ISIS has better inteligence capabilities then the United States. Voice of America

Iraqi security forces getting ready to attack ISIS. VOA/AP.

ISIS has better intelligence capabilities then the United States. Voice of America. The United States relies on signals intelligence, such as intercepted cell phone calls. ISIS has sources and informants on the ground. The reliance on signals intelligence means that the United States is 60 to 90 days behind events on the ground. ISIS also has many sleeper cells in various Sunni communities. Not all of them are members of the organization, but they are willing to pass information on to ISIS. ISIS fighters are also skilled at capturing and interrogating Iraqi soldiers. ISIS has also become skilled at misdirection and tactical adaptability. Iraq has largely failed at gathering intelligence as well since most of their troops are Shiite who are unlikely to gather intelligence from Sunni sources. 

My Comment:

It's good to see another source for something I have been saying for months. Our efforts at intelligence gathering in Iraq against ISIS has been lacking. Since withdrawing our forces we have almost completely been reliant on signals intelligence and what little the Iraqis manage to gather and pass on themselves. We have little to no sources on the ground and are unlikely to get any soon. We do occasionally get information from raids, but those are so rare that they don't contribute much. 

ISIS has a huge advantage on the ground. They have agents everywhere and a sympathetic population to recruit people from. These agents can gather intelligence and show them where their enemy is weak. They also help ISIS to find out who is a threat and who needs to be killed or kidnapped. 

Why would anyone work with ISIS? Other then the classic motives like greed, the Sunni residents of Iraq have many reasons to work with ISIS. For one, they feel oppressed by the Shiite leaders of Iraq. They would rather be ruled by ISIS then by Shia Muslims. It's simple self preservation at this point. Of course, some people will be attracted to ISIS ideology as well. 

With such a reliance on signals intelligence, it makes it hard for the United States to choose targets. It takes awhile to analyze the information and by the time it is done the facts on the ground usually have changed. Not only does this make it much more difficult to strike targets, it also increases the chance of friendly casualties. 

As a critic of the NSA's data collection programs, this is a vindication for me. I've always said that the massive data collection was far to unwieldy to be effective. It catches far too much noise to be useful. Sources on the ground will always be superior. Unfortunately, our sources on the ground were abandoned when we left Iraq, and we were never able to develop any in Syria. 

Our priority now should be developing those sources on the ground. That isn't to say that there isn't a place for signals intelligence, but until we start to gather human sources we will be handicapping our efforts. We should also start taking prisoners again. Yes Guantanamo Bay was a huge scandal and the CIA's rendition program was probably illegal, but surely there is a way to take prisoners without as much controversy? There may be political implications, but capturing prisoners instead of just killing everyone would help our intelligence gathering capabilities.