Palantir’s God’s-Eye View of Afghanistan
In a steel container inside an American outpost in southern Afghanistan, an aerostat operator named Kevin was watching a man defecate in a farmer’s field. The man was wearing a purple hat. It was 2012, and Kevin was serving as mission director for the Persistent Ground Surveillance System team stationed here at Combat Outpost Siah Choy, located in the heart of volatile Zhari District.
The PGSS (pronounced pee-jiss) team spent 24 hours a day, seven days a week, watching an area that included 20 or so small Afghan villages. Their job was twofold. On the one hand, they watched four individual platoons of American soldiers who’d been deployed to this area, including the approximately 30 young men who made up First Platoon. Whenever one of these platoons stepped off base to conduct a patrol, the PGSS team “covered down” on the soldiers, keeping an eye out for indicators of a pending attack. The rest of the time, the team observed locals under suspicion of terrorist activity, which is why Kevin was watching the man in the purple hat. The question at hand: Was he squatting down to go to the bathroom, or to bury an IED?
