Eufor Chad 4: the importance of intelligence

(BRUSSELS2 to N'Djamena) Rumor … being a fundamental fact in the country, whether strategic data – rebel attacks, desertions, refugee camps – or more commonplace – such as the arrival of the rains. " Even for the rainy season, I can't really tell when it's coming “explains a soldier ironically. On the security side, explains an intelligence specialist, it is clear " we are on a powder keg. It could blow up at any moment. » « Here, a simple road accident can transform a welcoming, smiling population into so many hostile individuals. completes a policeman. And there are a number of armed people, with intentions difficult to grasp: drifting regular soldiers, rebels, bandits. A situation all the more complicated that often the same people are alternately one and the other. Hence the importance for the European military to have their own strategic intelligence.

In the sky, Mirages and drones, on the ground civil-military cells

In the sky, Eufor can use French F1 mirages – reconnaissance or tactical – capable of going very quickly to the other side of the country and being refueled in flight – and has a drone (CL- 289), unmanned aircraft, capable of staying in one spot for a long time. On the ground, it is the “forward” teams, essentially special forces, as well as the regular patrols, even the civil-military cells which are responsible for gathering as much information as possible. All this information lands in cell J2 (intelligence) where it is crossed with others. The latter also has "sensors", contacts in civil society who are able to inform them of the evolution of the situation, through conversations that are altogether banal, around a glass of coke. cola or a beer in a discreet city tavern or under a tree.

On the relative importance of photography...

As in every multinational operation (NATO or EU), each Member State can have a NIC (national intelligence unit) which can send certain information back to its headquarters. Thus, Paris like Dublin, London, Warsaw or Stockholm... may have knowledge of certain information collected on the ground. But, as an agent in charge of this service points out, a “photo in itself means nothing. It takes several, with annotations, the date, and other information to trace a reality”. And, indeed, when you look at a photo, you really need an expert's eye to discern in the small stain of a few millimeters that it is a "destroyed rebel pick-up", as the legend. The whole art of intelligence is therefore to cross-reference the information gathered in the sky with that gathered on earth, or through contact with certain people.

Means of connection

From the most ancient to the most modern... To connect, the military have various means: modern radio systems (VHS, satellite, etc.) to the "confidential defense" internal networks that equip all PCs, via the good old Morse code - " very useful sometimes when it doesn't work anymore “explains an officer – or simply simple Gsm. Mobile phones go perfectly well in the capital and in Abéché in particular. The Internet network is, on the other hand, rather slow because overloaded.

(published in Europolitics, April 2008)

Read also:

• Eufor Chad 7: Between government forces and rebels, the imperative of neutrality
• Eufor Tchad 6 – Gen. Ganascia: "Maintaining the force in operational condition"
• Eufor Chad 5: “Eufortian” and proud of it
• Eufor Chad 4: the importance of intelligence
• Eufor Tchad 3: a complex management mechanism
• Eufor Chad 2: when a grain of sand seizes the Transport machine
• Eufor Tchad 1: above all a logistical challenge