Chapter 26: Geneva

Terry and Pru passed through the halls of the OSG enclave in the Geneva CA, passing through various checkpoints where their IDs were scanned. They luminous arrows guided them through the maze of offices and work centers. Finally, they reached the office to which they had been summoned.

General Ishmael Khan rose from his desk as his aide announced them. Pru recognized him from her com acquaintance, but was surprised to find him rather shorter than she had expected, only about 170 cm.

He came to greet them, his impeccable tunic matching his kilt. As before, there were ribbons on his left breast in the military manner. Anticipating this and the related coolness of the environment, both of them had worn lightweight, fitted shirts. They had cases with them containing documents they thought might be required, even though they could have been displayed or printed through the com system had they not brought them in physical form.

Pru shook the General's hand. He retained his grip, briefly, and smiled up at her before turning to shake Terry's. He gestured to chairs and returned to his. His desk was clean except for one file folder to which he never referred and one or two pens, neatly — though not precisely — arranged.

"I asked you both to come here," he began, "because I want to thoroughly understand what you are proposing. The ideas you propose will require major changes in our Special Ops forces and probably a substantial increase in numbers. That costs credits, and I am sure you know that. But, I also assume you have a justification for all of that. And," he smiled at Terry, "I am also sure that the end result will be good for Neo-Tantra."

Good naturedly, Terry responded, "That may be, sir. But, the objective is a more effective response force than we now have. I'm sure you want that as much as we do."

General Khan nodded. "First, let me thank you both for your help with the Ouled Naïl matter. Of course, it was your Bravo Force member, Pru, who discovered the village. I will find out why our people did not know of it." He smiled frostily at them both. "Then, you took rapid, effective, and creative action there. Very commendable!" He looked at Pru, "I understand you are rather sensitive about your role as a force commander, Ms Whiteside. You should not be. You did an excellent job, and it is because you did that we are here today to consider the ideas you began to implement there."

"Thank you, sir," Pru replied. "You are correct that I am sensitive about being considered a force commander, and that's because the designation is not accurate. And in the event, we lost Trooper Bouchard, which should not have happened. I regard that as a personal failure..." she raised her hand to forestall his interruption, "even though I know those things happen.

"My sensitivity, as you call it, is because I see myself as a manager, not a force commander. And, the proposal we are all looking at is a management proposal, even though it has implications for command and control of Special Ops forces."

"Well, I agree with that analysis," said General Khan. "So, let's get on with it."

Terry began. "Sir, we are proposing a top-to-bottom change in the management concept of Special Ops forces. Having said that, these changes can be implemented in a phased manner, beginning with areas where we have the most incidents, and implementing them in more quiet areas on a much more leisurely basis. That will reduce the cost, and give us the opportunity to learn as we proceed, and adjust our concept as we go."

General Khan interrupted with a graceful gesture. "You realize, I suppose, that the current doctrine has been in place for almost fifty years. Change does not come easily in our field. And, that is at least in part because the present doctrine has generally been successful."

Pru spoke up, smiling. "We are aware of that, sir. That is why we are using the term 'management concept' rather than 'doctrine'. Doctrine and dogma are not far apart, I think, and we don't want to ask you to change your religion."

The General's eyes twinkled and he chuckled. "Well put. I shall try to keep that in mind."

Terry resumed. "There are several aspects of this management concept. We'll address each of them separately later, but to summarize, we propose to change Special Ops force structure in two basic ways. One is to associate individual SO teams with specific, but broadly defined ethnic or cultural areas, and to assure that each team consists mainly of individuals specially trained in the customs, languages and habits of the people who live in those areas. Preferably, they will be native informants, but otherwise highly trained outsiders. As you know, the success of both Bravo Force operations was due in large part to their intimate knowledge of the people and territory in which they operated.

"Second, these SO teams will work with a new management level, Local Area Controllers. These will be similar to the Case Operators we now use, but in this new concept, the Case Operator will work side-by-side with a Local Area Controller. This is because, as you know, Case Operators are not always fully familiar with local languages and customs. The Case Operator is an intelligence analyst, that is, staff not a line officer — although they have been acting as both. That has usually been successful, but in the Wadi Felucca case, we found it had some drawbacks. It did not affect the outcome, in part, because the Bravo Force commander was able to intervene." General Khan raised his dark, heavy eyebrows.

Pru responded to the unspoken request. "Sir, our Case Operator was unaware of the tracking skills of one of my people, a native Berber. I explained this to him to prevent him from forbidding her recon sweep on the first intrusion. It was her reconnaissance that enabled us to spot the com antenna the target was using. I feel that knowledge was important to our success." The general nodded and motioned for Terry to continue.

"The Local Area Controllers will be fully aware of force capabilities, will know the local languages and customs, as well as the terrain. The Case Operators will be able to provide on-going background information and analysis developed before the incident becomes an SO operation as well as technology and legal coordination. The Local Area Controller will be able to apply that information in his or her work with the people on the ground." Terry paused.

General Khan considered this information, then asked, "What does that mean in terms of force strength?"

Pru took that one. "Our projections indicate that we will not require additional force in areas except sub-Saharan Africa, where I am aware you are considering expansion in any case. We propose taking existing forces and cross-train them in languages and customs by stationing them on training exercises similar to your current practice, but in target areas where they'll learn new things. We will also cross-train Local Area Controllers in a similar way. For example, we're considering taking officers from a force and training them as Local Area Controllers to broaden the understanding, at both levels, of the problems of control. And, in each circumstance, we can use the appropriate cross-trained people as Local Area Commanders."

Khan nodded. "You'd have me believe that you're just adding a level of command — excuse me, of management — and doing some cross training, am I correct?"

Terry replied, "Not exactly, general. The LAC is actually a replacement for the Case Operators we are now using. The Case Operators become staff only, where you now have them serving, as needed, as both staff and line. Not all Case Operators are good in chain-of-command positions. We feel it's important to differentiate the two."