New Advisor Would Integrate Colombian Aerial-Surveillance Assets

The Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota is continuing its trend in creating new counterdrug advisory positions and deploying those candidates throughout Colombia. The U.S. State Dept. in 2005 launched several recruitment campaigns for advisory positions in the respective areas of facility security, fixed-wing aviation operations, counterdrug ops financial-management, aircraft maintenance and fuel support, and even a position jointly encompassing the areas of wiretapping & weaponry; last week it added yet another title to its list of Bogota-based private-contractors: Eradication Imagery/Statistics Advisor. This advisor will oversee the high-altitude deployment and use of digital-surveillance technology known as MDIS, or multi-spectral digital imaging. MDIS allows pilots to take high-resolution pictures, for example, of coca plantations, and makes it easier for analysts on the ground to distinguish licit from illicit crops. The imagery advisor would specialize in such digital-image collection and statistical analysis across Colombia and at “multiple forward operating locations,” according to a personnel solicitation that the State Dept. on Aug. 3 added to the federal Electronic Posting System database.

State’s desired outcome for the new slot is to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of U.S.-led crop eradication programs conducted by the Colombian National Police (CNP) and Colombian Army (COLAR) counternarcotics units. Similarly, the advisor will be responsible for bringing together numerous aerial-surveillance programs of which coordinated efforts are absent or lacking. The selected candidate for the job must ”develop, coordinate, organize, and implement comprehensive imagery gathering systems and procedures for the office of aviation,” the EPS notice said. That person also will be responsible for coordinating “the use of various imagery platforms available in Colombia and integrate them into a single effective organization.”

The imagery advisor also will serve as U.S. with the CNP and COLAR and “integrate their resources into the eradication program imagery gathering and statistics compilation systems.” Personal contacts with Colombian officials these new imagery gathering matters “must often employ persuasion, diplomacy and cooperation to achieve [U.S. Government] goals.”

Applicants with either military or civilian imagery collection and analysis experience will be considered, the State Dept. said: “The person selected for this position must be able to carry on technical and social conversations, as well as be able to take effective notes at appropriate times for subsequent report writing.”