Thoughts 24 Apr 2008 10:00 am
Spies play video games
Did you know that the Defense Intelligence Agency writes it’s own video games?
In the wake of the intelligence bungles that propelled the United States into the Iraq war, it’s no secret that the nation’s spies have been working to improve the quality of their analysis. Now the top U.S. military intelligence agency has come up with a new tool for teaching recruits critical thinking skills: videogames.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has just taken delivery of three PC-based games, developed by simulation studio Visual Purple under a $2.6 million contract between the DIA and defense contractor Concurrent Technologies. The goal is to quickly train the next generation of spies to analyze complex issues like Islamic fundamentalism.
There are three games and none are for sale to the general public. As a general rule they are not about run and gun, but rather more on the lines of the eight points of analysis and proper interrogation techniques.
The DIA isn’t alone in turning to videogames for training. The U.S. Army Intelligence Center is using a custom game to train interrogators, or “human collectors,” as they are euphemistically known. Known by the staggering title of Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Tactical Proficiency Trainer Human Intelligence Control Cell, the simulation was designed by General Dynamics from the shooter Far Cry.
The game does not teach coercive interrogation techniques, like waterboarding. But it may eventually be modified to show how offensive or abusive questioning will cause detainees to become less cooperative, says Dennis Mitchell, chief of the intelligence center’s training devices branch. “One of the persons who helped us out on it was an instructor who trained people on what the current [interrogation] manual is, and what the rules of war are, and how you treat prisoners of war acceptably.”
Former DIA analyst A.J.Rossmiller says videogames won’t fix what he sees as systemic flaws in American intelligence, where conclusions by analysts are distorted as they work their way up the chain of command. “A lot of problems are stated as analytical when they’re management problems.”
If you think these games will work I suggest you read any number of books on the intelligence blunders past and present. — Any schooling is only as good as the premise behind it.