 Shoshana Brackett/SDN Brig. Gen. James O. Poss, left, the senior intelligence officer for the U.S. Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command, speaks with Cade Smith, assistant dean of students and director of the MSU Appalachian Leadership Honors Program, following his presentation to members of the MSU leadership programs. By SHOSHANA BRACKETT
Starkville Daily News
U.S. military officials quickly pieced together who was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and acted decisively to pursue military action in Afghanistan to hunt those responsible, a top Air Force intelligence officer said Thursday.
Students in Mississippi State University's leadership programs learned how the U.S. originally invaded Afghanistan from Brig. Gen. James O. Poss, the senior intelligence officer for the U.S. Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
Poss, a native Mississippian, spoke about the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan directly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., and the important role political science plays in such real-world applications. Poss' visit was sponsored by Appalachian Leadership Honors Program at MSU.
During his presentation, Poss led students through the timeline for the first three months of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. At the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, Poss worked as commander of the 609th Intelligence Group, Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.
"We very quickly figured out who was behind it," Poss said of the attacks.
"We had been watching al-Qaida for awhile."
Eight days after the attacks, Poss and 49 others left for Saudi Arabia where they first had to get permission to get into the country in order to begin their assault on Afghanistan.
Though Saudi Arabia has had bad press, often due to the fact that many of the 9/11 high-jackers came from the country, Poss said its government was invaluable to the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.
"I can't tell you how much help we got from the Saudi government," Poss said. "They displayed a lot of bravery letting us in."
Initially, the military knew very little about Afghanistan, Poss said.
Other operational challenges included the country's difficult terrain, bad weather and the fact that several different ethno-linguistic tribes live in different areas of Afghanistan.
Immediately, military intelligence, the CIA and MI6, the British external intelligence agency, worked together.
They found that the "good guys" were outnumbered 3:1 and the "bad guys" had all the artillery, mortars and trucks while the good guys only had a few helicopters and horses, Poss said.
Despite those seeming setbacks, the group had contacts with many powerful men in Afghanistan and used political and human relationship skills when beginning the invasion to remove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.
Key to the successful invasion were the human relationship skills and political science skills, Poss said.
"It's all about human relationships and thinking about how your opponent or ally is thinking," he said.
The group started in northern Afghanistan and moved south and to the east and west, overtaking the whole country within the course of a few months.
Between Sept. 19, 2001, and Dec. 20, 2001, with only a handful of CIA operatives and soldiers and a lot of air power, the U.S. successful invaded Afghanistan, Poss said.
Now, to keep control in Afghanistan, Poss said the focus is on finding educated Afghanis, maintaining an outpouring of aid and working on nation building as the U.S. continues Operation Enduring Freedom, one of the military campaigns in the global war on terror.
Poss majored in political science and minored in history at the University of Southern Mississippi.
"There's a shocking number of us represented in the upper ranks of the military," Poss said of political science majors.
"Those types of skills become exponentially more important to you the higher you climb up the ladder," Poss said.
Political science skills and the southern person’s social desire to make connections with people help in world affairs, he said.
"We are honored to have such a distinguished leader as Gen. Poss visit MSU and speak to our students," said Cade Smith, ALHP director and assistant dean of students. "His military experiences in both war and peacetime will give our students valuable insights on the character and attributes of a strong leader."
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