based on what they call pattern of life. they're basically looking at a vehicle they believed had some association with an sizis safe house and watching this vehicle using overhead surveillance drones to see it's going here, there, we think we can build a pattern that suggests that this is a suspect. that this is a legitimate target for a counterterrorism strike. but at the end of the day by the time the missile was launched, they didn't actually definitively know the identity of the target. they just built this pattern of life that they believed suggested that he was isis. >> the flimsy clues as i think you said in your story. working off what they could without more assets on the ground. >> that is the future of counterterrorism afghanistan. one of the things we heard repeatedly from former intelligence officials and even current officials we're talking to now if this strike went so badly while the united states still has a presence on the ground, what does that say for the biden administration's ability to conduct counterterrorism strikes in afghanistan when there is no