SMEs or coalition and allied partners for answering
their potential RFI. Often relevant CIM information is
gathered and collated by a Joint Task Force CIM cell or
military intelligence collection structure and stored on
secret or secure networks. Access to these networks is
something neither a CONUS Soldier nor a coalition or
allied partner nation staff officer can accomplish, even
on an official network computer. CIM data need to be
accessible by commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computing devices otherwise it is useless to any agency,
NGO, or allied/coalition country who do not possess
computers with specific government security patches.
How a Remote CIM Portal Could Help
in the Global War on Terrorism
The concept of the Remote CIM Portal aligns well
with the current information gathering techniques of
many of the security forces from our coalition and allied partners who are countering VEOs. These security forces have a small core group of staff officers, who
are often cross trained from their traditional combat
arms roles, fulfilling the additional duty of Civil-Military Cooperation (NATO-CIMIC) or Coordination
(UN-CIMIC) Officers. Meanwhile, infantry soldiers
at the unit level have likely also received additional
pre-deployment training in basic CMO skills such as
conducting key leader engagements (KLEs), mapping
of the civil terrain, and collecting of civil component
spot reports. This raw CIM data gathered by coalition
and allied partners frequently do not make it into a
database where a trained staff officer can collate, analyze, and potentially give recommendations for action. Creating an online digital database portal at the
unclassified level to collate, analyze, and action CIM
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