Interview With MAJ Melissa Fozman

As the military liaison officer (LNO) to other government agencies - mainly the CIA and the FBI - Major Melissa Fozman, based at Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan in Kabul, supported Operation Enduring Freedom from July 2004 through January 2005. Working mainly in civilian clothes, she had both a military and a civilian chain of command, and in her LNO capacity conducted coordination between the two regarding everything from range deconfliction and supporting the combined joint special operations task force in taking down Taliban insurgents and 'other miscellaneous nefarious creatures of all sorts' to counterintelligence operations and the sharing of equipment and information among senior leaders. Indeed, said Fozman, 'Sometimes I forgot I was an intel officer because I was doing more operations than intel. A lot of it was coordination and making sure they knew who to talk to in the military or the military knew who to talk to' - a task that, at times, she likened to trying to get kindergarteners to play nice with each other. According to Fozman, being female actually worked to her benefit and, in general, she said that a good LNO is, 'Somebody with people skills. Somebody with brains. Somebody who is not afraid to get their ass chewed whether they’re right, wrong or indifferent.' She comments on the constant challenge that stovepiped communications posed, discusses her own background and intelligence training (and otherwise) that helped prepare her for this LNO job, and in addition shares a number of observations on the whole interagency process and her recommendations for how it can be streamlined and made more efficient.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.