The IACSP’s Counter-Terrorism Journal V21N2

Guardian Angels: A Spotlight On The World’s Most Advanced Disaster Training Facility

Islamist Exploitation Of Urban Unrest In America Recruiting By Terrorist Groups: Children And Teenagers CyberTerrorism: America Has Been Breached.

Do We Have The Will To Recover?

Active Shooters: Threat Assessment For Preemptive Prevention Social Networking At 35,000 Feet?

Spies Will Love It

Summer Issue Vol. 21 No. 2 2015 Printed in the U.S.A. IACSP.COM

Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International

Vol. 21, No.2

Attention,

Journal of Counter-Terrorism Readers Save 20% on your copy of Global Security Consulting by using the promo code GlobalSecurity20

Vol. 21, No. 2 Summer 2015 IACSP Director of Operations Steven J. Fustero

Page 14 Recruiting By Terrorist Groups: Children And Teenagers.

Associate Publisher Phil Friedman Senior Editor Nancy Perry Contributing Editors Paul Davis Thomas B. Hunter Joshua Sinai

By Dr. Priscilla Thorn

Book Review Editor Jack Plaxe Research Director Gerry Keenan Conference Director John Dew

Page 28 Active Shooters: Threat Assessment For Preemptive Prevention.

Communications Director Craig O. Thompson Art Director Scott Dube, MAD4ART International Psychological CT Advisors Cherie Castellano, MA, CSW, LPC Counterintelligence Advisor Stanley I. White

By Dr. Joshua Sinai

South America Advisor Edward J. Maggio Homeland Security Advisor Col. David Gavigan

Page 6

SITREP, Terrorism Trends & Forecasts 2015

Page 8

America Has Been Breached: Do We Have The Will To Recover? By David Gewirtz

Personal Security Advisor Thomas J. Patire

Page 10 Social Networking At 35,000 Feet? Spies Will Love It. By Luke Bencie & Rebecca Melvin Page 14 Recruiting By Terrorist Groups: Children And Teenagers. By Dr. Priscilla Thorn Page 20 A Real Weapon Of Mass Destruction: Islamist Exploitation Of Urban Unrest In America. By George Michael Page 28 Active Shooters: Threat Assessment For Preemptive Prevention. By Dr. Joshua Sinai Page 32 Guardian Angels: A Spotlight On The World’s Most Advanced Disaster Training Facility. By John Strobridge @ Joshua Tallis Page 36 Secure Driver: The Importance Of Remembering Time And Distance. By Anthony Ricci Page 38 First Response To UAS Incidents. By Stanley I. White Page 40 An IACSP Q&A With Former CIA Official, Jack Divine. By Paul Davis Page 46 IACSP Reader’s Lounge. Dr. Joshua Sinai Reviews: Potential: Workplace Violence

Prevention And Your Organizational Success. Author: Bill Whitmore

Page 48 IACSP Reader’s Lounge: SWAT Operations And Critical Incidents: Why People Die. Author: Stuart Meyers

THE JOURNAL OF COUNTERTERRORISM & HOMELAND SECURITY INT’L is published by SecureWorldnet, Ltd., PO Box 100688, Arlington, VA 22210, USA, (ISSN#1552-5155) in cooperation with the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals and Counterterrorism & Security Education and Research Foundation. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The opinions expressed herein are the responsibility of the authors and are not necessarily those of the editors or publisher.

Editorial correspondence should be addressed to: The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, PO Box 100688, Arlington, VA 22210, USA, (571) 216-8205, FAX: (202) 315-3459 .

Membership $65/year, add $10 for overseas memberships. Postmaster: send address changes to: The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, PO Box 100688, Arlington, VA 22210, USA. Web site: www.iacsp.com

Emergency Management Advisor Clark L. Staten Director of Emergency Ops. Don L. Rondeau Tactical Advisor Robert Taubert Hazmat Advisor Bob Jaffin Security Driver Advisor Anthony Ricci, ADSI Cyberwarfare Advisor David Gewirtz Cell Phone Forensics Advisor Dr. Eamon P. Doherty IACSP Advisory Board John M. Peterson III John Dew Thomas Patire Cherie Castellano, MA, CSW, LPC Robert E. Thorn Southeast Asia Correspondent Dr. Thomas A. Marks European Correspondent Elisabeth Peruci Middle East Correspondent Ali Koknar National Sales Representative Phil Friedman, Advertising Director Tel: 201-224-0588, Fax: 202-315-3459 iacsp@aol.com Tactical Sales Representative Scott Dube, MAD4ART International Tel: 757-721-2774, scott@mad4art.com

PHOTO CREDITS: Reuters, DefenseImagery.mil Army.mil, Navy.mil, istockphoto.com, shutterstock.com and authors where applicable.

Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International

Vol. 21, No.2

SITREP

Terrorism Trends & Forecasts 2015

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urundi’s violent pre-election crisis prompted increasing alarm over the potential for open conflict. Meanwhile, fighting escalated dramatically in Afghanistan, South Sudan and Yemen last month, and Colombia’s peace agreement looked further imperiled as FARC suspended their ceasefire. A high-level defection to Islamic State from Tajikistan and a horrific attack on minorities in Pakistan were a stark reminder of ongoing destabilizing extremist threats in these countries. Last month also saw a marked rise in geopolitical tensions in the South China Sea and developments in North Korea’s nuclear weapons systems.

Elsewhere, we have seen increasing concern over stability in Macedonia, where eight police and ten gunmen were killed recently in a bloody shootout in the town of Kumanovo, and the ongoing political crisis deepened.

In a positive step forward, the House of Representatives in the Philippines passed the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) for plenary hearing. As the cornerstone of the 2012

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peace agreement ending decades of conflict in Mindanao, the bill still needs to be ratified by the House of Representatives and passed by the Senate – where there remains strong opposition – all before congress enters recess in early June.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must also agree to amendments that have been made to the BBL. In Cyprus, UN-mediated reunification talks between the Greek Cypriot leader and the Turkish Cypriot leader resumed on last month after an eight-month impasse. Since then the leaders agreed on five

Current 2015 TRENDS

America’s Pastime And Emergency Management Training Team Up

Deteriorating Situations • Afghanistan, Burundi, Colombia, Korean Peninsula, Macedonia, Pakistan, South China Sea, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Yemen Improved Situations • Cyprus, Philippines Conflict Risk Alert • Afghanistan, Burundi Source: CrisisWatch.org

Many people know that FEMA provides training for emergency responders, but we’d like to share a training partner that may surprise you: Major League Baseball.

Emergency preparedness is an effort Major League Baseball takes seriously. Recently, personnel from the New York Mets, Miami Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, and

concrete steps in the framework of confidence-building measures.

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Houston Astros baseball organizations participated in the Emergency Management Institute’s Virtual Tabletop Exercise which focused on an active shooter scenario to help them prepare for the unexpected during the 2015 baseball season.

Their participation in the tabletop exercise was a part of their internal security events to review and update emergency procedures if an active shooter event was ever to take place. The exercise helped to prepare new employees, veteran employees, and front office and stadium personnel. In total, more than 1,000 people took part from 68 agencies during the six broadcasts of the active shooter scenario including first responders, emergency management personnel, tribal, volunteer, corporate, educational, and federal employees.

The tabletop exercise also helped prepare first responders with the emergency management structure known as the Incident Command System. This is the combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure, designed to aid in the management of resources during incidents. It is used for all kinds of emergencies and is applicable to small as well as large and complex If you’re an emergency manager, I encourage you to learn more about the virtual tabletop exercise, as well as all of our training opportunities.

Editor’s Note: The organizations mentioned here are for reference purposes only.

FEMA does not endorse any non-government organizations, entities, or services.

Terrorism Awareness Guide Being prepared for acts of terrorism and incidents of mass violence is, unfortunately, becoming a necessity for the fire and emergency services. Use this resource center to find resources and tools to assist in preparing your department and community. The NVFC, in partnership with the U.S. Fire Administration, created a Ter-

rorism Awareness Guide as a resource for terrorism preparedness planning.

It serves as a compendium of resources and links regarding grants, training and learning, informational tools and DHS standards adn guidelines.

For more information, go to: http://www.nvfc. org/hot-topics/terrorismawareness-guide

2014 Country Reports On Terrorism This is a reminder to security professionals that the Dept. of State has released its Country Report on Terrorism. This report provides the DoS’s annual, statutorily mandated assessment of trends and events in international terrorism that transpired in 2014, including country-by-country breakdowns of foreign government counterterrorism cooperation, and profiles of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

• Country Reports on Terrorism 2014 is submitted in compliance with Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f (the “Act”), which requires the Department of State to provide to Congress a full and complete annual report on terrorism for those countries and groups meeting the criteria of the Act. The report was published in the late spring of this year (2015).

• Beginning with the report for 2004, it replaced the previously published Patterns of Global Terrorism.

To see the full report go to: http://www. state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2014/index.htm

Free Cybersecurity Training America needs a strong cyber workforce to keep up with evolving technology and increasing cybersecurity risks. To help meet this need, DHS has expanded access to the Federal Virtual Training Environment (FedVTE) – an online training center featuring a wide range of cybersecurity courses – to state,

local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government employees across the country.

Sponsored by DHS and supported by the Department of Defense’s Defense Information Systems Agency, FedVTE provides: • Government-wide, on-demand access to cybersecurity training to help the workforce maintain expertise and foster operational readiness; • Courses ranging from beginner to advanced levels; • Training available at no cost to users; and • Training accessible from any internet-enabled computer.

The FedVTE expansion to SLTT governments is led by the DHS SLTT Cybersecurity Engagement Program in conjunction with the DHS Cybersecurity Education & Awareness Branch.

For more information about FedVTE, please visit the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies portal at: http://niccs.us-cert.gov/ training/fedvte.

Wait, What?

September 9-11, 2015, America’s Center Convention Complex Wait, What? is a forum on future technologies … on their potential to radically change how we live and work, and on the opportunities and challenges these technologies will raise within the broadly defined domain of national security. Hosted

by DARPA and rooted in what’s already happening in today’s fastest evolving research fields, Wait, What? is designed to be a crucible for generating ideas that can stretch current conceptual horizons and accelerate the development of novel capabilities in the years and decades ahead. Wait, What? will be held September 9th through 11th, 2015, in St. Louis.

For more information please visit www.darpawaitwhat.com.

Personal Security: Be Prepared Tuning In For Tornadoes Tornadoes are one of nature’s most violent storms and can cause death, injury, and destruction within seconds. Having advanced notice that a tornado is approaching your area can give you the critical time needed to move to a safe place for protection.

Before severe weather strikes, pay attention to weather reports and be sure to sign up for text alerts and download smart phone apps that provide weather warnings.

While you may not always receive an official tornado alert in your area, there are warning signs that can indicate a tornado is near. Features in the App: • Alerts from the National Weather Service: Receive severe weather alerts for up to five locations across the U.S. and see information about how to stay safe.

• Disaster Reporter: Upload and share photos of damage and recovery efforts.

• Custom emergency safety information: Save a custom list of the items in your family’s emergency kit, as well as the places you will meet in case of an emergency.

• Maps of disaster resources: Locate and receive driving directions to open shelters and disaster recovery centers.

• Safety tips: Learn how to stay safe before, during, and after over 20 types of hazards, including floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.

• Apply for assistance: Easily access DisasterAssistance.gov to apply for federal disaster assistance.

• Information in Spanish: The app defaults to Spanish language content for smartphones that have Spanish set as their default language.

To download the app, go to: http://www.fema.gov/mobile-app

America Has Been Breached.

Do We Have The Will To Recover From It?

By David Gewirtz

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e need to move forward with a very simple premise: America has been breached and that changes everything.

In June of this year, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (basically, America’s HR department) acknowledged that it had been breached by an advanced persistent threat. Although the details are sketchy (not because OPM doesn’t

want to share, but because the agency still has no clue just how bad it was hit).

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We’ll skip the discussion of how this could possibly happen and zoom to the real detail: American has been compromised and we’re in for a world of hurt.

Various credible news agencies, citing credible current (but nameconcealed) government employees, report that information on nearly every federal government employee has been stolen. But it’s worse, far, far worse.

Reports are that OPM’s SF86 forms were stolen. These are hundred-plus page documents (many of you have filled them out, as have I) that document deep background info about not only current government employees, but potential job and office-seekers, and past employees.

These are the deep background questionnaires used for national security positions. The forms ask for detailed information ranging from alternate names (aliases) to eye color, residence information (which goes so far as to ask for contact information on neighbors who knew the subject at that address), and on and on and on, from “people who knew you well” to other detailed personal history.

In other words, the enemy (and based on Senator Harry Reid’s comments on the subject, we’re assuming it’s “the Chinese”) now has a detailed blackmail kit for every American government employee with access to anything of importance.

As we have seen in the Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden incidents, trusted federal employees who then go on to leak secured data they were entrusted to guard can cause incredible damage. The economic damage from Snowden’s revelations alone has been estimated to be in the billions of dollars.

In some ways, the OPM breach is just another mind-blowingly bad breach, another day, another breach. And yes, that’s true. We are seeing so many of our digital security barriers blasted through as if they were made of tissue paper that they are almost so common they become background noise.

But it’s time to pay attention. OPM is in a sea-change because now the enemy not only has digital tools for breaking in to our systems, it has

our people. It has enough personal information to turn spear phishing (direct outreach to individuals) into a turn-key practice. After all, the enemy now knows the names of all your friends, former neighbors, and more.

The enemy also has enough personal information to selectively (and quietly) blackmail or bribe thousands more Bradley Mannings and Edward Snowdens, to the point where we have to assume that if we know it, so do they.

If we are discussing a national security strategy, we have to assume they know it as quickly as we do.

If we are planning a troop deployment or a military action, we have to assume the bad guys know before the marines do. If we are planning a diplomatic outreach to someone or some nation, we have to assume “the Chinese” (and anyone they choose to share with or sell to) will know before SecState has been briefed.

In short, we are truly and deeply screwed.

Is there a solution? The answer is a solid “yes,” but it will require Franklin Roosevelt-quality leadership and coordinated public/private sector reinvention of our security protocols from the top down. Technologically, it’s certainly doable.

But politically? With all the divisions not only between the major parties but within the parties, and all the competitiveness among privatesector companies, and all the money coming in -- including from the very nations that breached our security -going to lobbying efforts, do we have the national will? Do we?

Nope, I think. Not a chance, but hopefully I will be proved wrong.

Oh, joy.

About the Author David Gewirtz is Director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute, Distinguished Lecturer for CBS Interactive, Cyberwarfare Advisor for the International Association of Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, IT Advisor to the Florida Public Health Association and an instructor at the UC Berkeley extension.

Social Networking At 35,000 Feet?

Spies Will Love It

By Luke Bencie and Rebecca Melvin

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cringed at a recent post on LinkedIn by Sir Richard Branson, one of my business heroes. Although in my line of work I try to avoid social media, I regularly follow Branson’s weekly commentary on entrepreneurism.

He had titled the post in question, “How to Start a Company at 35,000 feet,” which was meant to be a subtle plug for Branson’s latest in-flight perk on his hugely popular airline, Virgin America. Branson’s company had created the first in-flight social networking experience for passengers. Delta quickly followed suit with its own model, “Innovation Class.” In addition to discovering who your fellow passengers are, and accessing their profiles before or during flights, you can now also send messages to one another while remaining in your seat.

For the first time, someone sitting in 13A could ‘see’ and chat with someone in 39D. Not to be outdone, KLM airlines recently created their “Meet and Seat” program, which provides customers the chance to discover more about their fellow seatmates, as well as what events the other passengers are attending at their destination. This is all easily accomplished with the click of a button. By clicking “share,” passengers allow their Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn profiles to be viewed by all participating travelers.

Branson also used the opportunity to encourage people to start up conversations with their fellow seatmates. According to Branson, “if insights or new contacts aren’t happening to

you on trips, stay open to the possibility. You never know who you are sitting next to: they might be your next star employee or future partner or someone who shares a powerful insight or idea that changes your life.”

While this seems like common sense advice, for those of us who have worked in the Intelligence Community, Branson’s post might as well have been titled “How to Extract Industrial Secrets at 35,000 feet.”

In the world of espionage, having an unsuspecting captive target pinned to the seat next to you during a transoceanic flight is a juicy opportunity to get all

manner of useful information.

In the parlance of intelligence operatives, this craft is called elicitation. It entails subtly extracting useful information from apparently casual conversations. Elicitation techniques exploit several fundamental traits of human nature, including the fact that most of us want to be polite and answer questions honestly, that we all prefer to appear well informed about our work, and that we all want to feel important. As honest people, we are often uncomfortable withholding information or lying to strangers. As a result, we spill the beans about sensitive details—about ourselves, our jobs, our companies, our families—without realizing it.

To a good spy, elicitation begins by building rapport to determine if the person is worthy of future exploitation. The spy offers some innocuous information about him/herself, then listens actively, peppering the target with open-ended questions, sprinkled with compliments and apparently sincere interest along the way. By the end of a six-hour flight, and maybe a few rounds of drinks, the spy can elicit everything the target’s company is working on for next year or more, and whether or not that person has access to sensitive materials and warrants a follow-up meeting.

Branson’s social media innovation supplies a new twist, but

using airplanes for espionage is nothing new. Pierre Marion, former director of French intelligence—the Direction Généralé de la Sécurité Extérieure, or DGSE—established a 20-agent branch to spy on U.S. technology firms beginning in the 1980s. Nearly a decade later, Marion proudly told the French news magazine L’Express that “France had planted audio devices in the first-class cabins of (state-owned) Air France flights” to advance this effort.

Marion further admitted that the program wasn’t directed only against the United States but was worldwide (Air France denied the allegations). With major state entities behind this effort, it should come as no surprise that economic and industrial espionage cost American companies $300 billion in stolen intellectual property and business intelligence last year.

I recently spoke at a luncheon for the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in McLean, Virginia. In a room full of retired spies, I mentioned that KLM Airlines had instituted a service which allowed passengers to choose their seatmates based on Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. A howl of laughter echoed through the room at the thought of the incredible ease of identifying potential targets. To these old pros, it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel.

Social media and technology officers frequently assert that information is updated automatically and that a traveler’s information is deleted routinely every 48 hours, as is the case with KLM’s Terms and Conditions. (1) As anyone who reads the news knows, however, there is no such thing as secure public Internet. The in-flight WIFI

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that most airlines use, GoGo Internet, (2) is known to have partnered with government officials, at the least to share user data with law enforcement. The information that they share is purported to go beyond what is required under the Federal Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. (3) Data mining is also a possible threat, as with any computer system.

Hackers accessing inflight sys-

with rigor. Rival entities, perhaps foreign owned and with nation-state support, may use the same techniques and profiles to elicit information from a business competitor.

Private collectors, freelance spies simply looking to sell information to the highest bidder, are yet another source of vulnerability. Accessing social media, which often include detailed information

I recently spoke at a luncheon for the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in McLean, Virginia. In a room full of retired spies, I mentioned that KLM Airlines had instituted a service which allowed passengers to choose their seatmates based on Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. A howl of laughter echoed through the room at the thought of the incredible ease of identifying potential targets. tems, or viruses installing logging malware, have the potential to capture sensitive communications, passwords and more. Given that we caution never to use public WIFI anywhere, especially in an airport, there is no reason to assume the rules should change at a higher altitude.

And the threat does not only come in the form of conventional spies. Even corporations have gotten into the industrial espionage game

on travel itineraries, allow all of these social engineers to follow-up well past a passenger’s disembarkation.

Providing “social engineers” (a term commonly used to describe commercial intelligence collectors skilled in the art of persuasion) manipulators access to your social media profile at 35,000 feet only serves to provide a blueprint for their engineering task. They can learn

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tastes and preferences from “liked” pages, marital statuses, frequented destinations and even routines. Coupled with the more conventional use of conversational tactics, including open-ended, closeended, leading or assumptive questions, the social engineer fine tunes the most effective avenues of conversation.

These kinds of questions allow for the elicitor to predict how a target may answer their questions and what information they are likely to divulge.

I don’t doubt that Richard Branson fully comprehends the threat of economic and industrial espionage. In fact, he probably understands it better than most, considering the sensitivity involved with many of his ambitious business projects. That’s why the naïveté of this program struck me as odd. The last line of Branson’s post read, “What was the last unexpected thing you learned from a passenger while on the road?” An honest answer from an intelligence operative might shock you.

About the Authors Luke Bencie is the Managing Director of Security Management International, LLC. He is the author of Among Enemies: Counter Espionage for the Business Traveler and, most recently, Global Security Consulting: How to Build a Thriving International Practice.

Rebecca Melvin is a Junior Associate at Security Management International, LLC. She studied International Relations at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

Resources: 1 Terms and Conditions of Meet & Seat - KLM.com.” Terms and Conditions of Meet & Seat - KLM.com.Web. 2 “Gogo Inflight Internet - How Gogo Works.” Gogo Inflight Internet - How Gogo Works.Web. 3 Silver, Joe. “At Feds’ Request, GoGo In-flight Wi-Fi Service Added More Spying Capabilities.” Web.

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Recruiting

By Terrorist Groups:

Children And Teenagers

By Dr. Priscilla Thorn

Palestinian Hamas supporters attend a Hamas rally in Jabalya camp in the northern Gaza Strip April 4, 2008. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)

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s a member of a terrorist group, children and teenagers are an ideal fit to aid the organization. Youth help alleviate staffing issues, address technological advances, slip under the radar when needed, are easier to manipulate, and enhance the impact a terroristic act could make on the general public.

Why Terrorists Recruit Children and Teenagers: Key Considerations

are in-line with new technologies (from using smarter phones, computers, and gaming systems); these skills can translate to more than the simple jobs children have been given in the past (e.g. guard duty). There may be an advent of children who are able to assemble smaller and more lethal bombs under the supervision of adult insurgents.

A terrorist group only exists as long as it is staffed.

Most identified terrorists are adult males.

There is a constant need for a stream of newly recruited people to enter the group. A twelve-year old child is more attractive than a seventy year old man, no matter their convictions, because the twelve-year old has the potential to live longer. Young females can be recruited not just for their skills, but their ability to replenish the group’s supply of members. When children are fighting, there is not a huge wait between birth and service in war.

Stereotypically more assumed to be terrorists than women and children, men are targeted as terrorists by the general public.

Children (and, to a lesser extent, teenagers), because of this targeting of adult males, could be seen as “easier” to reach by terrorists, especially with the recent losses of insurgents to death by law enforcement, military response, or suicide bombings.

Younger people may also be easier to move from country to country unnoticed. It could be possible that youth could slip by a border easily (or easier than an adult male) because of their unassuming appearance.

The added bonus, of course, is the children are already in the group during their rearing; this means that all the insurgent training can occur at the most impressionable ages.

This staffing supply needs to be constant at all times, but especially during times of war, when the numbers are dwindling with each attack.

A terrorist group needs to be technologically savvy.

Any new people need to know how to fight in the “new” technologically advanced world; younger generations will bring intelligent staffing because they are more likely to effectively use technology against adversaries. Younger generations also have more potential to have motor reflexes that

people were more likely to express approval of terroristic acts against the United States.

Children can be useful bargaining tools.

Terrorists can effectively use children as pawns. They can convince children to join their cause, only to ransom the children later for money to fund the terrorist activities.

The added bonus for the terrorists is when they use children in their causes, especially to die for their causes, there’s a sense of increased barbarity amongst the public and the media.

...a six year old child stated he was told by an insurgent that the detonator button on his explosive vest “would spray flowers”. While

Children are easier to manipulate.

the child ultimately went

For example, in a 2008 article from the website for the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, a six year old child stated he was told by an insurgent that the detonator button on his explosive vest “would spray flowers”. While the child ultimately went to law enforcement and told his story, the fact that the insurgent used this type of tactic reinforces the belief that children will take the information at face value. Overall, terrorists may be more likely to believe statements made by Tessler and Robbins (2007): these authors found that younger

told his story, the fact

to law enforcement and that the insurgent used this type of tactic reinforces the belief that children will take the information at face value.

According to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, there are several predictors of violence for adult terrorists: perception of anti-Muslim bias, religiosity, and economic and political grievance. The frame of mind terrorists often have includes: seeing the war on terrorism as a war on Islam, justifying suicide attacks in defense of Islam, and favorable views of Al-Qaeda. But how do children and teenagers come to accept these complex and radical ideas?

How Terrorists Recruit Children: Key Considerations The ways in which terrorists recruit children have changed significantly in today’s technologically advanced world, but still rely on the same principles of manipulation. Children are recruited through the use of the Internet, engaging video games, and a look for acceptance; these are all things they live or like each day.

Children play on the Internet.

Weimann (2008) says that the Internet has become a favorite tool of terrorists. Anonymously, terrorists can seek out their new members without being subjected to control or restriction. Modern terrorists use websites, e-mail, chat rooms, e-groups, forums, virtual message boards, YouTube and Google to recruit children. Searches would inevitably find them on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. Weimann says that terrorists have designed websites that mix engaging stories and lively songs with scenes of terrorism (e.g. beheading), looking to target a child.

...if a teenager is already prone to violence, negative beliefs, and/or rebellious behavior, the ideas that terrorists present at the beginning of the conversation with the teen may be appealing. Some teens might find the ideas calming. Most will find the ability to test otherwise setin-stone rules more than appealing; it may be irresistible.

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Children like video games.

Although controversial, there is some research that shows playing video games promotes aggressiveness in children and adolescents (e.g. Anderson, 2010, 2011). Computer games are also used to target youth online. Several terrorist groups apparently offer free online games, designed to train (e.g. shooting skills) and offer up radical views to children. These games have different goals, from killing the President of the United States to taking on the role of a warrior in a terrorist campaign.

Imaginative and life-like games such as these allow children to engage in behavior that would ordinarily be prohibited, to pretend in a different role, and feel a rise in endorphins while they are engaging in the behavior. The rise of endorphins, disturbingly, may be tied with this terroristic behavior.

Children are teased and bullied.

School can be tough. Adults sometimes forget how tough school was at their children’s age – the social situations that require navigating, the fights after school, and the sometimes constant teasing or bullying from classmates. For a child who is experiencing any of these problems, a group that they find online might offer them comfort, companionship, and, perhaps most importantly, a sense of belonging. This tactic of comfort will most likely be extended to and accepted by children who feel that they’re social outcasts.

How Terrorists Recruit Adolescents: Key Considerations Adolescents move towards independence through many different ways. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2011) lists emotional, behavioral, physical, and cognitive changes that occur during adolescence. These changes can dramatically increase susceptibility to terroristic recruiting.

Teenagers pick role models.

While school can be tough, puberty can be tougher. Hormones, a stretching body, and feelings or thoughts that have never been apparent can confuse and stress a teenager. During this time of awkwardness, pimples, and social situations gone wrong, a teenager develops both their ideals and their role models. Not surprisingly, these ideals and role models are intertwined. Often, a teenager will admire people that are within ten years of their age who are considered heroic, dangerous, or cool.

Terrorist groups are aware of this need for acceptance, and the admiration for cool “older” people. At the same time that modesty (blushing, etc.) is showing up for the teenager, the awkwardness of social situations is perhaps at its peak. Buhs, Ladd, and Herald (2006) found that exclusion by peers, even if the child was already shy or withdrawn, can still add to or increase the problems related to social withdrawal. The postings online in a chat room

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will inevitably show that terrorist groups know how to use these principles to target awkward teens.

Teenagers feel awkward and strange about their body and themselves.

Gossip, called a form of social aggression, can hurt both the gossiper and the child being gossiped about (Underwood, 2003).

However, as the children grow into teenagers, gossip becomes a way to form social alliances (Cillessen and Mayuex, 2004).

Unfortunately, as gossip becomes more prevalent, teenagers are also struggling with concerns about their attractiveness towards potential romantic mates; the damage may be extensive and may push the teens further towards groups that will accept them.

Teens also show a dramatically increased interest in sex and bouts of moodiness, often simultaneously. Since there is a strong emotional component to their interest in sex, the bouts of moodiness may be combined with failed relationships. Teenagers also sometimes engage in childish behavior. They’re more likely to engage in this behavior during times of stress, like, for example, a failed relationship.

While all of this is occurring, teens are also concerned about being normal. The damage that a well-timed offer of romance from a terrorist group can do, when it preys upon the insecurities of the teenager, can be irreversible. Frankly, it’s too easy for people to stay anonymous online, pretending to be someone they are not, to manipulate the child or teenager. How is the child or teenager supposed to figure out whether or not the person on the other side of the chat, e-mail, or message is happy, fulfilled, supportive, or rich as the group or group member tells them?

Teenagers test rules, limits, and boundaries.

While adolescents challenge authority, they need limits to be able to grow and function appropriately (Cromer, 2011). Especially if a teenager is already prone to violence, negative beliefs, and/or rebellious behavior, the ideas that terrorists present at the beginning of the conversation with the teen may be appealing. Some teens might find the ideas calming. Most will find the ability to test otherwise set-in-stone rules more than appealing; it may be irresistible.

Like an inmate who is manipulating a staff member, the insurgent begins small, perhaps with just some empathy for common frustrations, and begins to weave a relationship with the teenager. Before long, the teenager is chatting more frequently with the insurgent, may have been introduced to other people within the organization, and has been given “important” or “secret” information. Teenagers may be pleased to find themselves in a position where they are being encouraged to test boundaries.

Teenager’s intellectual interests grow along with their brains.

Extremist groups in Saudi Arabia and Yemen used religion as their main mechanism for recruiting juveniles, says the results of a Freedom of Information Act Request originally filed by the Judicial Watch on August 26, 2005. However, some research

A Palestinian child fighter of Fatah al-Islam poses with a weapon at a training field in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon March 23, 2007.

REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBANON)

studies seem to point away from religion and towards political views. For example, Tessler and Robbins (2007) found that males and females from Jordan and Algeria with ideas about inadequate foreign policies held by the United States were more likely to support terroristic acts.

This may just mean that teenagers (and people in general) are susceptible to others’ opinions, especially if the organization with the opinions is accepting of the teenager.

An impassioned speech from the leader of the organization might be just the ticket to sway or strengthen an opinion or an interest.

Teenagers’ interests gain importance to them as they grow. Everything from their demeanor to their clothing choices are influenced by their peers, and the terrorist groups capitalize on this influence, posing as peers. Due to their intellectual growth, teenagers have a better ability to do physical, mental, and emotional work; they also have an improved ability over their child counterparts to use their speech to express their wants, desires, and emotions. This results in deeper feelings, thoughts, and stronger connections with people, including recruiters.

Teenagers experiment with drugs and alcohol.

Along with experimenting with different groups, hairstyles, music, literature, and ideals, some teenagers also like to experiment with drugs and alcohol. For some families, this may be seen as a coming of age of sorts. The family may be tolerant of this behavior in moderation as long as the teenager is not actively harming himself or others (e.g. calling for a ride home from a party where

Teenagers struggle to find their identity and frequently change relationships.

Teenagers are raging piles of hormones that are continuously trying to figure out who they want to be. Romantic relationships are often quick and intense, with attention moving to the next person in line rather quickly. This is not a reflection on the teenager specifically, but on the entire system of teenagers who are changing their wants and needs constantly. If a teenager changes their hairstyle, manner of speaking, even signature on a weekly or daily basis, how are they supposed to “fit” with another person who changes as often?

The key here is that terrorist groups match the teenager’s desire in that week, and continue to mold the teenager, prey on the teenager’s current emotions, or manage to pick up the teenager within that week. Imagine how intense the teenager’s emotions are as they navigate their

When teenagers feel oppressed through societal demands, threats of unemployment, low pay, and job discrimination, they may be more likely to join extremist groups to achieve a perceived escape. This seems to be especially pertinent for Muslim teenagers in a country where Islam is the minority religion.

Lower pay and higher unemployment rates mean a lower quality of life not only for the female teenager, but also for any potential mate. he has been drinking). For some Muslim families, however, this might not be the case. Any drug or alcohol use may be swept under the rug or dealt with directly in a negative way. Robert Charles (2004) noted that narcotics feed terrorism; certainly drugs and alcohol lower inhibitions. This is a dangerous game to play when dealing with a dangerous group.

Teenagers focus on themselves.

With an intense self-focus comes both low self-esteem at times of distress and higher expectations during times of confidence. During times of confidence, teenagers can also be attention-seeking.

In fact, teenagers often appear attention hungry, which is probably a combination of a feeling of invincibility (which makes them do things adults wouldn’t necessarily dare to try, like skating down a steep walk), thrill-seeking, self-centeredness (teens are still working on this as they mature), and probably some pure attention-seeking (especially if they feel neglected at home).

Guttman (1979) sees the terrorist act as targeted to an audience, versus the immediate victims, and in 2004, Hamm noted that some terrorists seem to engage in behavior because of a need for celebrity; this idea might apply to some teenagers that already have personality characteristics consistent with excessive approval or attention seeking.

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imperfect life, and imagine how easy it would be for a group to tap into this emotional potential.

Teenagers desire independence from their parents.

Most adolescents, in an attempt to establish their own identity, withdraw from their parents (Cromer, 2011). They show less affection towards their parents, and can be rude in certain circumstances. Through this coming of age, teenagers also realize that their parents have faults. Realizing their parents are not perfect is a big deal for someone of that age. When we’re younger, we often believe that our parents are the authority on everything, knowing that they always have the right answers. The breaking of this illusion can be devastating.

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Cromer states that the support that did come from their parents in childhood now comes from their peers. Within the peer group, which includes terrorists groups, teenagers are likely to try new ideas and seek new adventures. As the teens are trying these new ideas, they simultaneously view their parents as impeding on their independence, pushing them further away from their support systems. To add to the terrorists’ hold, teenagers are generally only interested in the present; they have limited thoughts of the future.

How Terrorists Recruit Female Adolescents: Key Considerations Female adolescents require additional tactics or techniques. Along with picking role models; feeling awkward and strange about their body and themselves; testing rules, limits, and boundaries, having their interests and brains grow; experimenting with drugs, alcohol, and sex; focusing on themselves; struggling to find their identity; changing relationships; and working to establish their independence from their parents, female teenagers have unique desires that the terrorist groups focus upon.

Female teenagers want to stand up for others who have been victimized.

Female teenagers that are told that other women have been raped would usually feel a strong sense of empathy and sympathy. Teenagers, as noted above, are prone to moodiness but also struggle with emotion regulation in general. If a teenager is feeling sad about something, including this topic, she may feel that she is the saddest she’s ever felt.

Terrorist groups can capitalize on this emotion dysregulation by promising a way to “get back at” the source of the sadness (e.g. the people who raped young girls such as themselves) through an exciting adventure. The dangerousness of the adventure is downplayed. When the terrorist groups identify their enemies as the enemies of young girls, the circle is complete and the teenagers are pumped to join the group. Protecting future possible victims is the icing on the cake; it preaches reactive and proactive protection for others like themselves.

Female teenagers can feel oppressed.

When teenagers feel oppressed through societal demands, threats of unemployment, low pay, and job discrimination, they may be more likely to join extremist groups to achieve a perceived escape.

This seems to be especially pertinent for Muslim teenagers in a country where Islam is the minority religion. Lower pay and higher unemployment rates mean a lower quality of life not only for the female teenager, but also for any potential mate.

Terrorist groups that are recruiting female teenagers are clever; they advertise monthly stipends for the girls, financially stable males, and make sure that the girls considering joining the group understand that housing and food are provided for by the group. With necessities already paid for, and desires being funded through the stipend, girls anticipate they will be provided for in a way that might feel impossible in their current location.

Female teenagers want romance.

In a sense, female teenagers are romanced by the terrorist groups through promises of money and stability. Groups also promise that female teenagers will have their choice of spouses; young, eligible, stable, attractive, adventurous men. The girls are told that they will be engaging in mundane activities, like household chores, or will be recruiting other women into the group. Another activity maybe not discussed by the groups, but a reality, is the activity of pat-searching other women within or outside of the group (when recruiting civilians).

Remember, as discussed above, teenagers are focused on relationships, being accepted by others, and are exploring their sexuality in new and inventive ways. It’s important to note, too, that female teenagers develop more quickly than male teenagers. Slightly older males that match the females’ development are appealing.

Unfortunately, when the women arrive at the group, they are already committed. If they can’t read Arabic, which means they can’t read any available Arabic version of the Quran, or don’t fully understand the Quran, they also can’t challenge what the Quran (or other documents) contain. It’s

a dangerous trap, and one that the women can’t even actively address, even if they’ve figured out the game.

Final Thoughts Children and teenagers act in different ways when presented with the same situation, as compared to adults. Children start in this world worrying only about themselves, and gradually become aware of the presence of feelings when making a decision. Adults make decisions based on their thoughts and feelings, and are (hopefully) not as self-absorbed as a child. While adults often act in a way that is acceptable to society, children can feel stifled when told to act appropriately, and can act impulsively despite direction. Adults can often screen through thoughts, not acting on them but tucking them away; children often act out their thoughts directly.

How can we counteract these differences as security professionals? We can teach parents how to protect their children, and, indirectly, our freedom. When teenagers are gossiping, it seems that their behavior is reinforced by their peers.

Eder (1991) found that when the gossip was countered immediately, the other teenagers were more likely to disagree with the voiced gossip.

Getting teenagers involved in activities that are supportive and engaging outside of the home can be crucial to development. Smith, Smoll, and Hunt (1977, 1979) present a system for coaches to develop a healthy psychological environment for children and teenagers. Encourage parents to use parental controls on the computers that have Internet access. If the computer is meant for homework, or just typing, parents can also simply disable the connection to the Internet through several different methods.

This all seems to be up to the parents, but if recent media stories are any indication, parents cannot be the only line of defense. It just doesn’t work when they’re standing alone. Let’s give them the support they so desperately need, along with the information that they require to protect their children. There are some parents who still believe that their children are immune to recruitment; unfortunately, the real and present danger is that any child or teenager could be targeted by terrorists.

About the Author Dr. Priscilla Thorn, a licensed psychologist in the State of Florida, serves as a consultant, trainer, and evaluator to law enforcement, the courts, correctional institutions, and forensic facilities in her private practice, Thorn and Co., LLC. She currently holds the position of Division Director of Psychology Services at the Developmental Disabilities Defendant Program in Chattahoochee, Florida. She is a member of IACSP.

A Real Weapon Of Mass Destruction: Islamist Exploitation Of Urban Unrest In America

By George Michael

Rabbi Avi Weiss (R) leads protesters outside the World Trade Center in Baltimore June 13, where the NAACP African American Leadership Summit breakfast was being held. The group was protesting against the presence of Louis Farrakhan. Š STR New / Reuters;

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n recent months, urban unrest has wreaked America stemming from several high-profile incidents of alleged police brutality toward minorities. First, on July 17, 2014, police arrested an African-American man, Eric Garner, for the unauthorized sale of cigarettes on a street in New York City. While Garner resisted arrest, police sought to detain him in either a chokehold or a headlock (depending on different eyewitness accounts) and soon thereafter, he died in an ambulance en route to a hospital.

The next month, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, Darren Wilson, shot and killed an unarmed 18-year old man, Michael Brown. According to Wilson’s version of events, the 6’4”, 292-pound Brown had punched him in the face and went for his gun. Just minutes before the fatal altercation, Brown assaulted a clerk in a strong-armed robbery in a nearby convenience store. And on November 21, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by a police officer in Cleveland after receiving a call about a man wielding a gun near a recreation center. After the shooting, it transpired that Rice had in his possession a pellet gun which closely resembled an authentic firearm. Finally, in April 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man with a lengthy criminal record, died from injuries he sustained while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department.

According to an Associated Press annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors, the police killings of unarmed Black men and the tumultuous protests that ensued was the top story of 2014. The mainstream media often depicted these killings as a consequence of deep-seated racism in the ranks of the police and the unlawful profiling of minorities. Similarly, high-ranking public officials decried the actions of the police as well. For example, U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, stated that the policing in Ferguson required “wholesale change,” while New York Mayor Bill de Blasio angered members of his police department after he expressed sympathy for the demonstrators.

This harsh criticism notwithstanding, grand juries in both Ferguson and New York decided not to indict the police officers involved in these incidents.

The spate of recent police shootings of AfricanAmerican men has polarized the country. In January of 2015, a branch of the New Black Panther Party announced that it was forming a paramilitary group in Dallas to protect African-Americans from police brutality as expressed on the organization’s website: “No longer will we let the pigs slaughter our brothers and sisters and not say a damn thing about it.”

Some critics blamed the media for exacerbating an already tense situation with inflammatory and divisive rhetoric. This was tragically illustrated on December 20, 2014, when 28-year old Ismaaiyl Brinsley shot two police officers to death in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. In an internet posting earlier that same day he exclaimed that he was preparing to avenge the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown: “They Take 1 Of Ours…Let’s take 2 of Theirs.” (Ironically, the two officers were racial and ethnic minorities: Wenjian Liu, an Asian-American, was a seven-year veteran of the police force and his partner, Rafael Ramos, was a Latino who began his career in the New York Police Department as a school safety agent but had been promoted to officer in 2012.)

The spate of recent police shootings of African-American men has polarized the country. In January of 2015, a branch of the New Black Panther Party announced that it was forming a paramilitary group in Dallas to protect African-Americans from police brutality as expressed on the organization’s website: “No longer will we let the pigs slaughter our brothers and sisters and not say a damn thing about it.” In Cleveland, representatives of the notorious prison gang, the Heartless Felons, gave orders for its members to kill white police officers to

avenge the lives of slain Black men at the hands of the police.

Disturbingly, there are indications that that the protests and violence might be spurring a counter-mobilization. For example, in August, representatives of the New Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan announced plans to travel to Ferguson to protect white businesses near areas affected by the riots. Likewise, members of the Oath Keepers—a militia-style organization— guarded rooftops on apartments and businesses in downtown Ferguson. Although characterized as right-wing and conspiratorial in outlook, the group’s membership spills across racial and regional lines. Some Ferguson residents voiced support for the Oath Keepers, saying that they felt safer as a result of their presence. Local police, however, threatened members of the group with arrest, thus forcing them to abandon their positions.

According to Phares, al Qaeda’s grand strategy includes fomenting a long-term “internal” tension to engender the “ethnic crumbling” of America.

By exacerbating ethnic and racial hostilities, al Qaeda and related groups could detonate an “ethnic bomb” and provoke a crisis. If well manipulated, this could cause the social and legal order to disintegrate. Perhaps a breaking point could someday be reached in which racial unrest will explode across the country. Europe, Phares once warned, is already close to this level as evidenced by the riots that occurred in the suburbs of Paris in the fall of 2005.

As Osama bin Laden’s pronouncements suggested, he believed that America, despite its superpower status, was internally weak because of its heterogeneous population. He once derided the United States as a “gathering of nations” meaning that is a polyglot society and not an authentic nation based on shared ethnicity. In a

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Al Qaeda is not merely for the benefit of Muslims. That’s why I want Blacks in America, people of color, American Indians, Hispanics, and all the weak and oppressed in North and South America, in Africa and Asia, and all over the world to know that when we wage jihad in Allah’s path, we aren’t waging jihad to lift oppression from Muslims only; we are waging jihad to lift oppression from all mankind, because Allah has ordered us never to accept oppression, whatever it may be…This is why I want every oppressed one on the face of the earth to know that our victory over America and the Crusading West—with Allah’s permission—is a victory for them, because they shall be freed from the most powerful tyrannical force in the history of mankind.

More recently, the spring 2013 issue of the online magazine, Inspire—produced by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula—carried a picture of and a

A protestor wearing a Guy Fawkes mask holds a sign as demonstrators march through the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, March 12, 2015. The shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, during a protest rally sparked an intense manhunt for suspects and ratcheted up tensions in a city at the center of a national debate over race and policing. REUTERS/Jim Young

Undermining the Social Fabric of America In such a highly-charged atmosphere, could outside parties exploit racial tensions in America? Learning from the chaos that convulsed Los Angeles during the riots in 1992, jihadists have come to realize the potential destructive impact of racial strife on the social and legal order of the United States. As the noted terrorism analyst Walid Phares observed, part of al Qaeda’s strategy is to destabilize the nation’s ethnic and racial makeup as a way to undermine the country’s national security.

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similar vein, Abu-Ubayd al-Quarashi, an al Qaeda ideologist, once called America the “Disunited States of America” describing the country as “a mixture of nationalities, ethnic groups, and races united only by the ‘American Dream,’ or, to put it more correctly, worship of the dollar, which they openly call ‘the Almighty Dollar.’” As part of al Qaeda’s strategy, the organization has sought to create a broad coalition against the soon-to-be minority white population in the United States. To that end, in the spring of 2007, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in a four-minute video titled “To Black Americans,” that al Qaeda was fighting for Blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities, as he stated:

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quote by Malcolm X in which he counseled that Islam was the only religion that could erase the race problem in America. Below the quote were pictures of Trayvon Martin with the caption “FIELD NEGRO” and President Barack Obama with the caption “HOUSE NEGRO.”

Muslim Outreach to Black Nationalists Middle Eastern sponsors of terrorism have long sought to enlist African-Americans in their struggles against the United States. Viewing himself

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as a revolutionary vanguard whose ideology was meant for export, the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi targeted not only the United States and the West, but regimes in the Middle East as well. His penchant for adventurism in the region alienated him from virtually all Arab leaders. With most of the Middle East against him, Gaddafi eventually abandoned pan-Arabism and embraced pan-Africanism. His calls for African solidarity resonated with like-minded groups in America.

As part of his effort to reach out to AfricanAmericans, Gaddafi recruited members of a Black Chicago street gang known as El Rukns to advance his terrorist agenda. Originally called the Blackstone Rangers and founded by Jeffrey Fort, the organization grew to dominate large areas of the Black community and became a potent political force in Chicago. However, in 1987, Fort and four other members of the gang were implicated in plotting terrorist acts on behalf of Gaddafi and Libya. Allegedly, gang members met with Gaddafi and agreed to blow up American airliners and U.S. government buildings in exchange for $2.5 million, but were arrested before the scheme could be carried out. Fort was convicted and sentenced to 80 years in prison for his role in the conspiracy. According to a former gang member, Lance Williams, it was Minister Louis Farrakhan who introduced Jeffrey Fort to Gaddafi at the Nation of Islam’s 1985 Saviour’s Day convention in Chicago.

The Nation of Islam is considered heretical by most Islamic denominations, but it nonetheless enjoys considerable influence in the African-American community. For many African-Americans, the Nation of Islam has served as a gateway to Islam.

The first major effort to resurrect Islam in America occurred in 1913 when Noble Drew Ali (18861929) founded the Moorish Science Temple in Newark, New Jersey. After his death in 1929, the organization went into steep decline, but one of his followers, Wallace D. Fard, founded a new sect called the “Lost-Found Tribe of Shabazz” (later called the Nation of Islam) in Detroit in the early 1930s.

For a short time, Fard led the small sect, but eventually came under the scrutiny of law enforcement authorities in Detroit and decided to leave the city.

He passed control of the organization over to his most trusted disciple, Elijah Muhammad. Despite numerous setbacks and travails, which included imprisonment for draft evasion, Muhammad persevered and built the Nation of Islam into a powerful African-American institution. Furthermore, he attracted some men of considerable talent. For example, the Nation of Islam gained prominence in the 1960s, largely due to the efforts of its late firebrand speaker, Malcolm X. With the death of Muhammad in 1975, the sect split with one faction led by Muhammad’s son Wallace and the other led

by Louis Farrakhan. Eventually, Farrakhan reconstituted the group with a remnant of supporters and leads the organization to this day.

The late leader, Elijah Muhammad, along with the legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali, visited Libya in 1972 and personally met with Gaddafi. That same year, Gaddafi gave the Nation of Islam a zerointerest $3 million loan payable over a three-year period. In 1985, Farrakhan announced that he had received a $5 million interest-free loan from Gaddafi which he used to pay back taxes and purchase his home. And in 1996, Gaddafi attempted to give the Nation of Islam $1 billion, but the donation was fought by the Clinton administration and never made. Farrakhan did, however, accept the “Gaddafi Human Rights Award,” which came with a $250,000 prize despite the sanctions levied against Libya.

Farrakhan’s outspoken criticism of U.S. foreign policy has endeared him to many Muslim leaders in the Middle East. Muammar Gaddafi, in particular, had an abiding alliance with the Nation of Islam and extended his support on several key junctures in the organization’s history. The late leader, Elijah Muhammad, along with the legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali, visited Libya in 1972 and personally met with Gaddafi. That same year, Gaddafi gave the Nation of Islam a zero-interest $3 million loan payable over a three-year period. In 1985, Farrakhan announced that he had received a $5 million interest-free loan from Gaddafi which he used to pay back taxes and purchase his home.

And in 1996, Gaddafi attempted to give the Nation of Islam $1 billion, but the donation was fought by the Clinton administration and never made. Farrakhan did, however, accept the “Gaddafi Human Rights Award,” which came with a $250,000 prize despite the sanctions levied against Libya. For his support, Farrakhan expressed his appreciation for the Libyan leader: “We’ve come back by the grace of God and the help of Brother Muammar Gaddafi.

This is why we will always love him, admire and respect him and stand up and speak on his behalf.”

Farrakhan has long felt a strong connection to the Libyan leader. By his own account, the first international call he received after the Million Man March was from Gaddafi. After Gaddafi was killed by rebels in October of 2011, Farrakhan praised the late Libyan leader commenting that he had “died in honor” fighting for his country In late November 2014, at a speech given at Morgan State University, Farrakhan warned America of possible retaliation to the recent series of killings of Black men by police officers: “As long as they [Whites] kill us [Blacks] and go to Wendy’s and have a burger and go to sleep, they’ll keep killing us.” But when we die and they die, then soon we’re going to sit at a table and talk about it!

We’re tired! We want some of this earth or we’ll tear this goddamn country up!”

On numerous occasions, Muammar Gaddafi urged Blacks and Native Americans to create an independent and sovereign state inside the United States. Gaddafi saw African-Americans as demographically dynamic, thus destined to fulfill a large role in America as he explained in a section called “Black People will Prevail in the World” in his revolutionary manifesto, The Green Book: •

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The latest age of slavery has been the enslavement of Black people by White people. The memory of this age will persist in the thinking of Black people until they have vindicated themselves. […]

Black people are now in a very backward social situation, but such backwardness works to bring about their numerical superiority because their low standard of living has shielded them from knowing methods of birth control and family planning. Also, their old social traditions place no limit to marriages, leading to their accelerated growth.

For example, a number of pro-Palestinian activists expressed support online for the Ferguson demonstrators drawing parallels between the plight of Palestinians living in the occupied territories and the plight of Blacks in urban America. Black protestors were compared to Palestinian youths who confronted Israeli security forces during the various intifadas. As Naomi Shihab Nye, who has lived both in Palestine and the United States, explained, Jim Crow in America was not unlike and the segregation of Jews and Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The population of others races has decreased because of birth control, restrictions on marriage and continuous occupation in work, unlike the Blacks, who tend to be lethargic in a climate which is continually hot.

In particular, Gaddafi believed that African-Americans had the greatest revolutionary potential in America.

He once suggested that AfricanAmericans who serve in the U.S. military could form the core of a secessionist movement. At the 1985 Nation of Islam’s Saviour’s Day Convention in Chicago, Gaddafi spoke via satellite and urged Black soldiers serving in the U.S. military to quit and get behind Farrakhan. He even offered to train and arm them.

For his part, Farrakhan immediately rejected the offer, perhaps fearing the legal consequences.

Some African-American soldiers have indeed been swayed by the pull of radical Islam as illustrated by the case of Isa Abdullah Ali. Born as Cleven Raphael Holt, he dropped out of high school in 1972 and joined the army. By 1973, he had completed his Special Forces training and became a soldier of the elite Green Berets. After serving four months in Vietnam, he was transferred to South Korea where he concluded his three-year enlistment. Soon thereafter he converted to Islam and joined a Shiite sect. In December 1980, Ali left his family and departed to Afghanistan where he fought alongside the mujahedeen against the Soviet Red Army. Later that same decade, he fought in Lebanon against the Israel

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Defense Forces. During the mid1990s, NATO issued intelligence warnings that Ali was fighting alongside Muslims in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He remained there after the war, married, and had four children. Recounting his exploits, he admitted that he stopped counting the men he killed at 173, a figure which could conceivably rival the “American Sniper” Chris Kyle’s record. In 2010, Ali was the subject of a biographical documentary entitled American Jihadist which was featured at the Slamdance Film Festival where it received the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Islamist Exploitation of Recent Urban Unrest in America In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, there have been new outreach efforts by Muslims to aggrieved members of the Black community in America. Some Muslim activists sought to co-opt the protests that spread to cities across the country. For example, a number of pro-Palestinian activists expressed support online for the Ferguson demonstrators drawing parallels between the plight of Palestinians living in the occupied territories and the plight of Blacks in urban America. Black protestors were compared to Palestinian youths who confronted Israeli security forces during the various intifadas. As Naomi Shihab Nye, who has lived both in Palestine and the United States, explained, Jim Crow

in America was not unlike and the segregation of Jews and Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Around the same time that urban unrest returned to America, violence erupted in Gaza, as the Israeli Defense Forces launched Operation Protective Edge following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers. Seven weeks of fighting followed, which killed more than 2,200, the vast majority of whom were Palestinians. Seeing parallels in their struggles, many citizens in Gaza sent messages of solidarity with protestors in Ferguson. Using social networking platforms such as Twitter, Palestinians offered advice on how to deal with riot control measures, including tear gas and rubber bullets, and called for unity between the two movements. Writing on The Electronic Intifada, Wissam Nassar expressed his solidarity with the protestors: “With a Black Power fist in the air, we salute the people of Ferguson and join in your demands for justice.”

Muslims also saw similarities in the media’s depictions of Palestinians and African-Americans. They often used the verbiage of oppressed peoples of color against white colonialists. For example, Nadia Barhoum, a National Executive Board Member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, argued that just as Palestinians are often described as “terrorists,” Michael Brown was similarly delegitimized as a “thug” along with its own set of racist stereotypes by some representatives in the media. Moreover, just as the nation of Israel had been founded after a

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brutal ethnic cleansing campaign, so had the American nation been established though decimating the Indians and the use of African slave labor.

Connections between U.S. and Israel government officials were woven together as a narrative of complicity to repress African-Americans and Palestinians. Writing in the online version of Ebony magazine, Kristian Davis Bailey noted that members of the St. Louis Police Department had participated in training programs in Israel. As she explained, over 9,000 U.S. security officials had trained with Israeli police and military units on responding to civilian protests and terrorism. By extension, the implication was that Israel was involved not only in the suppression of Palestinians, but African-Americans as well.

To date, the most vociferous Palestinian activist has been Basem Masri, a self-styled journalist and son of immigrant small business owners from Palestine who grew up in St. Louis and Jerusalem. Masri saw connections between the experience of African-Americans and Palestinians as he explained in an online essay entitled “In Ferguson, I am reminded of Palestine.” According to his account, when he first showed up in Ferguson and introduced himself as a Palestinian, he was immediately met with respect. He claimed that he saw the same style of repressive tactics in both the West Bank and Ferguson. In September, Masri was arrested and taken to jail for allegedly spitting on a police officer.

According to Masri, racism drives the violence both in Palestine and in Ferguson. His stated goal is “to dismantle apartheid regimes wher-

ever they exist.” By joining forces, Masri argues, the struggles of the Black protestors and Palestinians would grow stronger. To that end, he touted anti-Israeli conspiracy theories while organizing Ferguson protests. In one instance, angry protestors shut down a CNN live broadcast when they heckled the reporter that the news agency was “run

by AIPAC” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and “Zionists.”

Not surprisingly, representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran also heaped scorn on the United States for its putative mistreatment of its minority communities. On his twitter account, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, opined that the police shooting of Michael Brown was more proof that American was run by “tyrants.” He compared America’s treatment of Blacks to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. Finally, he alluded to the possible divine wrath that could befall America as he explained in a tweet: “If #Jesus were among us today he wouldn’t spare a second to fight the arrogants&support the oppressed.#Ferguson #Gaza.”

Ominously, some foreign terrorist organizations have taken notice of the recent urban unrest in America and are exploiting it for their own ends, the most notable of which is the Islamic State or ISIS. Reinvigorated in the ongoing Syrian civil war, ISIS controls broad swaths of territory in Syria and northern Iraq. In June of 2014, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, boldly proclaimed himself as the new caliph. Over the

course of many years of combat experience in Iraq and Syria, the group has attained expertise in terrorism and guerilla warfare. With an estimated 10,000 fighters under its control and assets worth up to $2 billion, ISIS has become a formidable force in the Middle East. The momentum of the organization has added to its success as related jihadist groups now seek to affiliate under the Islamic State banner not unlike the al Qaeda franchise. Initially, ISIS appeared to be focused first and foremost on Iraq and Syria; however, there are indications that the group is now preparing to strike targets in the West.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced in August of 2014 that the Islamic State was not only a regional problem, but would soon become a threat to the United States and Europe, even surpassing the danger posed by the al Qaeda network. Jihadists use social networking platforms to document their involvement in foreign conflicts, thus providing prospective recruits with an immediate experience of the global jihad. In a published message titled “Indeed Your Lord is Ever Watchful,” an Islamic State spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, exhorted jihadists living in the West to conduct simple attacks. Although U.S. military air strikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria may have diminished the terrorist threat from the organization, the U.S. Department of State warned that angry lone wolves, who sympathize with the movement, could carry out attacks on their own initiative. On that note, in September of 2014, ISIS instructed their

American sympathizers to seek out U.S. military personnel and slaughter them in their homes.

The insurgency against the Assad regime in Syria has created a rallying point and a training ground for jihadists around the world. Many Islamists from the west have sojourned to Syria not unlike the leftist fellow-travelers who joined the republican forces in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. According to a CBS News report, by August 2014, more than 100 Americans and more than 1,000 Western Europeans have gone to Syria. At least one American has already died fighting for the Islamic State. In August of 2014, it was reported that Douglas McArthur McCain, a 33-year-old African-American man from San Diego, was among three foreign fighters killed fighting alongside the Islamic State. Another American, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, a 19-year-old man from Chicago, was arrested for attempting to join and fight with ISIS. And in a 19-year-old Colorado woman, Shannon Maureen Conley, was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists after she told undercover FBI agents that she planned to travel to Turkey to meet a man she met on the Internet who was allegedly a member of ISIS. The prospect of these returnees waging jihad in their home countries is now a real cause of concern.

In his 2006 book, Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them, the political scientist John Mueller argued

that the threat posed by terrorism to America had been greatly exaggerated. However, a number of brutal jihadist attacks in recent months suggest that there may be a sizeable reservoir of recruits in the United States, Australia, and Western Europe after all. The civilized world was horrified following a spree of terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this year. On January 7, 2015, two masked gunmen forced their way into the offices of Charlie Hebdo and executed eleven people.

Previously, the satirical magazine had carried disparaging cartoons and articles on Islam. It soon transpired that the assailants were Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, two brothers who claimed to be affiliated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. According to a USA Today news report, both had traveled to Syria the previous summer. In 2011, Saïd Kouachi traveled to Yemen, where he had direct contact with an al Qaeda training camp. The day after the attack, a friend of the two brothers, Amedy Coulibaly, shot and killed a municipal police officer. Finally, on Friday, the Kouachi brothers were killed in a shootout with the police after a twohour standoff at a printing warehouse in North Paris. Around that same time, Coulibaly, along with a female accomplice, Hayat Boumeddiene, entered a kosher grocery store in East Paris, where they took several hostages. Coulibaly shot four of them to death. Fifteen hostages were rescued when the police stormed the store and gunned down Coulibaly. His accomplice, Boumeddiene, however, managed to escape and is currently being sought by French police. In a video discovered after the incident,

With an estimated 10,000 fighters under its control and assets worth up to $2 billion, ISIS has become a formidable force in the Middle East. The momentum of the organization has added to its success as related jihadist groups now seek to affiliate under the Islamic State banner not unlike the al Qaeda franchise. Initially, ISIS appeared to be focused first and foremost on Iraq and Syria; however, there are indications that the group is now preparing to strike targets in the West.

Coulibaly declared his allegiance to ISIS and claimed that he had coordinated his attacks with Chérif and Saïd Kouachi.

At the present time, the level of involvement by foreign terrorist organizations in these incidents is not certain, but in a sermon presented in Mosul in Iraq, Abu Saa al-Ansari, a spokesman for ISIS, claimed that the group was responsible for the attacks.

Perhaps even more destructive than terrorism, is the potential mayhem that could be unleashed by fanning racial flames in urban America. The Islamic States has used Twitter to foster solidarity with the protestors in Ferguson. Some members of ISIS have followed the events in Ferguson closely which seemed to confirm their narrative of American oppression against African-Americans. As Abu Sameer a Muslim in France who identifies with the Islamic State opined: “Well this clearly shows that all this talk about democracy and equality of people in the west is just hypocrisy.” Capitalizing on African-American resentment, the Islamic State used the events in Ferguson as propaganda against the West which avers that racism and discrimination are still rampant. It is hoped that this reservoir of discontent could be used to attract Blacks to radical Islam. Ominously, a protestor could be seen carrying a placard exclaiming “ISIS here” behind a CNN reporter during live coverage of the unrest in Ferguson in August.

Strained race relations in America have the potential to be manipulated by jihadists. In many parts of the country, race-based violence appears to be on the rise. The “Knockout game” has gained widespread popularity in urban America. Most often the assailants are young Black men who approach their victims—usually white men and women and occasionally Asian men and women—and punch them in the face as hard as they can. Similarly, so-called “flash mobs,” organized by way of social media and telecommunications have emerged in scattered American urban areas and have often turned violent. There is evidence that radical Islamists have taken notice of these trends and are seeking to exploit racial tension in America.

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Conclusion In his book, White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It, Colin Flaherty chronicles the growing epidemic of Black hooliganism in the United States. As he explains racial violence has reached epidemic levels in almost every city in the country, yet for a variety of reasons the mainstream media and public officials are reluctant to openly condemn such actions. In fact, they often seek to minimize its significance. The police in some cities are pressured by their local governments to refrain from taking reports and making arrests.

Despite the official wall of silence, documentary evidence on this trend has been seeping out on new media platforms such as YouTube. As Taleb Starkes, an African-American social worker and filmmaker explained in his book, The Un-Civil War, a pervasive sense of grievance and resentment is endemic in much of the AfricanAmerican community and is even fostered by American institutions and the mainstream media: •

These schools are reinforcing the long-existing, deeprooted victimization gospel that’s religiously practiced in the African-American community…Moreover, denunciation of this victimization gospel by any African-American is sacrilegious and leads to the questioning of “blackness.”

Even scarier is the fact that this ideology is spawning urban terrorists whose actions are always justified by another tenet of the victimization gospel called P.T.S.D. (Post Traumatic Slave Disorder)…Combined with the race-peddlers and the mainstream media’s intentional portrayal of African-Americans as permanent victims incapable of hate-crimes, this self-defeating ideology has become a societal toxin. Consequently, any Blackon-White crime, regardless of viciousness, is essentially interpreted as Black “payback” instead of Black crime.

Regrettably, few public officials have been willing to stand up and unequivocally condemn the violence and use the full force of the law to prevent it.

In fact, Attorney General Eric Holder went so far as to complain after a video

was leaked which showed Michael Brown bullying the clerk of a store from which he had stolen cigars just moments before his fatal altercation with Officer Darren Wilson. This is surprising insofar as the evidence displayed on the video would have seemed to bolster the Ferguson Police Department’s version of events and could have helped defuse a volatile situation. After a night of mass looting in Ferguson, a gang leader who was arrested claimed that Holder paid gang members to riot. Presumably, the unnamed gang leader was using this information for a reduced sentence. Although no evidence has been adduced to corroborate the story, it is not hard to understand how such rumors take hold considering the Obama administration’s handling of the events in Ferguson.

Even more troublesome was the reaction of public officials in Baltimore. As violence ravaged the city in late April and early May of 2015, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced at a press conference that she instructed the police “to do everything that they could to make sure that protestors were able to exercise their right to free speech. […] we also gave those who wished to destroy the space to do that as well.”

In numerous pronouncements, city officials reinforced the narrative that racism ran amok in Baltimore, but this line of reasoning seemed untenable in light of the fact that the city’s mayor, city council president, city state’s attorney, and roughly half of the police department are black. In fact, three of the six officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray are black.

To be sure, there have indeed been instances of police abuse of AfricanAmerican citizens. For instance, on April 4, 2015, a White police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, Michael Slager, was involved in a controversial traffic stop that left an innocent Black man dead. According to the police report, Walter Scott, a 50-year-old black man was stopped because of a non-functioning brake light on his car. A dash cam showed that Officer Slager spoke to Scott and returned to his police cruiser after which Scott exited his car and fled.

After giving chase, Slager fired eight rounds at Scott from behind at close range. Scott was struck five times and died soon thereafter. On April 7, Slager was arrested and charged

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with first degree murder. Although this case is tragic, it is also isolated and not reflective of standard law enforcement practices in America.

From the outset, it is only fair to point out that the overwhelming majority of Muslim-Americans are not involved in seditious activities against the United States. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that the majority of them sympathize with positions hostile to America. Still, even a small number of subversive elements have to potential to wreak tremendous damage in America.

Nationwide costs of the chaos that followed the recent police shootings are still elusive, but by early December 2014, it was estimated that the state of Missouri had spent roughly $11.7 million on the National Guard and Highway Patrol to deal with the protests. In addition, approximately $4.2 million had been spent by St. Louis County to deal with the unrest. Still unknown is the cost of losses incurred due to arson and vandalism. There are also long-term costs in the form of depressed development in the blighted areas affected by the mayhem. As the conservative African-American economist, Thomas Sowell, pointed out, some of the cities and towns that suffered riots in the 1960s, such as Detroit and Harlem, never fully recovered.

Businesses left, taking with them jobs and taxes that were needed to keep these locales economically viable. Finally, and perhaps most important, these highly-charged racial controversies have a toxic effect on the civil society of America. For little or very low cost, jihadists can potentially exploit these tensions by using new media platforms to peddle their propaganda. Community leaders must stand up and reject these negative messages with their own counter-narratives, for the long-term viability of the nation is at stake.

About the Author George Michael is an associate professor of criminal justice at Westfield State University in Massachusetts. Previously, he was an associate professor of nuclear counterproliferation and deterrence theory at the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama. He is the author of five books, most recently, Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance (Vanderbilt University Press, 2012).

Active Shooters:

Threat Assessment For Preemptive Prevention

By Dr. Joshua Sinai

Louise Brown walks in the “March for Black Lives� after passing by the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina June 20, 2015 three days after a mass shooting left people nine dead during a bible study at the church. REUTERS/ Brian Snyder

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he violent shooting outside a court in Milan, Italy, in early April 2015, in which three people were intentionally killed by the defendant, as well as an earlier shooting some four months earlier at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, MA, in which a surgeon was fatally shot by a former patient, as well as other shootings at schools, shopping malls and workplaces, demonstrated that the threat of active shooter attacks against disparate targets around the world remained a persistent concern for all those tasked with protecting such facilities and the victims who are directly impacted by such violent attacks.

Statistics about active shooter incidents bear out the notion of what appears to be increasingly frequent active shooter incidents in the United States, as well as in other global regions, such as Western Europe (particularly Belgium, France, Norway and Switzerland), two incidents in Israel in 2012 and 2013, as well as major incidents in Mumbai, India in November 2008, and in Kenya in September 2013. In the U.S., where most active shooter attacks occur, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statistics, such incidents increased from 6.4 per year between 2000 and 2006 to 16.4 per year between 2007 and 2013.

In terms of the types of targets attacked,

according to a 2013 Texas State University study of 84 active shooter events between 2000 and 2010, most of these incidents occurred at places where people spend much time, such as employment (37 percent), schools and universities (34 percent), public venues such as shopping malls and movie theaters (17 percent), with the remainder 12 percent occurring in other locations, such as religious institutions and military facilities.

In addition to causing fatalities and injuries, active shooter attacks also result in substantial economic damages, particularly when such facilities are closed down for temporary or longer periods, as well as large insurance claims for loss of life or injuries

sustained when such facilities are proven to be insufficiently protected.

This article’s objective is to demonstrate that many potential active shooter incidents can be preemptively prevented if appropriate threat and risk mitigation strategies and tactics are implemented by security managers and public safety officers. Such pre-incident prevention is possible because the perpetrators that target such venues tend to share certain common motivational characteristics and personality disorders, which are expressed by noticeable risky behaviors, making it possible for those in close contact with them to identify them

Such pre-incident prevention is possible because the perpetrators that target such venues tend to share certain common motivational characteristics and personality disorders, which are expressed by noticeable risky behaviors, making it possible for those in close contact with them to identify them for preemptive countermeasures, since such incidents generally occur within local communities where such perpetrators are generally known to their families and those who associate with them, including co-workers.

for preemptive coun-

termeasures, since such incidents generally occur within local communities where such perpetrators are generally known to their families and those who associate with them, including co-workers.

Active Shooters An active shooter is defined as an armed person (or several persons) who is in the process of engaging in a shooting spree, with the intent of continuously harming others, whether in an open area or confined environment, such as inside a facility. What makes this an active shooter situation is that the perpetrator continues the shooting spree while having unrestricted access to additional victims, whether they are initially intended or random targets.

Active shooters generally arrive at the location of their targeted attack with the intent to commit mass murder, as opposed to killing a single victim – although it may escalate into killing others, as well. The victims may be intentionally targeted or become what are termed random “targets of opportunity.”

This category of mass killings excludes criminal incidents such as bank robberies or broken drug deals that turn lethal because such perpetrators are generally motivated by illicit financial greed. This category of mass killings does include terrorist attacks that incorporate active shooter components into their violent rampages, such as the November 2008 three-day attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani terrorist group, against multiple targets in Mumbai, India, in which more than 170 people were killed, as well as the September 2013 attack by alShabaab, the Somali terrorist group, against the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in which more than 65 people were killed.

Although an active shooter’s objective is to inflict as many as killings possible, in some situations even the resulting one or two fatalities was a lesser outcome than had been intended by the perpetrator.

As illustrative examples, although the shooting spree at the shopping mall in Columbia, MD, on January 25, 2014 caused two fatalities and a

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single injury (with others suffering injuries during their escape), the fact that 19-year-old Darion Marcus Aguilar, the alleged shooter, had used a 12-gauge pump-action Mossberg shotgun, and had a large quantity of ammunition, in addition to storing explosives in his backpack, indicated that he may have intended to cause far greater fatalities than the two individuals that were killed. Similarly, in April 2014, many more fatalities and injuries could have been inflicted at the military installation at Fort Hood, Texas, had the shooter, 34-year old Ivan Lopez, not been stopped by a military police officer, after having killed 3 individuals and injured 16 others.

•

•

•

Active shooter incidents are generally terminated once the attacker (or attackers) is overtaken by preventative law enforcement action (as had occurred at the Fort Hood, TX incident) or upon their self-inflicted death (as had occurred at the Columbia, MD incident).

•

In terms of their motivation (in addition to their generally troubled psychological condition), active shooters are usually driven by an assortment of pent up grievances, anger and hatred towards their intended targets, as well as, in some cases, the notoriety and fame that such murderous rampages will generate for their horrific acts of “retributive justice” either in their lifetime or posthumously.

•

More specifically, different sets of motivations drive such perpetrators to attack different categories of targets. Those attacking schools, for example, might be driven by revenge for perceived bullying by other students or a sense of their own academic failure and hopelessness; workplace violence might be driven by anger over job dismissal or a highly negative performance report; while attacking shopping malls might be driven by a combination of such perceived grievances and pent up anger against a wider population.

Recent major active shooter attacks in the U.S. have included the following: •

July 20, 2012: 25-year-old James Holmes killed 12 and wounded 58 during the screening of “the Dark Knight Rises”

•

•

at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

December 11, 2012: 22-yearold Jacob Tyler Roberts opened fire at the Clackamas Town Center in Portland, Oregon, killing two people and wounding one person, before taking his own life.

September 16, 2013: 34-yearold Aaron Alexis opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people and wounding 8 others.

November 1, 2013: 23-yearold Paul Anthony Ciancia used a rifle to kill a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer and injure several other people at Los Angeles International Airport.

November 4, 2013: 20-yearold Richard Shoop entered the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, New Jersey and proceeded to fire random shots with an automatic rifle before taking his own life (no other fatalities or injuries were incurred).

January 25, 2014: 19-year-old Darion Marcus Aguilar used a shotgun to kill two store employees and injure another person at a shopping mall in Columbia, MD, before taking his own life.

April 2, 2014: 34-year old Ivan Lopez, an Army specialist, who was in uniform, used a concealed weapon to embark on a shooting spree at several locations at the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas. Four people, including the gunman, were killed, while sixteen additional people were injured. The shooter, once confronted by a military police officer, proceeded to kill himself of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

October 24, 2014: Jaylen Fryberg, a 15-year-old freshman student at Marysville Pilchuck High School, in Marysville, Washington, shot five other students, killing four, before fatally shooting himself.

As demonstrated by the disparate targeting of such attacks, public venues, whether government or commercial facilities appear especially attractive to active shooters because they are generally highly

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congested with people, which make them difficult for security personnel to protect. Even military installations, while relatively well protected against non-military personnel, are vulnerable to attacks by insiders (such as Major Nidal Hassan, Aaron Alexis and Ivan Lopez) who exploit their access to such facilities to carry out their shooting rampages.

Active Shooter Attacks Can Be Prevented While the majority of active shooters who target the spectrum of such venues are generally not known by their intended victims, many of these attacks are actually preventable, since such perpetrators exhibit risky behaviors and mindsets that can be detected prior to their attacks – although these will likely differ from one perpetrator to another. For instance, prior to conducting such attacks, to those directly associated with such perpetrators, there might be a noticeable abrupt change in their personal behavior, such as homicidal or suicidal tendencies, a traumatic personal experience, such as expulsion from school or abrupt job termination, expressions of intense personal grudge and increase in ominous belligerence against others that might be expressed in person or in social media sites, a history of resorting to violence against others, and, most importantly, a recent and unexplained acquisition of weapons and ammunition. In the case of Darion Marcus Aguilar, the Columbia, MD mall shooter, his purchase of the shotgun and ammunition in December 2013, when combined with other risky behaviors, should have raised warning flags about his future shooting rampage, had they been identified by those who knew him at that crucial formative pre-incident phase. Similar warning flags likely could have been raised in the case of Ivan Lopez, particularly his purchase of the .45-caliber Smith & Wesson M&P pistol on March 1, 2014, a month prior to his attack.

Fortunately, there are numerous examples of best practices in preemptive prevention. In one noteworthy case, in November 2012 a mother decided to turn her 20-year-old son to police authorities after discovering that he had purchased a pair of assault rifles and 400 rounds of ammunition. The son, Blaec

Lammers, had reportedly become so obsessed with James Holmes’ Colorado shootings at the Batman movie opening that he began to collect weapons and ammunition to carry out a similar mass shooting at the showing of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2” at a movie theater in Bolivar, Missouri. It is reported that he even planned to escalate his shooting spree at a nearby Wal-Mart because it would have provided him access to additional ammunition. Finally, like other active shooters, Lammers had spent time practicing his shooting skills at a gun range in Aldrich, Missouri.

Like other active shooters, Lammers shared a similar psychological profile.

As explained by his mother, he was “very quiet,” “very much a loner,” “had a hard time making friends,” and “felt like he was a failure.”

In another form of preemptive prevention, following a risk assessment of a facility’s security posture to determine what further controls may be required to protect its critical assets, the principle of

deterrence could be applied to make it difficult for potential active shooters to enter such potential target.

Thus, for example, if such facilities could be sufficiently hardened with rings of physical and other types of protective measures, this would make it difficult for the potential attacker to carry out his operation.

This principle of establishing protective security rings can be applied to varying degrees of hardiness to all categories of potential targets. Finally, appropriate procedures should also be implemented and regularly exercised by security departments and their counterparts in other parts of the facility to coordinate the quick and seamless evacuation and sheltering of affected personnel and as immediate as possible law enforcement response in the event that such attacks were to occur.

Future Trends Regarding future trends, the rate of active shooter incidents against the spectrum of different categories of venues is likely to remain relatively frequent, particularly

due to the unceasing numbers of troubled individuals who are intent on conducting such attacks, as well as the continued vulnerability of targets who have yet to implement the appropriate security hardening of their facilities. Moreover, the number of fatalities and injuries caused by such attacks is likely to continue to vary, with the majority of attacks causing low numbers of casualties, but with fewer although more “ambitious” attacks, such as in Aurora, Colorado, or the Washington Navy Yard, resulting in mass casualties. There is some good news, as demonstrated by the effectiveness of the quick responses by public safety and emergency personnel in 2014 at the incidents in Columbia, MD and in Fort Hood, Texas, with law enforcement and emergency response personnel becoming better at managing and controlling such incidents, although such improvements and upgrades may not be uniformly applied nation-wide.

In the final analysis, for effective preemptive prevention it remains

a significant challenge for families and those associated with potential attackers to continuously assess the risks associated with the mindsets and behaviors common to such individuals who appear to be on the path towards homicidal violence and to proactively intervene and deter them by referring them to mental health or other relevant counseling services in order to turn them away from carrying out their intended operations.

About the Author Dr. Joshua Sinai is Director of Analytics and Business Intelligence at CRA (www.cra-usa.net), a whollyowned subsidiary of Resilient Corporation (www.resilient.com), where he also serves in that position. He is the author of “Active Shooter – A Handbook on Prevention,” which was published by ASIS International in January 2013, and is currently being updated for its substantially revised and updated second edition. Dr. Sinai can be reached at: Joshua.sinai@ comcast.net.

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Guardian Angels:

A Spotlight On The World’s Most Advanced Disaster Training Facility

By John Strobridge & Joshua Tallis

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raining is the Achilles heel of law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians. Even with all the newest technology, the best resources, and the best managers, first responders are beholden to the quality, particularly the realism, of the training they receive. One facility, Guardian Centers, has emerged at the forefront to meet this need.

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The 830-acre facility in Perry, Georgia boasts hyper-realistic settings, which ensure that the lessons learned under the southern sun become enduring instincts for first responders during real crises the world over.

The realism built into Guardian Centers is what has helped transform it into a truly one-of-a-kind campus.

Knowing how to search for survivors in a smoldering collapsed building is very different from actually sifting

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through hot rubble as sparks shower down from overhead, just as knowing the procedures for handling radiological materials is far different from actually walking through a live hot zone. That is exactly the idea behind

Guardian Centers, whose primary mission is to offer first responders and military personnel the most realistic, full-spectrum training facilities available in the world.

The authors sat down with Curt Powell, the Centers’ Managing Director in Washington, DC, to learn more about a facility that has quickly established itself as among the elite in the industry.

For Powell, a man with extensive experience in the military and homeland security communities, Guardian Centers (GC) is the “real deal.” He notes that, “while safety is paramount and designed into the entire facility,” the training venues are also necessarily a “dangerous place.” This risk is critical to capturing the subtleties of realism frequently missing from other training venues—“it reflects the types of hazards and risks that trainees will face in the real world.”

To put it mildly, GC is “graduate-level training” for first responders, special operators, and law enforcement. And if education is their chosen metaphor, then this University of Calamity has some incredible classrooms.

Subway Simulator It is hard to say some things are more unique than others at Guardian Centers, but their fully simulated metro station would certainly make the short list. Pass through the turnstiles and ticket booths and you quickly descend into a re-creation of the Washington, DC Metro, complete with “Foggy Bottom—GWU” signs and eight actual DC subway cars purchased from the city. The fully functional cars sit on two rails extending into a tunnel more than a quarter of a mile long. On any given day, deep in the bellows of this tunnel, you might see flames casting

long shadows as firefighters practice battling one of the deadliest types of blazes imaginable, or hear the echo of shifting rubble as search and rescue teams work in near-total darkness in a simulated disaster.

The utility of genuine realism is instantly apparent to the first responders working in such conditions.

The ability to move the cars, cut the lights, add controlled flames, smoke, and simulate active shooters, natural disasters, and terrorist incidents makes Guardian Centers’ subway simulation one of the most distinctive memories of any visit. You simply will not find something like that anywhere else.

Metroplex If you ever wanted to know what a ghost town really felt like, the Metroplex is probably a good place to start. Walk through seventy-five acres of cityscape, replete with roads, cars, a hospital, a school, and even a furniture store, and at first it is hard to understand why no one is around.

Until you realize—none of this is real.

The Metroplex is part of the Centers’ urban training facilities, which offer a dizzying array of opportunities for first responders. Each individual building is a virtual trove of possibilities. Take the hospital, for example. Outfitted

just like a real hospital, furnished with gurneys and medical equipment, it could easily host medevac training, active shooter scenarios, or biohazard simulations. Moreover, as only a small part of such a gargantuan expanse, perhaps the hospital’s greatest training asset is that it can be integrated into a far greater, citywide simulation in which various first responders—maybe responding to a mock radiological incident—practice how to integrate their individual responsibilities with those of medical staff at a secondary location.

Powell describes such large-scale training as “full-mission profile exercises—where several layers of command and control, as well as adjacent units from DOD, State, and

Local all work a shared scenario.” He says that GC’s capacity to perform such integrated simulations helps to “truly stress test a unit’s readiness and uncover weaknesses and equipment shortfalls” in a way that almost no other facility can. It is this “fullmission exercise offering” that Powell credits with bringing some of the most elite units in the country to Guardian Centers, and why the “FDNY [Fire Department of New York] continues to train with us.”

The possibilities seem boundless here.

Police can practice high-speed chases on real streets lined with real cars.

Special operations units can practice urban warfare advancing block-byblock, navigating alleyways, businesses and residences. Firefighters can battle real car fires and emergency extractions while they coordinate with police as they keep a simulate riot at bay. And all of that, even before you see what is around the next block.

What takes the Metroplex from impressive to jaw-dropping are two full city blocks of collapsed structures. Modeled off of incidents such as the World Trade Center and New Zealand’s Copthorne Hotel (which collapsed in an earthquake), reconfigurable piles of concrete and

What takes the Metroplex from impressive to jaw-dropping are two full city blocks of collapsed structures. Modeled off of incidents such as the World Trade Center and New Zealand’s Copthorne Hotel (which collapsed in an earthquake)

steel rubble stretching three stories high sit on more than one hundred acres of training space. Under this nearly million square feet of debris stretches an impressive three thousand feet of tunnels. These tunnels bring live actors to rescue pods deep beneath the carnage, meaning that search and rescue students can practice rescuing real victims even if it takes hours to reach them; actors can remain safe and comfortable in staging facilities until the last moment. Looking at steel rebar twisted impossibly, whole concrete staircases strewn across debris, and real cars cantilevered off a broken parking structure, it can be difficult to remember that this is all a carefully choreographed simulation.

Add a little smoke, water and sparks and the illusion is complete.

Incredibly, every part of this charred landscape, indeed every part of the Metroplex and beyond, is thoroughly customizable. As Powell notes, “everything at GC is configurable—purposely designed to provide realism for the scenario of your choice. For example, each building in our 80 building cityscape has water, power and equipment corresponding to what its role is.

However, there are no permanent interior walls, we build them to suit the layout of a specific facility or to meet a certain training objective.”

This realism has already made an impact on the communities GC serves.

As Powell notes, the intricate challenges of training on their collapsed structures has attracted world-class search and rescue teams such as

Command and Control The success of any large operation, whether it is a search and rescue mission, natural disaster, or terrorist attack, largely depends on command and control. Guardian Centers has robust command and control centers (Joint Operations Center/Emergency Response Center).

Virginia Task Force 1 to Perry, Georgia. That same unit has since helped spearhead American aid in Nepal, the country now devastated after being rocked by two earthquakes.

Flood Zone Once you have seen buildings in rubble, cars on fire, helicopters landing on buildings and aid workers pulling real people out of rescue pods buried deep under tons of concrete, it is hard to imagine there is anything truly new left to see at Guardian Centers. You would be wrong. Witness the flood zone, two full city blocks complete with cars and eight fully furnished homes, all of which can be submerged in water at the flick of a switch. This catastrophic bathtub reaches to the heart of what Guardian Centers is about.

The inspiration for GC came after the Centers’ founder, Geoff Burkart, was moved by his work during the tragedy of hurricane Katrina in 2005.

As such, it should be no surprise that so much care and detail has gone into the simulation of residential flooding.

The houses are equipped with real attics in which actors can be hidden, and rescue workers are invited to literally cut through rooftops to help them evacuate. Water from a nearby reservoir can flood the 5.5 million gallon basin—modeled off of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward—up to eight feet, submerging playgrounds, fences, homes and vehicles. The torrent of water can be controlled so exactly that the flood zone can even simulate different emergency conditions, including the rapidly rising water levels that frequently bedevil first responders in flashflood scenarios.

The Emergency Response Center (EOC) is 8000 square feet and it possesses the necessary equipment to monitor any type of multiagency response. The EOC allows for monitoring and communication with ground units. Moreover, it is equipped with live feeds of the training area that allow commanders to track the exercise. This footage can also be recorded if desired, so that it can be used for debriefing purposes.

Other amenities include ample Internet connectivity, additional office space, conference rooms, kitchen, bathrooms, and showers.

The Joint Operations Center (JOC) consists of an integrated command system that supports full mission profile operations, to include multiagency integration. The JOC can monitor 27 tilt zoom cameras located throughout the training facility.

The live feeds allow commanders to effectively employ and adjust their assets during training exercises.

They also can record the entire operation, which is a crucial aspect of the debrief process.

From both command centers, supervisors can direct their units accordingly, track progress, and monitor the fluidity of the scenario at hand.

More importantly, the command

Once you have seen buildings in rubble, cars on fire, helicopters landing on buildings and aid workers pulling real people out of rescue pods buried deep under tons of concrete, it is hard to imagine there is anything truly new left to see at Guardian Centers. You would be wrong. Witness the flood zone, two full city blocks complete with cars and eight fully furnished homes, all of which can be submerged in water at the flick of a switch.

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center allows multiple agencies to coordinate, which is often a major point of contention during any type of mission. In addition to digital monitoring, the 1:500 scale model of the entire Guardian Centers facility allows commanders to manually track the exercise.

Founder Geoff Burkart embarked on a nearly five-year exploratory journey before ever breaking ground on his personal project.

According to Powell, “Mr. Burkart toured and trained at every facility of this type in North America and Europe to gather the best designs and shortfalls of the universe of these training facilities.”

A World of Firsts At this point, nothing should be surprising about Guardian Centers other than how surprising the whole thing is. The sprawling campus is host to a mile long fourlane highway built to Department of Transportation specifications, where everything from high-speed chases to emergency logistics staging to vehicular collisions can be recreated with incredible accuracy. In fact, there is not one, but two fully functional highway simulations on the campus, the second being a re-creation of a two lane tunnel cut into the earth.

Air transportation is not neglected either. The Centers is a pilot’s paradise, with seven licensed helicopter landing zones, three certified parachute drop zones, and direct access to an adjacent private airfield for easy access by the discreet and elite.

Yet, across the vast acreage, the things you cannot see are equally as impressive. Tucked inside an unassuming building is a stateof-the-art atmospheric chamber, out of which students dressed in Hazmat suits lumber. The airtight room is a multipurpose training facility designed to educate first responders and biohazard experts on a range of biochemical threats.

Guardian Centers is also the only private facility licensed to train with real radiological material in a cityscape setting.

Guardian Centers has wide area dose fields, to include dose monitoring and surveying, continuous dose monitoring, and decontamination and decontamination validation. Dissemination methods can either be live or simulated in clandestine labs or wide area dispersal patterns. Unlike other facilities, Guardian Centers has the ability to support numerous types of radiological agents that may be found following an incident at a

nuclear facility or that may be used by an adversary during an attack.

In addition to training with radioactive materials, Guardian Centers supports training with precursors and certain biological agents, including but not limited to: Abrin, Ricin, and Bascilis.

In 2014, Guardian Centers hosted Marines and Sailors of the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF), a unit within the II Marine Expeditionary Force that responds to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive threats. During Scarlet Response—a combined training exercise directed by US Northern Command—CBIRF personnel conducted numerous exercises, to include a simulated nuclear explosion in a US city, decontamination of casualties, personnel, and equipment, radiation detection, and vehicle extractions.

CBIRF has been conducting training exercises at GC since 2012. Since then they have participated in two Scarlet Response exercises aboard the training grounds. The facilities at Guardian Centers meet the Marines’ rigorous training demands, and provide the unit with different scenarios and an array of different decontamina-

tion challenges. Following his unit’s extensive decontamination training in 2014, Colonel Stephen Redifer, the CBIRF Commanding Officer, said, “if you are looking for an outstanding place to train, Guardian Centers is it.”

Amid all the brawn, the brain is not neglected. The Centers boasts over 100,000 square feet of office and academic space, as well as a 350,000 square foot high bay warehouse for inside training out of weather and for observation of overhead assets. All of this is directed from an 8,000 square foot emergency operations center and a 2,000 square foot command center from which sparks, fires, smoke, and water are directed with pinpoint accuracy to keep participants ever on their toes.

All of this is in the ultimate pursuit of realism, the holy grail of disaster training and the single greatest obstacle to operational readiness.

Throw in a cafeteria that can feed 400 hungry students at a time (with specialty dietary capabilities such as Halal) and onsite suites to rest weary bodies, and the overall impression of Guardian Centers is a facility that has simply thought of everything.

And that was their intention.

One of the factors Powell stressed most was the singular value Guardian Centers leverages as a privately owned facility, “which means we have the flexibility, resources, and discretion to develop training packages and exercises that are both unique and cost-competitive. GC is a business, and as such, must meet or beat the prices of our governmentowned competitors.” According to Powell, some of the greatest savings and value added “are realized when a unit can train on several facets of it is mission at one location. The diversity of the GC venues allows for this and substantially reduces the cost of travel, logistics, and time going from place to place to complete all the training objectives. We’re a ‘one-stop-shop’ so to speak.”

And Guardian Centers says they still are not done dreaming up new uses for their facilities. With hundreds of acres still waiting for development, the sky really seems to be the limit for a facility dedicated to guarding our guardian angels.

About the Authors John Strobridge is a junior research associate at Security Management International. He is a recent graduate of Georgetown University, where he studied Government and Arabic. Prior to attending Georgetown and joining SMI, John served eight-years in the Marine Corps. John can be reached at jstrobridge@smiconsultancy.com .

Joshua Tallis is the manager for research and analysis at Security Management International. He is a PhD candidate at the University of St Andrews’ Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. He can be reached at jtallis@smiconsultancy.com For further information on the Guardian Centers, visit GuardianCenters.com or contact Curt Powell at cpowell@guardiancenters.com.

Secure Driver:

The Importance of Remembering Time & Distance

By Anthony Ricci

S

pring has arrived in the Northeast! The sun is shining, the flowers are beginning to bloom and massive potholes are everywhere! Now is the perfect time to remind ourselves of some simple, but important rules that we should respect and follow to keep ourselves and the others we share the road with safe out there.

With the many distractions around us as we travel from place to place, it is vital we stay aware of two key things: time and distance. Over time this awareness can become second nature and we can fall into a comfort zone. We can easily take for granted the amount of risk that lies around the next corner in our ever changing environment. Although we can never fully eliminate all risk while on the road, there are some basic skills we can keep in mind to reduce this risk quite significantly.

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First, we should do our best to keep a good buffer of space around our vehicle in all four directions. This space should be enough to allow you time to escape in the event that a hazard occurs. In order to have this time, you need to be able to plan ahead. This means scanning your surroundings and being aware of what’s happening at least 12-15 seconds ahead of you – or as far ahead as you can see. If you can see it, you should be able to predict a potential hazard and analyze the situation for the appropriate response.

Secondly, when following a vehicle you should always leave a minimum of 2-3 seconds of space in front of you. Sometimes it can be difficult to measure this time, so here’s a quick tip to help you. Find a stationary object along the roadway and once the vehicle you’re following passes this object start counting: one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand. If you reach the object before you finish counting then you need to slow down and leave more following distance.

To avoid potential hazards, it’s important for all drivers to use a system and have a plan.

Although this system can be automatic and second nature, it’s important that we make ourselves aware of it and remember to practice to keep it fresh in our minds. One of the quickest and most simple driving systems is called the SIPDE process, which I first learned from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF).

S I P D E

-Scan aggressively in all four directions -Identify potential hazards -Predict what the hazard will do -Decide what you should do and how you will do it -Execute the maneuver

If you’ll notice, the first four steps of this system are completely mental with only the last step being physical. Hence the saying that driving is 90% mental. Accidents usually

Not Receiving Our Monthly IACSP ENEWS? Many of our members are not receiving our new monthly CTS Enews (electronic security report) because we either do not have your email, or you are using a .gov or .mil email address for your membership record. If you would like to receive our CTS Enews, please send me an email with the email address you would like us to use. Email addresses like .gmail, or .hotmail, etc. will work if you have a .mil address. Also include your current address. Please send the information to my attention to my personal email address: iacsp1@aol.com Thank you. Steven J. Fustero, Dir. Of Ops/IACSP

happen because the driver is surprised; something unexpected enters their path of travel and they don’t have enough time to react. If the driver is focused and looking well ahead, chances are they will have time to perceive the potential hazard before it becomes an unwanted part of their car. The sooner you become aware of a potential hazard the sooner you can react to it. Remember that at 40 mph you’re traveling 59 feet per second. If you save a tenth of a second by scanning and identifying correctly, you have now saved 6 feet of travel - the average width of most vehicles.

In simple terms, successful roadway navigation comes down to managing two things: time and distance. So stay alert be aware of your surroundings and give yourself and the others around you a little more space. And most importantly, stay safe out there!

About the Author Anthony Ricci is President of ADSI (http://www.1adsi.com)

First Response To UAS Incidents

By Stanley I. White, IACSP, ATO

T

150513-N-YJ133-493 CAMP ROBERTS, Calif.

(May 13, 2015) Chief Operations Specialist Richard Baker, a student of the Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle training course, carries a UAV to the launcher.

The eight-week course teaches students how to operate Scan Eagles and consists of classroom instruction and practical application. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Richard A. Miller/Released)

he acronym UAS stands for unmanned aerial system (aka drones, radio controlled model airplanes, etc). These systems can come in many configurations and be utilized in various capacities that range from civilian recreational toys to high tech lethal terminators of terrorists. They can gather intelligence at high altitudes, execute missile strikes, assist law enforcement on raids, analyze weather formations, and document traffic patterns all the while keeping their operators safe from harm’s way.

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These units can have a crew of operators that range from one individual to three. A three-man team consists of a pilot who is in charge of navigation, a payload operator who takes photographs and controls video operations and a safety operator who monitors the airspace around the system for hazards. These systems are a great technological asset to society when properly utilized, however when they are misused they become a great danger to the safety and security of society. This misuse appears to be growing as criminal organizations, foreign and domestic terrorists seek to use these aerial systems to further their agendas. This presents public and private security professionals with a dilemma regarding their response. Summarized below are 5 incidents dating back to 2002 involving the nefarious usage UASs: August 2002 – a raid conducted on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) compound revealed that members were in the operational stages of using UASs (radio remote controlled airplanes) fitted with 1 kilogram (approximately 2 pounds) of plastic explosives to attack selected targets.

Circa May/June 2005 – media reports documented Hezbollah fighters attempted and failed to use radio controlled model airplanes carrying explosive payloads to attack various targets in the Middle East.

September 2011 – Rezwan Ferdaus was arrested for plotting to use a radio controlled model airplane fit-

ted with plastic explosives to attack the Pentagon.

January 2015 – US Secret Service Agents recovered the wreckage of a drone that had crashed on the White House lawn.

April 2015 – a drone carrying radioactive material landed on the rooftop of the offices of the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, Japan.

Criminal entities have also expressed interest in the use of UASs. Mexican drug cartels have been using drones to ship narcotics across the US southern border since 2010 according to sources inside the US Drug Enforcement Agency. These drones are estimated to able to carry payloads up to 13 kilograms (approximately 26 pounds) of narcotics. The use and interest of the Cartels regarding UASs has prompted them to explore the production of these systems more cheaply in Mexico. Consider the damage a commercial drone outfitted to carry 26 pounds of C-4 or TATP explosives could do if it were to crash into a tanker truck or railroad car hauling hazardous chemicals. UASs could also be outfitted to be delivery platforms for chemical and biological agents. If a UAS carrying such an agent crashed into the air intake of a large corporate building, the casualties, media coverage and panic would be tremendous not to mention the millions of dollars spent in new security measures following the incident. Even more recently sources

Officials carry a blue box that local media reported contains a drone from the rooftop of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s official residence in Tokyo April 22, 2015.

A drone marked with a radioactive sign landed on the rooftop of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office and later tested positive for small amounts of radiation, media reported. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

The use and interest of the Cartels regarding UASs has prompted them to explore the production of these systems more cheaply in Mexico. Consider the damage a commercial drone outfitted to carry 26 pounds of C-4 or TATP explosives could do if it were to crash into a tanker truck or railroad car hauling hazardous chemicals. UASs could also be outfitted to be delivery platforms for chemical and biological agents. inside the Department of Homeland Security have revealed that current air defense systems are limited in their ability to detect UASs due to small size and low flying altitudes.

All well-planned terrorist attacks need three basic components: intelligences gathering, planning and execution.

The best way to thwart an attack is to engage the adversary while he or she is conducting their intelligence gathering also known as hostile surveillance. As this pertains to drones, first responders need to have an outline to document incidents that involve suspicious UASs operating in restricted and sensitive areas.

Law enforcement, security professionals and any entity tasked with the investigation of these incidents must always bare in mind that not all UAS activities are criminal or terrorist plots. One such incident occurred on May 14th , 2015 when a man was arrested for flying a drone across the street from the White House causing a lock down mode to go into effect. In an effort to prevent such incidents, the Federal Aviation Administration is preparing an iOS app named B4UFLY that will

advise UAS users of restrictions for areas of intended flight. However, if UASs are observed in the immediate vicinity of large gatherings of people such as sporting events, sensitive and restricted locations such as power plants, dams, reservoirs, police stations, etc., their presence should be investigated and monitored immediately. This is to protect matters ranging from local security to that of national security.

Law enforcement and security professionals can visit www.knowbeforeyoufly.org and www.faa.gov for additional information on the most recent UAS regulations.

About the Author Stanley I. White is the current Counterintelligence Advisor for the IACSP, a certified Anti-Terrorism Officer and a veteran Defensive Tactics Instructor who has trained numerous personnel from local, state and federal agencies. He can be contacted via email at swhite@atix.riss.net. You can also visit: http://www.apd.army.mil/ pub/eforms/pdf/A2397_U. pdf for an example of a UAS incident document.

An IACSP Q & A With Former CIA Official

Jack Devine

J

ack Devine is a 32-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

He served as both Acting Director and Associate Director of CIA’s operations outside the United States from 1993-1995, where he had supervisory authority over thousands of CIA employees involved in sensitive missions throughout the world. In addition, he served as Chief of the Latin American Division from 1992-1993 and was the principal manager of the CIA’s sensitive projects in Latin America.

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Between 1990 and 1992, Mr. Devine headed the CIA’s Counternarcotics Center, which was responsible for coordinating and building close cooperation between all major U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies in tracking worldwide narcotics and crime organizations. From 1985-1987, Mr. Devine headed the CIA’s Afghan Task Force, which successfully countered Soviet aggression in the region.

In 1987 he was awarded the CIA’s Meritorious Officer Award for this accomplishment. He is also the recipient of the Agency’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal and several meritorious awards.

Mr. Devine is a founding partner and President of The Arkin Group LLC, which specializes in international crisis management, strategic intelligence, investigative research and business problem solving.

Mr. Devine’s book, “Good Hunting! A Spymaster’s Story”

focuses on his Agency career and the role of covert action in the past and the future.

Mr. Devine was interviewed by Paul Davis, a contributing editor to the Journal.

IACSP: I read your book and I enjoyed it.

Devine: Thanks. That always brightens my day.

IACSP: Why did you write the book?

Devine: While in the CIA, even after my cover was lifted, I told people I worked for the U.S. Government when they asked me what I did. Then my dentist asked me what I did before I opened my company in New York and I said I worked for the U.S. Government. But, being a New Yorker, he said no, what did you really do? I worked for the CIA, I told him.

You know, he said, that’s what I tell everybody. Because if I tell

them I’m a dentist they want me to look at their molars. So if my dentist can go around town saying he’s a CIA operative, I guess it’s time for me to start stepping out. I started from what I would call a very low profile out in public and then one thing lead to another and I began to write Op-Eds about things that agitated me. Also, when the Chile documents came out - I was there when Allende was overthrown - the agency called and said we’re not asking you to do anything, but when they come out the whole world is going to attack the CIA and it would be nice if somebody who was there could tell the real story. I agreed and I was interviewed about Chile in the Washington Post in the year 2000. I wrote the book because I always thought the CIA was tremendously important, not only from an intelligence collection point of view, but the piece that’s more controversial - covert action. I always felt this is a hugely important instrument

One can say it is a defense of the CIA and its activities and a defense of covert action, but it actually goes beyond that. It is an advocacy, advocating using the CIA and its covert action tools before you put troops on the ground.

of statecraft. As the years went by, I became more and more of a proponent of using covert action and defining under what conditions you use them. I ran the Afghan Task Force in Washington in the mid-1980s and in the book I use Afghanistan and the Russians as a good example of the principles of covert action.

What I’m getting at is the book is not just about what happened to Jack during his time at the CIA. One can say it is a defense of the CIA and its activities and a defense of covert action, but it actually goes beyond that. It is an advocacy, advocating using the CIA and its covert action tools before you put troops on the ground.

IACSP: Or instead of troops on the ground.

Devine: Right. The covert action formula is using surrogates.

If the people on the ground want to fight and it is in our national interest, then we find a way through CIA to make that

happen below the radar. I’m not an advocate for nation-building, because you can’t force-feed that to the population of the third world. They have to have a common interest with us, in other words, they have to want to fight terrorists or they want to resist some oppressive government that is in our interest to work against. We can work with people, but they have to want it. You can’t just buy their services. When the firing starts, they disappear.

Unfortunately, I think we are seeing some of those things playing out in Iraq today. The book is not just about the past, as the last chapter is all about what we should be doing in the Ukraine. There is no doubt in my mind that Putin is working from our classroom playbook.

guy. He is a strong nationalist. We have to recognize that he is a power player and if we don’t counter that he will continue to use the maximum amount of political influence, covert action, and in the case of the Ukraine, paramilitary capabilities to expand his interest. He has to be challenged on that and he only respects being challenged.

IACSP: Did Putin learn from our operations in Afghanistan?

Devine: Yes, it is. I was going to use “Easter Island Man,” because that was a name

IACSP: What does your book title “Good Hunting” mean?

Devine: This may speak to my literary genius here, as it took me two years to come up with the title.

IACSP: That’s the hardest part, sometimes.

of the book because I’ve been using that expression, as my predecessors have and all of my colleagues since the formation of the CIA. It is like “break a leg.” I think it captures the business. It says, go get that intelligence. Hunt for it, go get bin Laden.

I think it captures the spirit of the intelligence business, both covert action and the collection of intelligence. I had to add spymaster so people wouldn’t think it was about duck hunting.

IACSP: I saw “Charlie Wilson’s War,” and I’m wondering how accurate the film was concerning Congressman Wilson and the CIA’s operations against the Soviets in Afghanistan?

Devine: I value the fact that I had an opportunity to deal with Charlie. He was extremely colorful. He was a swashbuckler

He spent 15 years in the KGB. There is a certain point when you become a company man. In other words, you understand all of the principals of how you use an instrument like an intelligence service. So I would say it isn’t so much a single event, as he was a seasoned intelligence officer and then he ran the FSB, the counterpart of the FBI, for a year.

At the end of the day, when you look at Putin, he is a power guy. He is a strong nationalist.

Devine: That’s a good question. Did he?

He spent 15 years in the KGB. There is a certain point when you become a company man. In other words, you understand all of the principals of how you use an instrument like an intelligence service. So I would say it isn’t so much a single event, as he was a seasoned intelligence officer and then he ran the FSB, the counterpart of the FBI, for a year. At the end of the day, when you look at Putin, he is a power

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given to me, as I guess if you put plaster on my face I would look like the Easter Island Man. But then I thought it would sound like a detective story. A predecessor was called the “Poisoned Dwarf,” so I took Easter Island Man as a title. I was watching a black and white movie and there were a group of partisans during the Nazi occupation of France and just as the group was breaking up, the leader says to the group, “Good hunting.” My God, that’s the title

Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International

and he had a lot of Texas swagger. I believe part of it was theater. He was an Annapolis graduate, well read, a substantive guy and committed. So he came to this account naturally. I once asked him how he got involved and he said Congressman Wright, the speaker of the House, came to him and said “I want you to watch this one.” He had interests of his own with some of his Texas colleagues and there was a socialite named Joanne Herring - played by Julia Roberts in

Vol. 21, No.2

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the movie - and she got Charlie interested in Afghanistan. After Charlie and I wrapped up our respective careers, he in Congress, me in the agency, I remember around 2007 Charlie called and wanted to have dinner with me with our spouses. I walked in and sat down and he said, look, I know you didn’t like the book and you’re gonna hate the movie.

IACSP: Did you hate the movie?

Devine: Hollywood dramatized the story into a congressman, a rogue CIA guy and a beautiful woman who somehow drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan. That isn’t the story and Charlie knew that. He played a great role, drove more money than might have otherwise come to the program, but why I didn’t like the book or movie - even though they were fun to read and watch - is that it was a U.S. Government program and it was run the way it was supposed to be run. The President of the United States was behind it, the American people were behind it, and the Democratic Congress was behind it, so the objective was clear. The people on the ground wanted to fight. You had the CIA who were capable of supporting it, you had the Pakistanis, an ally, who were willing to make their support available. The Congress amply funded, with the executive branch’s coordination, the program. It was a huge logistical program. You had to buy weapons for 125,000 people. It required ships, trucks, and - I always smile at this - we required 9,000 mules every year to carry the weapons across China. This was managed by a small number of people. That does not make for a great movie, but that is how covert action should be done.

IACSP: I think the true story would make a great movie. I’d like to see a movie like that.

Devine: When the Russians eventually pulled out, the CIA chief in Islamabad, Milt Beardon, sent out a cable of just two words, “We won.” The “we” was the key part. I’m proud that I was a part of that. And another thing, Charlie had absolutely nothing to do with the Stinger missile. The movie distorts his role. The U.S. Government decided we really needed to do something about the Soviet’s Hind helicopter, which was like our Black Hawk helicopter. We had to find a way to push back so we could get all of

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The people on the ground wanted to fight. You had the CIA who were capable of supporting it, you had the Pakistanis, an ally, who were willing to make their support available. The Congress amply funded, with the executive branch’s coordination, the program. It was a huge logistical program. You had to buy weapons for 125,000 people. It required ships, trucks, and - I always smile at this - we required 9,000 mules every year to carry the weapons across China. This was managed by a small number of people. That does not make for a great movie, but that is how covert action should be done.

Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International

the material across the border. The Stinger changed history. On September 26, 1986, four of the Stinger missiles were fired. The first bounced along the ground, but the next three knocked the Hinds out of the sky. I think it broke the spirit of the Russians and they began to pack it in. It was the game changer, like the drone is today.

IACSP: Can you dispel the myth that the CIA supported bin Laden in Afghanistan during this time?

Devine: Bin Laden represented a small group of Arabs that were funded by some of our Arab friends. At that point all help was welcomed. I remembered later discussing this with our chief out there. He said there might have been two reports of very minor skirmishes in which he might have been mentioned. Bin Laden was not a player. He was not a leader. When we decided who got weapons, it was the tribes, and I can tell you with 100 percent certainty, I never heard of him. He was never part of the game. And he left! He didn’t stay around. U.S. tax dollars were never used to support the group that later became al Qaeda. It is a bum rap that we somehow created al Qaeda.

IACSP: I’m glad you dispelled the myth.

Devine: I’m very proud of what the CIA covert action operators, along with Special Forces, did in Afghanistan after 9/11. They worked with the same tribes we worked with to get the Russians out. It was the Northern Alliance, so part of what we did in the 80s made it possible to do what we did after 9/11 in Afghanistan, because we had relationships there.

IACSP: Do you think we should maintain troops in Afghanistan, as we do in Germany, Korea, Japan and elsewhere?

Devine: We should have the CIA there operating along with Special Forces out of uniform, so to speak, but don’t try and build highways and schools. I don’t believe in it.

IACSP: Your book covers so much and I was very interested in reading about your time in Chile and your involvement in the hunt for the drug lord Pablo Escobar. I highly recommend the book. Thanks for speaking to us and thanks for your many years of service.

Vol. 21, No.2

IACSP Reader’s Lounge Potential: Workplace Violence Prevention and Your Organizational Success, Bill Whitmore, (New York: Highpoint Executive Publishing, 2011), 258 pages, S24.95 [Hardcover], $9.95 [Kindle Edition].

Reviewed by Dr. Joshua Sinai

W

hen violence erupts at places as disparate as schools, shopping malls, hospitals, military bases, and airports, often by attackers who have no direct relationship to those targets, it is generally not recognized that these are also places where men and women work and earn their income. In addition to loss of life, these places are also severely disrupted by such attacks. Workplace violence is also directly caused by disgruntled employees (or former employees) who intentionally target their coworkers and managers for a range of perceived “injustices” caused them, which are often distorted by their own mental instabilities into homicidal violence.

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To understand and effectively respond to the phenomenon of workplace violence, we are fortunate to have Bill Whitmore’s authoritative and well-written book Potential: Workplace Violence Prevention and Organizational Success. Mr. Whitmore is especially qualified to write this book given his position as Chairman & CEO of AlliedBarton Security Services, one of the largest security provider corporations in the United States, which also specializes in supporting its clients in implementing workplace violence prevention programs.

What is workplace violence? According to Mr. Whitmore, at its most basic level it is “any physical assault, threatening behavior, or verbal abuse occurring in the work setting.” (p. xvi) Drawing on a 2011 Report on Workplace Violence published by the Institute of Management and Administration (JOMA), Mr. Whitmore explains that workplace violent events are actually much broader than generally considered because they fall into one of four types of situations: (1) criminal (e.g. a violent crime is committed at a workplace with the perpetrator having no direct relationship to the targeted venue); (2) customer or client (e.g., the perpetrator has a ‘legitimate’ relationship to the business, such as a customer or student, but becomes violent while being served by the business); (3) co-worker (e.g., the perpetrator is a current or former employee (or even contractor) of the business, and attacks or threatens another employee); and (4) domestic violence (e.g., the perpetrator has a personal (although troubled) relationship with the intended victim, such as a wife or girlfriend, who is an employee). (p. 8) To these four categories, Mr. Whitmore adds the additional category of terrorist/true believer (e.g., the perpetrator may not have any direct relationship to the targeted workplace, but attacks it either randomly or intentionally as a symbol of extremist objectives). (p.

8) What is especially important about this category is that, in a significant example mentioned by Mr. Whitmore, Major Nidal Hassan’s November 2009 shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas, can be considered as both a terrorist attack and an attack against his workplace.

In a further significant breakdown of the components of workplace violence that are not generally considered, Mr. Whitmore explains that, at least as it manifests itself in the second, third and fourth categories it refers to a broad range of behaviors along a spectrum of their nature and severity, beginning with milder behaviors (e.g. non-violent “disruptive, aggressive, hostile or emotionally abusive behaviors”); midrange behaviors (e.g. “threats, stalking and aggressive harassment”); and violent behaviors (e.g., “overt violence causing physical injury”).

Another important contribution of this book is its discussion of the crucial pre-incident warning signs that can be recognized by a trained observer. As Mr. Whitmore writes, “You just have to look for the typical warning signs signaling that something is seriously amiss.”

Each of these levels, Mr. Whitmore explains, is costly to the targeted organizations in terms of degrading their “cultural ethic, [causing] low morale, turnover, lower productivity, and so on.” (p. 9) To visualize this distinction, the three categories of workplace violence-related behaviors are outlined by an illustration of how each is accompanied by its respective risky manifestations.

Another important contribution of this book is its discussion of the crucial pre-incident warning signs that can be recognized by a trained observer. As Mr. Whitmore writes, “You just have to look for the typical warning signs signaling that something is seriously amiss.” (p. 11) These warning signs include general risky behaviors that characterize even those not likely to conduct workplace violence but may be grounds for mere dismissal, such as excessive tardiness or absences, lack of performance, inability to concentrate, signs of stress, and change in attitude, but these become more worrisome when manifested by more sudden and noticeable behaviors such as weapons fascination, use of drugs and alcohol, and “not taking responsibility for actions,” usually in an aggressive manner.

While identifying such risky pre-incident behaviors is crucial in enabling workplace managers to preemptively prevent such risky individuals from carrying through with their violent intentions, Mr. Whitmore points out that such preemptive capability comes about when organizations decide to focus their resources to implement appropriate response measures across all leadership levels. To attain such a preemptive capability across organiza-

tions, certain myths need to be overcome, such as apathy (e.g., “it’s not my job”), a mindset that “it can’t happen here,” that workplace violence “is usually blue-collar-related” but not across the workforce, that such violence is “caused by outsiders,” and that it is impossible to prevent such attacks because “it’s just a matter of luck” that they occur. (pp. 25-29) To upgrade the capability to effectively prevent workplace violence, Mr. Whitmore recommends that for companies “taking the initiative is key” and that they need to “proactively craft a policy and procedure, and disseminate it to all employees.” (p. 38) All levels of an company need to be engaged, including preventing workplace violence awareness training programs for managers and employees, establishing a hotline for reporting unusual behaviors or potentially threatening situations, as well as implementing a crisis response plan for steps to take in the event of a violent incident. Above all, Mr. Whitmore writes, the importance of preventing workplace violence “needs to saturate every level of the organization, from the CEO through middle management and every employee. Not having a comprehensive awareness program will create weak links among segments of your workforce.” (pp. 145-146) The risk mitigation strategy recommended by Mr. Whitmore is nuanced, as he points out that there is no “one size fits all” approach. He writes: “It’s important to emphasize that each organization has a different level of exposure to workplace violence, and therefore individual control programs will differ.

Retail establishments, particularly smaller fast-food locations and 24x7 convenience stores, are more frequently targeted for criminal activity, so they must develop defensive plans specific to their risk in ways that may differ from those of a manufacturing company working out of a factory site. Each control program must be an intelligent aggregation of tools that respond to the specific level and depth of risk facing that particular business.” (p. 161).

It is in offering these types of practitioner-based nuanced insights on pre-incident warning behaviors and practical recommendations for countermeasures that make Mr. Whitmore’s book an indispensable handbook on workplace violence prevention for organizations’ c-suite executives, department heads, security managers and HR professionals.

About the Reviewer Dr. Joshua Sinai is Director of Analytics and Business Intelligence at CRA (www.cra-usa.net), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Resilient Corporation (www. resilient.com), where he also serves in that position.

He is the author of “Active Shooter – A Handbook on Prevention,” which was published by ASIS International in January 2013, and is currently being updated for its second edition. Dr. Sinai can be reached at: Joshua.sinai@ comcast.net.

IACSP Reader’s Lounge SWAT Operations and Critical Incidents: Why People Die

A

By Stuart Meyers, 200 pages.

t the core of another recent research-based book are detailed dissections of what went wrong and what went right in six high-risk SWAT callouts where lives teetered on the edge--and in some cases were needlessly lost.

SWAT Operations and Critical Incidents: Why People Die reflects the unique background of its author. Across a 30-year law enforcement career as an operator and trainer, Stuart Meyers has participated in more than 1,000 life-threatening tactical deployments in the US and abroad. And, as of 2013, he has a master’s degree in liberal arts from Harvard University. The book had its genesis as his thesis, which was honored as Outstanding Thesis in the Social Sciences for its extensive research and analysis of critical incident dynamics and management.

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In the book’s 200 pages, Meyers explores how organizational structure, leadership skills, team performance, and suspect actions combine to determine the outcome of SWAT encounters. For his case histories, he dug into departmental policy and procedure manuals, incident reports and debriefings, training materials, team assignment and equipment lists, videotapes, and interviews with participants, including in some instances suspects and hostages.

His compelling selections range from a successful, injury-free warrant service on a suspect who had vowed to kill officers to a calamitous op in which a former police captain killed eight hostages aboard a tourist bus before he was finally shot dead.

Also in the mix are a barricaded subject callout that resulted in a chief and an incident commander being criminally indicted for involuntary manslaughter, a standoff in which negotiators kept talking while a hostage was repeatedly raped, a dual murder that occurred after a commander allowed the suspect’s ex-girlfriend to try to effect a surrender, and the successful dramatic rescue of hostages from a suicide bomber.

Meyers does not offer any idealized “model for guaranteed outcomes.”

But for each incident, he does present an analysis of the conditions and factors contributing to successful and unsuccessful resolutions that he believes “can yield a better understanding of how to identify and implement essential organizational conditions that can consistently lead to desired results.”

Part of his approach is to subject each case to a thorough “counterfactual examination.” That is, he pinpoints key “determining factors” that, had they occurred or not occurred, would have made failed operations successful and vice versa.

For example, in critiquing an extended incident in which two hostages, including a deputy sheriff, ultimately were killed, Meyers points out that “a

Also in the mix are a barricaded subject callout that resulted in a chief and an incident commander being criminally indicted for involuntary manslaughter, a standoff in which negotiators kept talking while a hostage was repeatedly raped, a dual murder that occurred after a commander allowed the suspect’s ex-girlfriend to try to effect a surrender, and the successful dramatic rescue of hostages from a suicide bomber.

sniper was denied the opportunity to shoot the suspect while the latter was observed standing at a window.” That leadership decision to favor persistent negotiation over seizing an opportune moment without hesitation “placed the life of the hostage-taker above the lives of the hostages,” and sacrificed a chance to end the threat successfully, Meyers writes.

“My definition of a successful SWAT operation,” he explains, is one in which “no hostages, innocent civilians, law enforcement officers, or operational support personnel experience loss of life or serious, permanent debilitating injury.”

Studying the key elements of successes and failures in real-world deadly encounters can be a vital stride toward that goal, “allowing tactical teams to be better tomorrow than they are today.”

The book and a two-day instructional program by the same name are available through Op Tac International, Meyers’ independent training organization.

For more information, email: info@optacinternational.com or call 443-616-7822.

Reprinted with permission from Force Science News, published by the Force Science Institute. Subscriptions to this free, twice monthly e-newsletter can be obtained by visiting: www.forcescience.org

Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International

Vol. 21, No.2

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