[resources] POI - Intelligence Support Activity

[grimorie]

Intelligence Support Activity

Motto: Veritas Omnia Vincula Vincit ("Truth Overcomes All Chains") or Send Me

This is purely for fic writing purposes sources: wikipedia and Killer Elite

Intelligence Support Activity, nicknamed the Activity is a US Army Intelligence special operations unite responsible for collecting intel for other US special operations forces. The Activity's conception came about because the debacle that happened in in 1980 when the military failed to save 53 American hostages in Tehran.

The lack of communication between the CIA and the military resulted in a catastrophic military operation costing a lot of lives and causing a major embarrassment for the US. The Activity was set up "as a dedicated special operations intelligence unit combining various discipliens: signals intelligence, imagery intelligence, and human intelligence, specifically matching the product to special operations requirements."

In other words, The Activity was set up to fill in the crucial Intelligence gap that the CIA failed (or refused) to provide the military.

Because of this, The Activity was also established and carefully hidden from the bureaucracy and most of their budget were siphoned off legitimate military operations.

Since The Activity's missions often lead them away from American soil they recruited volunteer soldiers from diverse ethnicities from the Middle East, Asians and Hispanic ‘soldiers with dual nationality who would have a genuine non-US dual passport they could use in undercover operations’.

The other novelty of The Activity is that they was no sexual discrimination. 'The unit commanders concluded very early on that some women, with proper training, could get away with a lot more than men.'

"Women went through the same program as men."

The Activity looked for people who were skilled linguists, computer harckers, and communications experts, and men who had proven themselves in low intensity combat operations.

Each person who joined were told they might not get promoted again and would not recieve any official recognition, not even for acts of valor.

"Training is among the most intensive in the US Army," the top secret history said. It began with Assessment and Selection, known simply as A&S. This was a ‘rigorous program designed to place the candidate for assignment to US Army Intelligence and Support Activity in a sufficient number of different physically and mentally stressful situations [snip]. Unlike regular units a training schedule was never posted."

First the volunteers were dumped in the middle of the desert with no food, water or means of communication and handed a list of near impossible intelligence requests. They had to gather the ‘intel’ and find a secure way of passing it back to the command post. Having done that, they were forced to go without sleep for several days before being dropped off in a strange city and ordered to carry out a series of complicated operations that would test their fieldcraft and ingenuity, like following a suspect while avoiding other agents who were on the trail.

'Physical condition was secondary to mental ability, especially mental toughness and determination,' one former member said. 'Admittedly, assessment required a certain level of physical conditioning. ISA teams were routinely able to cover up to 50 miles in 24 hours.'

Once they had passed A&S, the volunteers were put through the main course. It included survival skills, parachuting, weapons training and espionage tradecraft such as agent running.

Training continued throughout the operator's time with the unit, which repeatedly carried out rehearsals and exercises to test its various capabilities, with the emphasis on the ability to adapt to any given situations.

(Note: One of the things The Activity operators were taught was parachuting, specifically a specialized kind of parachuting called: High Altitude, High Open. Supposedly, taken with a large grain of salt, in a competition between units, The Activity Operators kicked Delta's ass in the parachuting competition and they were never invited again.

According to wiki, High Altitude, High Open parachuting are used for covert insertions.)

The moment a volunteer becomes an Activity operator ‘their names disappeared from the listings of servicemen and -women. From the time they joined the ISA until they left, their names only show up on the Army Special Roster, which lists members of top secret units like Delta and the Activity’.

Once The Activity was up and running the Activity was made to operate as a stand alone special missions unit. The Activity has their own team of special operations commandos (shooters) trained to carry out direct action, and they also have 'knob-turners' electronic surveillance team tasked to monitor radio communications, bug telephones and collect signals intelligence (Sigint).

The Activity Operators also seldom wore uniforms, and only wore them when the occasion called for it.

Other elite units called The Activity as the 'Secret Army of Northern Virginia' because of its closeness of its base to Washington and the Pentagon.

Relevant to Person of Interest

According to John Reese in the POI-verse The Intelligence Support Activity ' is an obscure unit that does black-ops so dark, technically they don't exist.'

It seemed that the decision to cast Sarah Shahi (Sameen Shaw) and Nick Tarabay (Devon Grice) both actors of mixed heritage Persian American for Shahi and Lebanese American for Tarabay were deliberate, or at least, a happy accident.

Since most of the Activity operations are done outside of US soil and they require people who are multilingual. They also recruit computer hackers or anyone who is an expert in signals intelligences since according to 'Killer Elite' a large bulk of Activity Operators, are what they call 'knob turners'.

Its also accurate that the Activity does recruit women as opposed to other elite units.

Shaw, Cole, Grice, and Brooks would have undergone A&S where they would be left in the desert with no food or water and gather intel while trying to beat other volunteers who want to join the team.

Based on the training above Shaw and the others would know a little or maybe even specialized in: High Altitude, High Open parachuting; tradecraft, and weapons training.

The Activity Operators are trained to be a self sufficient unit and to enter a hostile environment before special operations units like Delta and the US Rangers, they gather intel and are supposed to blend in with the people, which is why the Activity's recruit soldiers from a wide set of ethnicities.

To be updated as soon as I get more details