The Pentagon's 230 Page Document Released Online! Non-reducted Targeting Manual
An unexpected document has entered the public domain. A .pdf file named "Target Development Standards" has been released to the public, without any form of reduction applied to it. The document is not labeled as "Classified," but it is made for "For Official Use Only", which makes it one of the manual by which the Pentagon functions. What does it reveal?
Popular Science shares that the document does not cover all forms of force used on the battlefield. It does not govern lethal operations taken by the Central Intelligence Agency, but it practically covers everything else. The “Target Development Standards” document covers the process of discerning a target.
Under a “Target”, the reader should understand an achievable goal which will have a positive outcome for the U.S Army.
As the document itself explains, it is important to differentiate targets accurately as making the wrong choice could lead to severe civilian casualties, uprisings or breakage of the Laws of War. Another part of the document reveals the relationship between data, information, and intelligence. Each sequential stage passes a group of target filtering procedures, which separate the additional information from that which is relevant to the target.
The Federation of American Scientists reports that there has still been no explanation given from the Pentagon about the released document. It is supposed to be shared only on the internal networks, without public access, but somehow found its place in public domain.
It is speculated that this document is intended for internal use in the Five Eyes Alliance. The Five Eyes is an organization dedicated to sharing vital intelligence information between the governments of U.S.A, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Whatever the reason is, there is still expected an official explanation.
Since the article itself is too short to cover all the important information in the 230-page document, the gist is, it has information on the ways that war and how military interventions are carried out.
