How U.S. Commandos ID'ed a ‘Mutilated’ Baghdadi So Quickly
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How U.S.
Commandos ID’ed a ‘Mutilated’ Baghdadi So Quickly
New
technology includes a smaller and much faster DNA-reader that troops can haul
into combat aboard their helicopters and use while the smoke is still clearing.
David Axe Updated 10.28.19 12:10PM ET
U.S.
Special Operations Forces cornered Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi in a nighttime raid in Syria early Sunday morning before the
Islamic State leader took his own life after triggering an explosive suicide
vest he was wearing. Despite the carnage, the White House announced that
American commandos quickly confirmed Baghdadi’s identity by combining
facial-recognition technology and fast DNA analysis.
The
near-instant forensic analysis appears to be a dramatic demonstration of new
capabilities U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) developed in part to
address ambiguities that resulted from the commando raid that killed al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.
Most
importantly, a new, smaller and much faster DNA-readr that troops can haul
into combat aboard their helicopters and use while the smoke from combat is
still clearing.
Acting on
fresh intelligence regarding Baghdadi’s whereabouts, U.S. forces based in
northern Iraqi piled into helicopters and, as President Trump announced, flew
“very, very low and very, very fast” to Idlib in western Syria.
As the
Americans cleared Baghdadi’s compound, killing what Trump described as “a
number” of ISIS fighters, Baghdadi himself fled into a tunnel with three of his
children. “He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down,”
Trump noted in a rambling
press conference on Sunday.
“He
ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children,” Trump continued.
“His body was mutilated by the blast. The tunnel had caved in on it. But test
results gave certain immediate and totally positive identification. It was
him.”
Baghdadi’s
head reportedly remained intact following the blast. Using a biometric
facial-recognition scanner, the Americans “immediately identified” Baghdadi,
Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported.
Since the
early days of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. forces have built up huge
databases of terror suspects’ faces, iris patterns, and fingerprints, and used
an ever-improving series of handheld scanners to match detainees with suspects’
profiles. Most recently, the U.S. Army began studying ways
of gathering “voiceprints” in order to identify terrorists by the sound of
their voices.
The
commandos in the Baghdadi raid didn’t just rely on these biometric signatures
to confirm the target’s identity. The White House in a statement said,
“a combination of visual evidence and DNA tests confirmed Baghdadi’s
identity.”
Until
recently, a conclusive DNA test could take weeks as analysts at a laboratory
dissolved organic samples in special reagent chemicals, sifted out waste
materials in order to isolate the DNA, then copied the strands in order to
produce an easily readable baseline.
The U.S.
Defense Department has worked hard in recent years to speed up DNA processing,
specifically in order to quickly identify terror leaders who might not survive
swift, violent commando raids.
Shortly
after U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011,
American officials delivered a sample of the terror leader’s remains to a U.S.
military DNA lab in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported. There,
military specialists confirmed bin Laden’s identity. The chance of an error was
“approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion,” an intelligence official told the
newspaper.
But
Pentagon leaders wanted Special Operations Forces to be able to identify
terrorists on the spot in the heady hours following a raid—no time-consuming
shipments to DNA labs required.
In 2015,
SOCOM officials revealed that commandos had begun using two new types of a
small and portable DNA lab: the RapidHIT 200 from California-based IntegenX and
the DNAscan from NetBIO in
Massachusetts.
“We
want something that doesn't take a Ph.D. to operate, obviously. We have
knuckle-draggers out there that are operating these things.”
— Michael
Fitz, former manager of SOCOM’s special surveillance program
The two
DNA-readers work like the bigger, traditional laboratory-based systems do, but
with very small, precisely measured quantities of chemicals and a wireless
connection to a DNA database. Both new readers weigh around 100 pounds and are
the size of a copy machine, making them small enough to fit on a
helicopter.
They both
require just one, moderately trained operator. Use a cotton swab to soak up
some spit or blood, slip the swab into a plastic sleeve, insert the sleeve into
the machine and press a few buttons. Less than two hours later, the machine
spits out a strip of paper listing any matches.
“We want
something that doesn’t take a Ph.D. to operate, obviously,” said Michael Fitz,
then the manager of SOCOM’s special surveillance program. “We have
knuckle-draggers out there that are operating these things.”
In 2015, the
instant DNA-scanners were expensive at around a quarter-million dollars per
unit. “We’re saving it for the juicy missions,” Fitz said. At the time, SOCOM
hoped to work with industry to shrink the mobile DNA-scanners down to just five
pounds.
The command
reportedly hoped to get the
smaller scanners by 2019 or 2020. It’s unclear whether the more compact devices
were available for the Baghdadi raid. SOCOM did not immediately respond to an
email seeking comment.
Regardless
of size or quickness, a DNA reader is only as good as the data available to it.
Sure, you can read a terror suspect’s DNA. But you have to compare it to a
known sample of the suspect’s tissue in order to be sure you have a match.
To
confirm bin Laden’s identity, the U.S. intelligence community reportedly piggybacked on
an immunization drive in Abbottabad shortly before the May 2011 raid. The
immunization effort could have allowed U.S. operatives to collect samples from
bin Laden’s family members.
But as of
2015, the Pentagon didn’t possess a large database of terror suspects’ DNA. “We
haven’t been collecting DNA, in part because it’s been a cumbersome and lengthy
process to do that,” Fitz explained at the time. The military’s DNA database in
2015 was “not robust, not populated with the people we’re interested in,” Fitz
added.
If U.S. commandos did indeed quickly
confirm Baghdadi’s identity by way of his DNA, it’s because they already possessed
a sample of the ISIS leader’s tissue. Citing an unnamed U.S. official, The
Washington Post reported that special
forces were able to obtain the DNA they needed to identify Baghdadi voluntarily
from one of his daughters.
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