Able Providence

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Able Providence is a follow up to the controversial Able Danger pilot program introduced by the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). Like Able Danger, the program is intended to use data mining tools to find linkages between targets of interest to the military intelligence community and visually display those linkages in a manner that can be used tactically or strategically by military and/or policy-making leadership.

It is believed the program proposal was initiated sometime before the Able Danger program became public amidst much angst from the U.S. Department of Defense, and had some lifetime as a proposal while Congressman Curt Weldon was in office and pushing for its adoption. Indeed Weldon in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing stated that the program was similar to that which some businesses use to help their decision makers. The program was also enthusiastically supported by Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer as a follow-on to Able Danger, saying the potential shown by the previous program needed to be imbedded into future U.S. intelligence capabilities. Shaffer was the major figure in the public "outing" of the Able Danger program.

According to GCN writer Patience Wait, the program will have the following attributes:

 1. Robust open-source harvesting capabilities - giving military and 
    law enforcement agencies the information to take initiative in the 
    war on terrorism.
 2. To be able to plan and execute offensive measures in addition to 
    continuing  defensive measures
 3. Driven by the assumption that use of weapons of mass destruction 
    within the United States is possible
 4. Would detect, track and target terrorists as they move from 
    location to location  and reorganize their cells.
 5. Uses information about terrorist financing and the Islamist system 
    worldwide to identify correlations
 6. Would be placed under a program office under the direction of the 
    Director of  National Intelligence
 7. DoD would have joint oversight of a budget of roughly $26 million 
    for staff and office space (other sources say $50 million)
 8. Staff would consist of a Director drawn from the Senior Executive
    Service, a Deputy Director from SES (or a Brigadier General), 
    five planners, software and  hardware ^[1]

[Image:http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/pubfiles/slide06-thumb.jpg]

According to "Captain Ed" posting on the Captain's Quarters:

 * The datamining component is KIMBERLITE MAGIC and will follow and
   update  the SOCOM and NOAH efforts of the pre-9/11 period. 
 * After testing, the Able Providence team will coordinate with the
   National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), SOCOM, Joint Forces 
   Command (JFCOM), FBI,  CIA, NSA, DHS (Customs/TSA, etc) 
 * The program will partner with Army 1st Info Ops Command (IDC),
   Army Asymmetric Warfare Group (ASW), Navy DEEP BLUE, Air Force
   CHECKMATE 
 * This will result to produce actionable "Decision Support" 
   Option Packets. 
 * Able Providence would then act as a conduit for these efforts to
   law  enforcement agencies as needed

^[2]