship,” Military Review, March–April 2005, 24–38.

  18 “Combat troops”: Meghan Scully,“‘Social Intel’ New Tool for U.S. Military,” Defense News, April 26, 2004.

  19 bringing social scientists on board: Email correspondence with Montgomery McFate; interview with Bob Popp, June 2014.

  20 “punk rock wild child”: Matthew B. Standard, “Montgomery McFate’s Mission: Can One Anthropologist Possibly Steer the Course in Iraq?” San Francisco Examiner, April 29, 2007.

  21 received a call: Email correspondence with Montgomery McFate.

  22 majority were left-leaning: Scott Jaschik, “Social Scientists Lean to the Left, Study Says,” Insidehighered.com, December 21, 2005.

  23 “evangelical mission”: George Packer, “Knowing the Enemy: Can social scientists redefine the ‘war on terror’?” New Yorker, December 18, 2006.

  24 An entire generation: Williamson Murray and Robert H. Scales Jr., The Iraq War: A Military History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003).

  25 “The nature of war”: Major General Robert H. Scales Jr., U.S. Army (retired), “Culture-Centric Warfare,” Proceedings, October 2004, 32–36.

  26 “When the U.S.”: McFate, “The Military Utility of Understanding Adversary Culture,” Joint Force Quarterly, issue 38, July 2005, 44-48.

  27 “Soldiers and Marines”: Ibid.

  28 “stability operations”: Dehghanpisheh and Thomas, “Scions of the Surge,” Newsweek, March 24, 2008.

  29 “I do not want”: George Packer, “Knowing the Enemy: Can social scientists redefine the ‘war on terror’?” New Yorker, December 18, 2006.

  30 “Understanding and empathy”: Robert Scales, “Clausewitz and World War IV,” Armed Forces Journal, July 1, 2006.

  31 McFate wrote one of the chapters: Email correspondence with Montgomery McFate.

  32 “What is Counterinsurgency?”: Counterinsurgency, Field Manual No. 3-24.

  33 “the first time”: http://humanterrainsystem.army.mil.

  Chapter Twenty-Two Combat Zones That See

  1 “Combat Zones That See”: DARPA Solicitation number SN03-13, Pre-Solicitation Notice: Combat Zones That See (CTS), March 25, 2003.

  2 “No technological challenges”: Robert Leheny, “DARPA’s Urban Operations Program,” presentation at DARPATech 2005, August 2005, with photographs.

  3 “We need a network”: Tether, Statement to Congress, March 10, 2005, 11.

  4 Congress had eliminated funding: U.S. Congress, H8500–H8550, Joint Explanatory Statement, Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA), Congressional Record, September 24, 2003.

  5 “detect the clandestine production”: Tether, Statement to Congress, March 10, 2005, 11.

  6 “a network of nonintrusive microsensors”: Leheny, “DARPA’s Urban Operations Program,” 38.

  7 unclassified documents: Ehlschlaeger, “Understanding Megacities with the Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Intelligence Paradigm,” 50–53.

  8 the HURT program: DARPA Information Exploitation Office (IXO) HURT Program Office, aerial vehicle platform documents; See also James Richardson, “Preparing Warfighters for the Urban Stage,” located in DARPA: 50 Years of Bridging the Gap, 166–67.

  9 “The [HURT] system”: Pagels quoted in Clarence A. Robinson, Jr., “Air Vehicles Deliver Warrior Data,” Signal Magazine, July 2007.

  10 terrorists could sneak in: DARPA: 50 Years of Bridging the Gap, 169; Glenn Zorpette, “Countering IEDs,” IEEE Spectrum, August 29, 2008.

  11 DARPA’s goal: This information comes from Tether, Statement to Congress, 2003; “Combat Zones That See (CTS) Solicitation Number BAA03-15, March 25, 2003. See also Stephen Graham, “Surveillance, Urbanization, and the U.S. ‘Revolution in Military Affairs,’” in David Lyon, ed., Theorizing Surveillance: The Panopticon and Beyond, 250–54.

  12 every forty-eight minutes: Rick Atkinson, “Left of Boom: ‘You can’t armor your way out of this problem;’” Washington Post, October 2, 2007.

  13 the “spider”: Noah Shachtman, “The Secret History of Iraq’s Invisible War,” Wired, June 14, 2011.

  14 EFP: The first EFPs appeared on May 15, 2004, in Bara. DIA linked them to Hezbollah forces from 1997.

  15 2,000 meters per second: Rick Atkinson, “Left of Boom: ‘You can’t armor your way out of this problem;’” Washington Post, October 2, 2007.

  16 Hardwire HD: “Hardwire Receives DARPA Funding for Novel Armor Solutions,” Business Wire, August 21, 2006.

  17 rip apart soldiers’ bodies: Tony Perry, “IED Wounds from Afghanistan ‘Unbelievable’ Trauma Docs Say,” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2011.

  18 JIEDDO: Interview with Brigadier General Andrew Smith (retired), June 2014.

  19 “We were dealing with”: Quotes are from interviews with Craig Marsh, June 2014–March 2015.

  20 Building 114: Interviews with Craig Marsh; Andrew E. Kramer, “Leaving Camp Victory in Iraq, the Very Name a Question Mark,” New York Times, November 10, 2011.

  21 Combined Explosive Exploitation Cell: “CEXC: Introducing a New Concept in the Art of War,” Armed Forces Journal, June 7, 2007.

  22 “Talon robots”: Quotes in this section are from DARPA, Distribution Statement A, “Unmanned Robots Systems: SBIR Technology Underpins Life-Saving Military Robots,” DARPA, Distribution Statement A, 2010, 1-7.

  23 “Gordon the robot”: Ibid., 6–8; DARPA, “Unmanned Robotic Systems: Small Business Innovation Research,” Featured Technology, December 2010, 6.

  24 Talon robots: Sargeant Lorie Jewell, “Armed Robots to March into Battle,” Army News Service, December 6, 2004.

  25 “Whether it’s magic or scientific”: Rod Nordland, “Iraq Swears by a Bomb Detector U.S. Sees as Useless,” New York Times, November 3, 2009.

  26 whistleblower revealed: Adam Higginbotham, “In Iraq, the Bomb-Detecting Device That Didn’t Work, Except to Make Money,” Bloomberg Businessweek, July 11, 2013.

  27 more than two an hour: Ri
ck Atkinson, “Left of Boom: ‘If you don’t go after the network, you’re never going to stop these guys. Never,’” Washington Post, October 3, 2007.

  28 $15 billion: Glenn Zorpette, “Countering IEDs,” IEEE Spectrum, August 29, 2008.

  29 Tether appeared: Tether, Statement to Congress, March 21, 2007.

  30 “Shot. Two o’clock”: Raytheon news release, BBN Technologies, Products and Services, Boomerang III.

  31 CROSSHAIRS: DARPA, news release, “DARPA’s CROSSHAIRS Counter Shooter System,” October 5, 2010.

  32 DARPA fielded fifty Radar Scopes: Quotes are from Tether, Statement to Congress, March 21, 2007; Donna Miles, “New Device Will Sense Through Concrete Walls,” Armed Forces Press Service, January 3, 2006.

  33 HART: DARPA Heterogeneous Airborne Reconnaissance Team (HART), Case no. 11414, briefing slides. Dr. Michael A. Pagels, August 2008.

  34 TIGR (Tactical Ground Reporting): Amy Walker, “TIGR allows Soldiers to ‘be there’ before they arrive,” U.S. Army News, October 13, 2009.

  35 Congress was told: Leheny, Statement to Congress, May 20, 2009.

  36 soldiers told: David Talbot, “A Technology Surges,” MIT Technology Review, February 2008.

  Chapter Twenty-Three Human Terrain

  1 not one of the 1,200: Declan Walsh, “Afghan Militants Attack Kandahar Prison and Free Inmates,” Guardian, June 13, 2008; Carlotta Gall, “Taliban Free 1,200 Inmates in Attack on Afghan Prison,” New York Times, June 14, 2008.

  2 “proto-type system”: DARPA, IAO Mission, briefing slides.

  3 “Based on our experience in Iraq”: Thom Shankar, “To Check Militants, U.S. Has System That Never Forgets,” New York Times, July 13, 2011.

  4 On patrol: USA v. Don Michael Ayala (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division), Document 33, May 6, 2009, and Document 5, November 24, 2008.

  5 “An indefinable spirit”: U.S. Army, “In Memory of… Paula Loyd,” Human Terrain System, September 2011.

  6 center of the alleyway: USA v. Don Michael Ayala, photographs.

  7 A young bearded man: Gezari, 3–18.

  8 He wore: USA v. Don Michael Ayala, photographs.

  9 drew his pistol: USA v. Don Michael Ayala, Document 5, 4.

  10 previously guarded: Ibid., Document 5, 3.

  11 “the man was the devil”: Ibid., Document 33, 2.

  12 leniency: Matthew Barakat, “Contractor Gets Probation for Killing Prisoner,” Associated Press, May 8, 2009.

  13 “advise brigades”: In Human Terrain: War Becomes Academic, Udris Films, 2010.

  14 earned more: USA v. Don Michael Ayala, Document 33, 1.

  15 “military commanders”: U.S. Army press release, digital archive, http://humanterrainsystem.army.mil.

  16 “dangerous and reckless”: AAA [American Anthropological Association] Executive Board, Statement on the Human Terrain System Project, October 31, 2007.

  17 “mercenary anthropology”: Roberto J. González, “Towards mercenary anthropology? The new US Army counterinsurgency manual FM 3–24 and the military-anthropology complex,” Anthropology Today, Volume 23, Issue 3, June 2007, 14–19.

  18 Catherine Lutz: Quotes are from Human Terrain: War Becomes Academic, Udris Films, 2010.

  19 Hugh Gusterson: Ibid.

  20 Roberto González: Ibid.

  21 “My very first time”: Carlson quotes are from Dan G. Cox, “Human Terrain Systems and the Moral Prosecution of Warfare,” 27–29.

  22 “Can doctrine be applied”: This account is drawn from Nigh, “An Operator’s Guide to Human Terrain Teams,” 20–23.

  23 “clearing operation”: ISAF, TAAC South, “Impacts, Contributions,” 2007; U.S. Army, “Human Terrain Team Handbook,” December 11, 2008.

  24 replaced Paula Loyd: Korva Coleman, “Social Scientists Deployed to the Battlefield,” NPR, September 1, 2009.

  25 “infamous as a killing zone”: Jonathan Montpetit,“Canadian Soldiers Resume Mentoring Afghan National Army After Turbulent Spring.” Military World, October 28, 2010.

  26 “Michael Bhatia was”: “One Man’s Odyssey from Campus to Combat,” Associated Press, March 8, 2009.

  27 $200,000 a year: Jason Motlagh, “Should Anthropologists Help Contain the Taliban?” Time, July 1, 2010.

  28 “People use human networks”: Tristan Reed, “Intelligence and Human Networks,” Stratfor Global Intelligence Security Weekly, January 10, 2013.

  29 “Phase Zero pre-conflict”: Jim Hodges, “Cover Story: U.S. Army’s Human Terrain Experts May Help Defuse Future Conflicts,” Defense News, March 22, 2012.

  30 biomedical technology program: Department of Defense, Fiscal Year 2015, Budget Estimates, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 1:51.

  31 “applies forecasting”: Ibid., 1:130.

  32 “far behind enemy lines”: “DARPA Receives Joint Meritorious Unit Award,” U.S. Department of Defense, press release. December 17, 2012.

  33 Deep Exploration and Filtering of Text: Department of Defense, Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Estimates, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 1:88.

  Chapter Twenty-Four Drone Wars

  1 “This war”: Quotes are from “Remarks by the President at the National Defense University, Fort McNair,” White House, Office of the Press Secretary, May 23, 2013.

  2 Department of Defense reports: U.S. Department of Defense, “The Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap FY2013–2038,” 2014, 8:13, 26.

  3 “My daughter”: Quotes are from interview with Bernard Crane, September 2014.

  4 “Those are not insects”: Quotes are from Rick Weiss, “Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs,” Washington Post, October 9, 2007.

  5 insisted that President Bush be impeached: C-SPAN, “Stop the War Rally,” September 15, 2007.

  6 multiple truck bombs: Damien Cave and James Glanz, “Toll in Iraq Bombings Is Raised to More Than 500,” New York Times, August 22, 2007.

  7 reportedly played a role: “A Carpet for Radicals at the White House,” Investigative Project on Terrorism, October 12, 2012.

  8 served as imam: “Al-Qaida cleric death: mixed emotions at Virginia mosque where he preached,” Associated Press, September 11, 2011.

  9 “Insect-size”: Grasmeyer and Keennon, “Development of the Black Widow Micro Air Vehicle,” American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2001, 1.

  10 “We have seen sparrows”: Ibid., 8.

  11 “micro-explosive bombs”: Lambeth, “Technology Trends in Air Warfare,” 141.

  12 trained bees to locate: “Sandia, University of Montana Researchers Try Training Bees to Find Buried Landmines,” Sandia National Laboratories, press release, April 27, 1999. In the late 1990s, the Mine Bee Program met with great success when DARPA researchers at Sandia National Laboratories worked with entomologists at the University of Montana to train honeybees to detect buried land mines.

  13 Insectothopter: Author tour of the CIA museum, Langley, VA, September 2010.

  14 Animal rights: Duncan Graham-Rowe, “Robo-Rat Controlled by Brain Electrodes,” New Scientist, May 1, 2002.

  15 “The tissue develops”: A. Verderber, M. McKnight, and A. Bozkurt, “Early Metamorphic Insertion Technology for Insect Flight Behavior Monitoring,” Journal of Visualized Experiments, July 12, 2014, 89.

  16 animated video: online at “Armed with Science,” the DoD’s official science blog.

  17 DARPA’s hypersonic stealth drones: DARPA News, “Hypersonics—The New Stealth: DARPA investments in extreme hypersonics continue,” July 6, 2012; “Darpa refocuses Hypersonics Research on Tactical Missions,” Aviation Week and Space Technology, July 8, 2013.

  18 Falcon HTV-2: Animated performance videos of Falcon HTV-2 at Lockheedmartin.com.

  19 hypersonic low-earth-orbit drones: Toshio Suzuki, “DARPA Wants Hypersonic Space Drone with Daily Launches,” Stars and Stripes, February 4, 2014.

  20 Hydra: John Keller, “DARPA Considers Unmanned Submersible Mothership Designed to Deploy UAV
s and UUVs,” Military Aerospace Electronics, July 23, 2013.

  21 Unmanned Ground System robots: Demonstration videos on DARPA’s YouTube channel, DARPAtv.

  22 LANdroids: USC Information Sciences Institute, Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory, “LANdroids,” n.d.

  23 what “autonomy” is: U.S. Department of Defense, “Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap FY2013–2038,” 15.

  24 “The autonomous systems”: U.S. Department of Defense, “Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap FY2011–2036,” 43.

  25 “autonomous and semi-autonomous”: Department of Defense Directive 3000.09, “Autonomy in Weapon Systems,” sec. 4, Policy, 2, November 21, 2012.

  26 fourfold process: U.S. Department of Defense, “Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap FY2011–2036,” table 3, 46.

  27 “unimagined degrees of autonomy”: Ashton Carter’s letter, dated (stamped) March 29, 2010, is attached to the end of Department of Defense, Defense Science Board, “Task Force Report: The Role of Autonomy in DoD Systems,” Appendix C, Task Force Terms of Reference.

  Chapter Twenty-Five Brain Wars

  1 artificial brains: ArtificialBrains.com tracks scientific and technological progress toward the goal of building sentient machines. The website is maintained by James Pearn in Munich, Germany.

  2 our interview: All quotes in this section are from my interview with Allen Macy Dulles, March 2014.

  3 brought her brother: Interviews with Joan Dulles Talley, March 2014–May 2015.

  4 The White House calls: White House Briefing Room, “BRAIN Initiative Challenges Researchers to Unlock Mysteries of Human Mind,” April 2, 2013. Of note: partnering with DARPA on many of its brain programs is IARPA, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency, or the CIA’s DARPA.

  5 Brain programs: Information on DARPA brain-computer interface programs from Robbin A. Miranda et al., “DARPA-Funded Efforts in the Development of Novel Brain–Computer Interface Technologies,” 1-17. The authors are: Robbin A. Miranda, William D. Casebeer, Amy M. Hein, Jack W. Judy, Eric P. Krotkov, Tracy L. Laabs, Justin E. Manzof, Kent G. Pankratz, Gill A. Pratt, Justin C. Sanchez, Douglas J. Weber, Tracey L. Wheeler, and Geoffrey S. F. Ling.