Gates makes DoD give NATO allies access to secret websites

JIEDDO uploads reports about bomb attacks and responses and tags it by metadata like attack location and bomb material.

From Spencer Ackerman, the Danger Room:  It’s been nearly nine years since NATO entered Afghanistan. But it’s only been a few months since the U.S.’ allies in Afghanistan got to log on to a secret website run by the Pentagon’s anti-roadside bomb team to pool information on the war’s signature weapon.

Run by the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, a classified site called JKnIFE has been, since its inception in 2006, the military’s premiere storehouse of tactical information on the deadly homemade bombs. …

If you don’t have a Defense Department-issued Common Access Card, attempts to browse the super-secret JKnIFE don’t work. In March, Defense Secretary Robert Gates realized that meant NATO partner troops in Afghanistan couldn’t learn the latest about the IED threat they faced, so he ordered that NATO partners gain access to “critical [counter-IED] databases.” In June, JKnIFE became the first. …

NATO militaries can access JKnIFE in their home countries or during deployment, and as with U.S. troops, JIEDDO restricts them from uploading their own data. Unlike American forces, though, they can’t view information on the homemade-bomb threat from beyond Afghanistan.

Some expanded access is on the way. In December, British troops at their home bases will be able to upload their own bomb data, a first for JKnIFE. And in the coming months, NATO will get to view another secret JIEDDO website: the Counter-IED Operations Integration Center Portal, which profiles insurgent bomb networks.  (photo: U.S. Department of Defense) (JKnIFE on Facebook)

United States and Canada

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