US Air Force,
BOLLING AIR FORCE BASE, WASHINGTON, D.C.: An Air Force special agent charged the vehicle and rammed the barrel of his M-4 rifle through the windshield and into the chest of the suicide bomber, startling him long enough to be removed from the vehicle and detained, eradicating the terrorist plot with conviction and saving untold numbers of U.S. and coalition forces' lives.
Jason Smiley, a special agent with Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and an OSI team deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 to conduct counterintelligence operations in support of the war on terrorism.
OSI has served as the Air Force's investigative service since 1948, when Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington created the organization. OSI's mission is to identify, exploit and neutralize criminal, terrorist and intelligence threats to the Air Force, Department of Defense and U.S. government.
“Our agents are at the tip of the spear, doing some amazing work in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and in many other lesser talked about places around the globe,” said Brig. Gen. Dana Simmons, the OSI commander. With more than 2,700 members, OSI agents are fighting terrorism on the front lines, taking criminals to task, protecting cutting-edge technology, and ensuring the safety and security of the Air Force and America.
In the pursuit of eliminating various threats, OSI agents take part in a wide range of activities, everything from interviewing subjects to the more extreme measures Agent Smiley took. Because of this, OSI agents must be equal parts investigator and warfighter.
Criminal investigations encompass a large percentage of OSI's overall mission. OSI agents provide Air Force commanders around the globe with elite, professional investigative services. OSI's criminal investigations mainly focus on felony-level crimes including murder, robbery, rape, assault, major burglaries, drug use and trafficking, sex offenses, arson, compromise of Air Force test materials, black market activities and other serious criminal activities.
In addition, OSI agents focus their investigative resources on one of their main priorities — fraud, or economic crime, investigations. These include violations of the public trust involving Air Force contracting matters, appropriated and non-appropriated funds activities, computer systems, pay and allowance matters, environmental matters, acquiring and disposing of Air Force property and major administrative irregularities.
“A lot of money flows through the Air Force, and OSI's expert fraud investigators ensure no one abuses the system,” said Special Agent Bob Smolich, an OSI fraud program manager.
OSI agents use fraud surveys to help determine the existence, location and extent of fraud in Air Force operations and programs. Agents also provide briefings to and work closely with base and command-level resource managers to help identify and prevent fraud involving Air Force or Department of Defense resources. Their efforts can save the Air Force and taxpayers millions of dollars every year.
In order to tackle the wide variety of criminal investigations they face from day to day, OSI agents receive the extensive training offered in the investigative community. All new agent recruits, whether officer, enlisted or civilian, receive their entry-level training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga. The candidates attend a mandatory, 11-week Criminal Investigator Training Program with other federal law enforcement trainees. That course is followed by six weeks of OSI agency-specific course work. Both courses offer new agents training in firearms and other weapons, defensive tactics, forensics, surveillance and surveillance detection, antiterrorism techniques, crime-scene processing, interrogations and interviews, court testimony and military and federal law.
Upon graduation, new OSI agents spend a one-year probationary period in the field. After successful completion of the probationary period, some agents attend 12 weeks of technical training to acquire electronic, photographic and other skills required to perform technical surveillance countermeasures. Other agents receive specialized training in different areas of expertise including fraud investigations, antiterrorism services, counterintelligence, technical specialists, polygraphers, behavioral scientists, forensic advisers and computer experts. The successful resolution of OSI investigations relies heavily on these invaluable specialists.
Computer experts and computer forensics, in particular, are becoming more and more valuable in a world run by various information systems.
OSI is DOD's executive agent for both the Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory and the Defense Computer Investigations Training Program. Together they comprise the DOD Cyber Crime Center. The forensics laboratory provides counterintelligence, criminal and fraud computer-evidence processing, analysis and diagnostics to DOD investigations. The investigations training program provides training in computer investigations and computer forensics to DOD investigators and examiners.
Just about every investigation nowadays includes some sort of electronic data that needs to be accessed as evidential support, whether it be from computers, cassette tapes, global positioning systems, personal data assistants, cell phones and even video-game systems and MP3 players. The Cyber Crime Center has the trained personnel, equipment and expertise to access that data on just about anything.
In addition to live systems, the technicians at the center can access data after a device has been damaged or destroyed. Over the years, computer forensic experts at the Cyber Crime Center have retrieved crucial data from devices that have been smashed, cut up, thrown out of windows and burned to a crisp.
In spite of their ever-increasing list of accomplishments and capabilities, computer threats and challenges continue to grow.
“We'll always be behind the power curve,” said James Christy, director of the Cyber Crime Institute at the Cyber Crime Center. “The bad guys are coming at us at light speed. It could be a lethal engagement.” Only through the center's amazing efforts in computer forensics and dedication to research, development, testing and evaluation will the Air Force and Department of Defense be able to win the war against future technology threats.
OSI agents also carry out a crucial role as warfighters in the war on terrorism via their counterintelligence and anti-terrorism missions. Currently, OSI has agents, linguists, analysts and support members deployed worldwide.
These OSI members manage offensive and defensive activities to detect, counter and neutralize the effectiveness of hostile services and terrorist groups who target the Air Force. Their efforts include exposing and eliminating threats such as terrorism, technology transfer and computer infiltration. They also provide personal protection to senior Air Force leaders and other officials, as well as supervise an extensive antiterrorism program in geographic areas of heightened terrorist activity.
In light of the increasing challenges presented by worldwide terrorism, OSI created and maintains antiterrorism teams around the globe. These highly trained and specialized OSI units stand ready on a moment's notice to deploy globally to provide antiterrorism, counterintelligence and investigative services to Airmen and units.
“If you want to work on the front lines of the terrorist and intelligence war, there are few better places than working counterintelligence overseas for OSI,” said Agent Smiley.
During his deployment, Agent Smiley's daily duties included being a member of a team tasked to identify hostile threats to DOD members and resources.
His mission focused mainly on collecting information on two things, “bad guys and things that go boom,” he said.
Although he did operate outside the perimeter and beyond the areas of most conventional forces, his job was to identify and work with other defense forces to apprehend terrorists. His team was also tasked to question those intending to harm others. Once their team gathered enough intelligence to act, maneuver elements typically moved in with the actual physical force.
Agent Smiley gathered information that resulted in the discovery of 20 weapons caches. His first planned operation resulted in the capture of a suspected terrorist and a raid on a safe house harboring future bombers awaiting final directions to carry out an attack. He also formulated a comprehensive operation against a suicide bomber tasked to blow himself up next to a fuel truck at the Bagram Air Base main gate.
Agent Smiley's response team intercepted the bomber and another Taliban member before they reached Bagram AB. Knowing the bomber planned to detonate himself if stopped, Agent Smiley charged the front of the car on foot and smashed his rifle through the windshield and into the bomber's chest. This startled the bomber long enough for the response team to snatch him out of the side window and restrain him and his accomplice.
Whether conducting criminal investigations or antiterrorism and counterintelligence missions, OSI continues to maintain the highest standards
“We have an amazing team of active duty, reserve and civilian personnel in OSI. We are continually committed to our vision of being the world's best investigative agency…serving the greatest air and space force,” General Simmons said.
