JFIC Project

Trying to put together a table of who's who at Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and it's subordinate, Joint Forces Intelligence Command (JFIC) during the critical 1999 to 2001 time frame. It's in table format and can be found here:

USJFCOM

Most of the information in the chart has been gleaned from online biographies of retired military personnel who have entered the private sector. Some of the names and dates are from the Inspector General report. Kirk von Ackermann first reported to JFIC for Information Operations in November 1999. He was quickly attached to the asymmetric threat group, DO5.

I'll update the chart as more information becomes available.

Review of Joint Forces Intelligence Command Response to 9/11 Commission
Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence
United States Department of Defense
September 23, 2008
Declassified March 5, 2010

Rear Admiral Rosanne LeVitre, USN

In his May 8, 2006, Formal Complaint to DoD Inspector General [1], an unidentified intelligence officer known only as IRON MAN wrote:

(U) Contrary to JFIC's formal report to the JCS staff, JFIC had a direct and assigned purview on international terrorism against the U.S., to include the operations of al-Qa'ida and the 9/11 attackers. JFIC was directly responsible to both Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and its subordinate, Joint Task Force-Civil Support (JTF-CS) for all-source intelligence analysis of internationai terrorism against the U.S. To ensure the quality of such analysis,  JFlC's commanding officer [redacted] established the Asymmetric Threat Branch (DO5), charged with reporting on asymmetric threats, especially terrorism. [redacted] was subsequently promoted to JFCOM J2. As a RADM and PACOM J2, she established another Asymmetric Threat branch at PACOM.)

It is my belief that the commanding officer described above is Rear Admiral (retired) Rosanne M. LeVitre, US Navy.

Left - Screen capture of the online biography at the website for The Consensus for American Security for Rear Admiral Rosanne M. LeVitre, US Navy (Retired). The biography includes a color photograph and also notes her '...considerable experience in the interagency intelligence arena.'

In fact, the online biography [2] opens with this sentence:

Rear Admiral Rosanne "Rose" LeVitre was the first woman intelligence specialist selected for flag rank in the United States Navy.

According to the biography, Rear Admiral LeVitre was also in the right places doing the right things with the right people at the right time.

After [Gulf War I], she was sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), Current Operations Directorate (J3). Among her duties was that of JCS representative to a National Security Council. She later served at two joint intelligence centers (JICs), one of which she commanded. After her command tour, she became the Director for Intelligence (J2), U.S. Joint Forces Command, Norfolk, VA.

On selection to flag rank, Rear Admiral (ret) LeVitre assumed the position as Director for Intelligence (J2), U.S. Pacific Command, Honolulu, Hawaii. From 2000 to late 2003, she oversaw intelligence operations at a time of increased tensions, from the EP-3 aircraft incident with China, to the Global War on Terrorism, and crises involving India-Pakistan and Korea. She conceived of and oversaw implementation of an expanded information sharing architecture, involving traditional allied partners, non-traditional alliances and non-DOD entities to include the FBI, state and local authorities. [2]

Please re-read that last sentence again.

She conceived of and oversaw implementation of an expanded information sharing architecture, involving traditional allied partners, non-traditional alliances and non-DOD entities to include the FBI, state and local authorities.

Of the Asymmetric Threat Division (DO5), the Defense Inspector General for Intelligence wrote this:

In 1999, the Joint Forces Intelligence Command created the Asymmetric Threat Division to take a non-traditional approach to analysis. The Asymmetric Threat Division provided current intelligence briefings and produced the Worldwide Terrorist Threat Summary in support of the Intelligence Director for the United States Joint Forces Command. The Asymmetric Threat Division also provided support to the Joint Task Force-Civil Support. The Joint Task Force-Civil Support assisted civil authorities with disaster assistance. [3]

IRON MAN pretty much alludes to the fact that DO5 was ahead of its time:

(U) The Asymmetric Threat Branch in JFIC was a forerunner of current all-source fusion centers. Unlike other analytical offices in the intelligence cornmunity, DO5 members had
a wide mix of skilis in all six intelligence disciplines - HUMINT, OSINT, COMINT, ELINT, IMINT, and MASINT. Consequently, DO5 was able to develop and use all-source, original analysis in a manner probably then unprecedented within the intelligence community. [1]

The Asymmetric Threat Division was Rear Admiral LeVitre's baby, making her truly a visionary in the intelligence community. But according to IRON MAN, shortly after LeVitre left, her replacement shut down DO5.

(U) [redacted] the last JFIC commanding officer under which I served, was adamantly opposed to JFIC conducting any original analysis of al-Qa'ida, and directed such work be stopped in late 2000-early 2001. [1]

And that action - actively shutting down DO5 - puts a very different spin on things.

Someone please tell me that DO5 wasn't shut down because of sexism and that as a direct result, 2,753 people died on 9/11 just because the boys club didn't take girls.

Because if that's the case, that's some seriously [redacted] up [redacted].

ADDENDUM

Flag officer announcements from the archives of the Department of Defense.

Flag Officer Assignments
U.S. Department of Defense, Press Release, December 8, 2003

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark announced the following flag officer assignments Dec. 8:

Rear Adm. (lower half) Rosanne M. Levitre is being assigned as director, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, FORCEnet, N6/N7, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Arlington, Va. Levitre is currently serving as director for intelligence, J2, U.S. Pacific Command, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Flag Officer Announcements
U.S. Department of Defense, Press Release, May 25, 2000

Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen announced today that the President has
nominated the following U.S. Navy officers for promotion to rear admiral (lower half):

SPECIAL DUTY OFFICER (INTELLIGENCE)

Levitre, Rosanne M. Director of Intelligence, J2, [NL] U.S. Joint Forces Command AUG 1999 TO DATE Norfolk, Va.

Flag and General Officer Assignments
U.S. Department of Defense, Press Release, June 30, 2000

The following are flag and general officer assignments as announced by the Departments of the Navy and Army.

PRESENT ASSIGNMENT
Levitre, Rosanne M.
Rear Admiral
(Lower Half) (Selectee)
Director of Intelligence
J2, U.S. Joint Forces Command
Norfolk, Va.

NEW ASSIGNMENT
Director for Intelligence
J2, U.S. Pacific Command
Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii

References

[1] Attachment - Unclassified FOIA Response PDF
April 8, 2011
Formal Complaint to DoD Inspector General
re: JFIC and Congressional Inquiry
May 8, 2006

[2] See: Members » Rear Admiral Rosanne M. LeVitre
The Consensus for American Security

[3] Review of Joint Forces Intelligence Command Response to 9/11 Commission PDF
Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence
United States Department of Defense
September 23, 2008
Declassified March 5, 2010
From the Federation of American Scientists

Report: Intelligence Unit Told Before 9/11 to Stop Tracking Bin Laden
By Jeffrey Kaye, Truthout, May 23, 2011

Abbreviations - used above

COMINT - Communications Intelligence
DO5 - Asymmetric Threat Division
DOD - Department of Defense
ELINT - Electronic Intelligence
FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation
HUMINT- Intelligence
IMINT- Imagery Intelligence
J2 - Director for Intelligence
JCS - Joint Chiefs of Staff
JFCOM - Joint Forces Command
JFIC - Joint Forces Intelligence Command
JIC - Joint Intelligence Center
JTF-CS - Joint Task Force- Civil Support
MASINT- Measurement and Signature Intelligence
OSINT- Open Source Intelligence
PACOM - Pacific Command
RADM - Rear Admiral
US - United States of America
USN - United States Navy

What did Kirk see?

More thinking out loud.....and nit picking.

In November 1999, Captain Kirk von Ackermann, USAF, arrived to work at Joint Forces Intelligence Command in Virginia, where he was assigned to counter terrorism.

In trying to describe her husband and how his work was slowly consuming his entire life, Megan von Ackermann wrote a very short passage that took place somewhere in the vicinity of Virginia:

Dual Lives
By Megan von Ackermann, Missing in Iraq, September 5, 2006

Like the time [Kirk] glanced over as we passed a local bank, stiffened and muttered something about 'so they use that one...' I think he had recognized someone going into the bank, and now part of him was concerned with working out how to use this unexpected windfall of information.

Assuming what was written is accurate, it means JFIC more or less lied, at least once, in its response to the Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence.

Appendix B. (U) Scanned JFIC Response:

2. Did your agency have information prior to Sept 11, 2001, to suggest that international terrorist cells were operating within the United States? If so, please set this information aside for review by the staff of the Joint inquiry.

ANSWER: No, but prior to Sept 11, 2001, neither JFIC nor JFCOM tracked terrorist activity in the United States. The United States was not part of JFCOM's AOR.

Then why was a JFIC counter terrorism officer so interested in someone he saw outside of a bank? Why did that officer refer to 'they' - plural - unless the subject observed was connected to or a member of an already known group that - at best - was only 'suspected' of ties to terrorists?

What did Kirk see and who exactly did he pass that information on to? More importantly, what did the recipient do with it?

References

Attachment - Unclassified FOIA Response PDF
FOIA response
April 8, 2011
Formal Complaint to DoD Inspector General
re: JFIC and Congressional Inquiry
May 8, 2006

Review of Joint Forces Intelligence Command Response to 9/11 Commission PDF
Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence
United States Department of Defense
September 23, 2008
Declassified March 5, 2010
From the Federation of American Scientists

Report: Intelligence Unit Told Before 9/11 to Stop Tracking Bin Laden
By Jeffrey Kaye, Truthout, May 23, 2011

Kidnapped

Heads up.

Colin Freeman, who first wrote about the disappearance of Kirk von Ackermann, has a new book coming out on his own kidnapping in Somalia. Today, Freeman is chief foreign correspondent on The Sunday Telegraph.

Description from the publisher.

Kidnapped: Life As A Somali Pirate Hostage
By Colin Freeman, Monday Books, June 2011

Somalia: the world’s most notorious failed state, and one of the most dangerous places on earth.

It’s a land of pirates, criminal gangs and militant Islamists, which even the military might of the U.S.A. couldn’t tame. With no government for two decades, there can be few worse places to be taken hostage...

This is Sunday Telegraph foreign correspondent Colin Freeman’s account of being kidnapped on the lawless Somali pirate coast - and how it became a haven for modern-day buccaneers.

There's also a short piece by Colin Freeman at the BBC.

Somalia: What is it like to be kidnapped?
By Colin Freeman, BBC, June 29, 2011