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The end of the Cold War presented the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) with a new set of challenges. Largely structured and deployed with the Cold War's priorities in mind, the command looked toward its role in a supposedly transformed world. Before much time had passed, however, INSCOM found itself committed to a series of conflicts unrelated to old American-Soviet tensions.
At the end of 1989, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega posed a threat to U.S. interests and provoked an American military intervention, Operation Just Cause. As American ground forces engaged Noriega's security forces, INSCOM's 470th Military Intelligence (MI) Group deployed its assets to support the operation. Intimately familiar with both the terrain and the disposition of Panama's armed forces, the group's teams provided spot reports throughout Panama City. Using their sources, 470th MI Soldiers obtained critical information on troop movements and locations of weapons caches. After the fighting, they helped identify and apprehend a number of Noriega's senior aides. For its role in the operation, the 470th MI Group was awarded a battle streamer.
Less than a year later, and halfway across the world, another crisis developed when Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait. American ground, naval, and air forces quickly deployed in Saudi Arabia to prevent further Iraqi expansion. As the situation stabilized, elements of INSCOM's 513th MI Brigade began to arrive on the Arabian Peninsula with a wide array of assets. Meanwhile, INSCOM shifted resources to ensure intelligence support for U.S. Army Central (ARCENT). Companies and teams from the 66th MI Brigade and reservists from the United States deployed to support the brigade; by Christmas 1990, the 66th MI Brigade's strength was over a...