How To Conduct An International Negotiation
MRAP Armored Rescue Vehicles:
When You Need ‘Em, You Really Need ‘Em
Is Iran Using Linkedin? Defending The Gate:
Biometrics And Border Security
Counter-Insurgency Tactics: A Tool For Domestic Policing
A Q&A With Bryan Denson Author of The Spy’s Son
Fall Issue Vol. 21 No. 3 2015 Printed in the U.S.A. IACSP.COM
Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International
Vol. 21, No.3
â€?A  marvelous  book!  ...  The  most  handy,  the  most  accessible   ’how-Âto’  book  to  be  aware  of  the  threats  that  we’re  facing.â€?        Â
! ( $! !
“You  should  consider  Among  Enemies  a  must-Âread  if  you  travel  overseas,  whether  on  business  or  even  to  gain  an  understanding  of  the  hidden  threats  you  could  face.â€?  Â
" " # ! ! $#( ! # ! # ! $! $ % "# #
�An  indispensable  and  authoritative  companion  for  every  business  traveler  engaging  in  overseas  business  activities.�    ! " $ $! $ # !# !! ! " $! #( # ! #
How  prepared  are  you   to  protect  your  business  secrets?  Each  business  day,  some  35,000  executives,  scientists,  consultants  and  lawyers  pass  through  the  nation’s  airports  to  destinations  across  the  globe.  They  carry,  along  with  Their  goal  is  to  further  their  interests,improve  their  bottom  line,  engage  in  transactions  with  foreign  partnersand  maintain  their  competitive  advantage. On  the  other  side,  carefully  watching  most  of  those  travelers,  beginning  the  moment  they  arrive  at  the  airport  –  and  often  sooner  –  are  uncountednumbers  of  espionage  ope- ratives.  These  individuals  work  for  foreign  intelligence  services  and  economic  concerns.  They,  too,  are  pursuing  a  goal:  to  separate  international  business  travelers  from  their  trade  secrets. Â
About  the  author  Luke  Bencie For  the  past  15  years,  Luke  Bencie  has  traveled  to  more  than  100  countries  on  behalf  of  the  U.S.  Government  as  & " ! # ! % # " $"#!( " ' ! )!"# " # " $ ( # # ! # espionage.  He  has  seen  the  lengths  to  which  foreign  intelligence  services  and  other  hostile  global  competitors  will  go  to  steal  American  business  secrets.
www.among-Âenemies.com
Vol. 21, No. 3 Fall 2015 IACSP Director of Operations Steven J. Fustero
Page 10 Modern-Day Slavery: ICE Combats Human Trafficking
Associate Publisher Phil Friedman Senior Editor Nancy Perry Contributing Editors Paul Davis Thomas B. Hunter Joshua Sinai
By Paul Davis
Book Review Editor Jack Plaxe Research Director Gerry Keenan Conference Director John Dew
Page 18 Defending The Gate: Biometrics And Border Security
Communications Director Craig O. Thompson Art Director Scott Dube, MAD4ART International Psychological CT Advisors Cherie Castellano, MA, CSW, LPC
By Luke Besse & Ryan Keenen
Counterintelligence Advisor Stanley I. White South America Advisor Edward J. Maggio Homeland Security Advisor Col. David Gavigan
Page 6
SITREP, Terrorism Trends & Forecasts 2015
Page 8
Iran And Linkedin: Using This Social Career Site As An Entry Point To Critical
Infrastructure Attacks, By David Gewirtz
Personal Security Advisor Thomas J. Patire
Director of Emergency Ops. Don L. Rondeau
Page 10 Modern-Day Slavery: ICE Combats Human Trafficking, By Paul Davis Page 14 How To Conduct An International Negotiation: 10 Tips From A Global Security Consultant, By Luke Bencie Page 18 Defending The Gate: Biometrics And Border Security, By Luke Besse & Ryan Keenen Page 20 Are Western Diaspora Somali Extremists Turning From Al Shabaab To ISIS?
By Dr. Joshua Sinai
Page 24 Counter-Insurgency Tactics: A Tool For Domestic Policing, By Dominic J. Traina Page 30 MRAP Armored Rescue Vehicles, By Jim Weiss& Mickey Davis Page 36 Secure Driver: Comprehensive Guide To Understanding Tires, By Anthony Ricci Page 42 IACSP Reader’s Lounge. Dr. Joshua Sinai Reviews: Terrorism In Cyberspace: The Next Generation Page 46 IACSP Homeland Security Bookshelf: Reviews by Dr. Joshua Sinai
PHOTO CREDITS: Reuters, DefenseImagery.mil Army.mil, Navy.mil, istockphoto.com, shutterstock.com and authors where applicable.
Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International
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
Page 38 An IACSP Q&A With Bryan Denson, By Paul Davis
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
Vol. 21, No.3
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
SITREP
Terrorism Trends Into The Fourth Quarter
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ast month, sectarian violence flared up again in the Central African Republic, while Burundi’s political deadlock increasingly turned into a deadly conflict. Yemen’s and Syria’s conflicts further intensified, with a significant toll on civilians, and Afghanistan’s and Somalia’s long-running insurgencies made substantial gains. Meanwhile, Burkina Faso and Tajikistan saw political crises bringing the prospect of renewed instability, and rising violence threatened peace efforts in Turkey and Mozambique. In contrast, Colombia’s peace process received a major boost with a breakthrough agreement on transitional justice, and Guatemala took a step to overcome a legacy of impunity In the Central African Republic, state disintegration and simmering intercommunal tensions were brought to the fore by the killing of a Muslim motorbike taxi driver on 26 September that triggered armed clashes in the capital Bangui. Almost 40 were killed and tens of thousands displaced. Meanwhile, violence rose again in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura. With dia-
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logue between the government and opposition deadlocked, the country is slowly sliding back into deadly conflict. Syria’s war escalated further as Russia stepped up its military support for President Assad’s government and launched its first airstrikes on 30 September, primarily targeting non-Islamic State rebels. Meanwhile, Yemen’s civil war entered a more dangerous phase in the north as the Saudi-backed coalition
launched a campaign to capture Marib province to the west of Sanaa and increased airstrikes against Huthi/Saleh positions in the capital. Across the Gulf in Somalia, AlShabaab went on the offensive as AMISOM peacekeeping forces lost key strongholds. The Islamist militant group succeeded in retaking several towns in Lower Shabelle, Bakool, Gedo and Hiran regions, and staged several successful
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attacks. Meanwhile, factional fighting between the Galmudug Interim Administration and the Sufi militia Ahlu Sunna Wa Jama’a challenged the legitimacy of Somalia’s fourth federal state. In Afghanistan, the Taliban seized and lost control of the northern city of Kunduz As fighting raged between insurgents and government forces, members of parliament called for President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah to step down.
Deteriorating Situations Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Yemen Improving Situations Colombia, Guatemala, Macedonia
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OUTLOOK Conflict Risk Alert Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic Conflict Resolution Opportunity Colombia Source: CrisisWatch.org
Latest Crime Stats Released Last month, the FBI is released its 2014 edition of its annual report Crime in the United States, a statistical compilation of offense, arrest, and police employee data reported voluntarily by law enforcement agencies that participate in the Bureau’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. This latest report reveals that the estimated number of violent crimes reported by law enforcement to UCR’s Summary Reporting System during 2014 decreased 0.2 percent when compared with 2013 data. And the estimated number of property crimes decreased 4.3 percent from 2013 levels. What’s new this year? For one, the 2014 publication includes the inaugural Federal Crime Data report, which contains traditional UCR data from a handful of federal agencies, as well as FBI arrest data on human trafficking, hate crimes, and criminal computer intrusions. Also included for the first time in Crime in the United States is UCR’s second report of human trafficking data submitted by state and local law enforcement. It is expected that law enforcement participation in data collection for both reports will expand over time, which will help provide a more complete picture of those crimes. For a copy of the report, please visit: https://www.fbi.gov/news/ stories/2015/september/latestcrime-stats-released
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Source: www.defense.mil
ISIL Targets Damaged/ Destroyed As Of October 8, 2015 (above)
Research. Following successful testing, DARPA may transition TALONS technology to the U.S. Navy. Tweet @darpa
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TALONS System Mimics A Mast As Tall As A Skyscraper DARPA’s Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) research effort recently demonstrated a prototype of a low-cost, fully automated parafoil system designed to extend maritime vessels’ long-distance communications and improve their domain awareness. Towed behind boats or ships, TALONS could carry intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications payloads of up to 150 pounds between 500 and 1,500 feet in altitude—many times higher than current ships’ masts—and greatly extend the equipment’s range and effectiveness. DARPA has successfully tested a TALONS prototype that can be deployed by hand from smaller boats, or by mast from larger ships. Before open-water testing, TALONS’ rapid development began with land-based testing near Tucson, Arizona, in June 2014, followed by mock-up testing and measurement near Assateague Island National Seashore in Virginia in December of that year. TALONS is part of DARPA’s Phase 1 research for Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval
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Watch Out For These Holiday Scams • When you click through to a website, carefully read the domain name — the Internet address — that appears at the top of your browser. Beware of any site whose name has even the slightest change from a legitimate online retailer’s — extra words or letters, misspellings — and anything but the usual .com or .org ending. • One example (which vanished after Scam Alert exposed it earlier this year) was tiffanyco.mn, a slight tweak of the real Tiffany website, tiffany.com. The ending “.mn” meant the website was registered in Mongolia. • Make sure that addresses of ordering pages always begin with “https://” instead of “http://.” The “s” means it is secure. • Pay attention to disclosures at the bottom of the page. Most legitimate online retailers have a
•
•
“Contact Us” page with a phone number and physical address, and a “Terms and Conditions” link detailing return policies and such. Bogus websites may lack these pages or have them but not tell you what you need to know. Scam sites often allow only for e-mail correspondence, which makes for better hiding in cyberspace. If a phone number is listed, call it to ensure it’s not a fax machine or voicemail with no live operator — two more red flags for a potential scam. Watch for “scammer grammar.” Although legitimate retailers may not moonlight for Webster’s dictionary, their websites tend to be absent of the frequent misspellings and grammatical errors of the websites. Watch out for emails with grammar errors. Reject any requests for wire transfer payment. It’s the quickest way to lose money, especially if it’s sent overseas. Legit online retailers accept credit cards, which offer you more protection than debit transactions if you need to dispute payment. Don’t believe sob stories. Beware of “act now” offers that tell you the seller is a soldier needing cash for possessions before deploying to a war zone or a recent divorcée wanting to unload her former husband’s belongings. These tactics are often bait to empty your wallet; the items typically don’t exist. Research the prices. Similar items typically fall into a general price range. If one being offered to you falls way below that range, you need to ask yourself why. The usual answer: Scammers use ridiculously low prices to lure consumers into a bogus bargain. Be on guard at online auctions. Lost the winning bid on eBay or another auction website? Don’t be taken in by follow-up e-mails offering the same deal. Scammers often cruise online auction sites to pounce on losing bidders and direct them away from those secure buying environments.
Source: Sid Kirchheimer is the author of Scam-Proof Your Life, published by AARP Books/Sterling. Another excellent resource for holiday scams is the website: http:// www.scambusters.org/holidayscams2.html
Iran And Linkedin:
Using This Social Career Site As An Entry Point To Critical Infrastructure Attacks By David Gewirtz
U
.S. foreign policy operatives are nearly universal in the doctrinal view that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Iran is considered hostile to the West and nukes in the hands of religious fanatics and terrorism supporters put the world in extreme danger.
For nearly a decade, cyber operations have been conducted (in addition to traditional spycraft, diplomacy, and the entire foreign policy kitbag of tricks) to prevent Iran from obtaining working nuclear weapons. The most famous of these operations was Stuxnet, which corrupted the operation of centrifuges, destabilizing them, and causing them to physically fail. Despite anti-American religious fanaticism at the highest level of Iranian government, (as I discussed in my Cyberwar Spotlight: Iran article), the country has many highly
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educated individuals, many of which have advanced technology training. Cyberwar is a high-leverage activity; a very small number of individuals can wreak a tremendous
amount of havoc, at a very low cost per attack. Given that Iran has been at the receiving end of cyberattacks, it is therefore reasonable to expect that the country would invest substantially in offensive cy-
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beroperations, targeted at America and our allies. There is new evidence indicating that Iran is doing just this. In fact, Iran appears to be playing a very
sophisticated long game designed to give it unprecedented access to critical data and systems. And you may very well be at the heart of Iran’s plan. According to research done by Dell SecureWorks, antivirus maker F-Secure, and cybersecurity firm Cylance, Iran has been building up and using a sophisticated social engineering scheme on career management site LinkedIn to target key security personnel, and executives and employees in fields ranging from telecommunications to aerospace to national governments. In some ways, the project hearkens back to old-school spy games: find a way to gain access to an individual by finding out what motivates them, then corrupt them based on that motivation. Spy novels usually revolved around corrupting through sex and money, and -- in a more prosaic, but possibly far more effective way -- this current scheme revolves around desire for personal career advancement. The way it works is this. You’re a successful employee at a company in an important industry. Like most successful, career-minded individuals, you maintain an active LinkedIn profile listing: your employment history, education, and successful projects. Over time, you’ve picked up hundreds of connections -- other professionals you’re likely to do business with, have worked with, and who represent a measurable professional network. You’ve also likely picked up endorsements for skills you’ve demonstrated while on the job. One day, you’re approached by a recruiter on LinkedIn. Most likely, that recruiter asks you to become a connection. You may not have known the individual, but you’re at least moderately familiar with the company, which is likely to be Teledyne, Northrop Grumman, or another firm. A quick check shows that the recruiter has a long, welldescribed resume, hundreds of connections, along with plenty of endorsements. Why not, right? You accept the connection request. After all, it’s
always good to have a few recruiters in your corner. Over time, LinkedIn’s automatic endorsement system asks you for endorsements for the recruiter. It’s always polite to click a few endorsements, so you do. The recruiter has now picked up some legitimate endorsements from a real professional in the field. Some time goes by and the recruiter (who specializes in searching for people with just about your exact skill set) invites you to apply for a juicy job. The trick is you have to
of these personalities, often pulling the descriptions from legitimate job descriptions of similar professionals. To support these recruiter personalities, Iran has apparently also created a considerable number of supporting personalities, who become connections with the recruiter personalities, and provide basic endorsements. Then, they let gullibility take over. When professionals like you are invited to connect, they do. Each connection reinforces and builds up
If you decide to go to that site to upload your resume, you’ll be hit with a wide variety of sophisticated malware, all designed to work its way inside your computer and then travel across your corporate network. This is phishing at its most sophisticated. You have been targeted, you’ve taken the bait, reeled in, and now you, your computer, and your company is infected. upload your resume using an online resume collection site. The trap has been set. Honey has been spread. Will you take a taste?
the fake recruiter personality. Each connection also increases the likelihood of getting further endorsements, which also increases credibility.
If you decide to go to that site to upload your resume, you’ll be hit with a wide variety of sophisticated malware, all designed to work its way inside your computer and then travel across your corporate network. This is phishing at its most sophisticated. You have been targeted, you’ve taken the bait, reeled in, and now you, your computer, and your company is infected.
And then nature takes its course. We’ve all accepted professional connection requests from people we don’t know. They seem credible, and it might not hurt to have them as a connection. It’s a natural part of participation in what has become the public resume source of record.
According to the researchers, Iran has created 20 or more fully-fleshedout sock puppet personalities on LinkedIn. They’ve built up a complete employment history for each
At this point, we have no idea exactly how many of these sock puppets exist, nor how many professionals in industries Iran is targeting have been corrupted with malware. But, like old school espionage, the process of reaching out and corrupting unsuspecting victims is low-key and
non-threatening. The eventual result, however, can be devastating. Cylance says that the malware developed in Iran is targeting military, oil and gas, energy and utilities, transportation, airlines, airports, hospitals, telecommunications, technology, education, aerospace, Defense Industrial Base, chemical companies, and governments. If they can insert malware inside key organizations in these industries, the rogue nation can gain a foothold inside critical networks -- giving them access to everything from secret information to system command and control. Other than running screaming into the woods, wishing fervently that the Internet had never been built, here’s what you can do to protect yourself, your organization, and your colleagues. First, always double-check connections from people you don’t know. It’s not enough to simply do a Google search or look at their LinkedIn endorsements. Look at their contacts. If most of them are empty, avoid them. In fact, it’s good to avoid making LinkedIn (or Facebook, for that matter) connections with people you don’t know. It won’t expand your circle all that quickly, but it’s wise. Never, ever visit a site just because one of your connections asked you to. Avoid, in particular, invitations to resume sites from recruiters, unless you go to a site directly, after you have contacted the actual recruiting company directly. Make sure you update your computer regularly, keep antivirus programs up to date, stop using Windows XP (you know who you are!), and make sure your corporate firewall is modern and up to date as well. Be smart and keep safe.
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.
Modern-Day Slavery:
ICE’s Homeland Security Investigators Combat Human Trafficking By Paul Davis
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ast April, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Mexican Federal Police announced the capture of one of ICE’s top 10 most wanted human traffickers. Paulino Ramirez-Granados was arrested on March 31 in Tenancingo, Mexico, following a joint investigation between ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Mexico City, HSI New York and the Mexican Federal Police. Ramirez-Granados, who had been on the most wanted list since 2010, was charged in the Eastern District of New York with sex trafficking, alien smuggling, money laundering and conspiracy to import aliens.
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“The sexual exploitation of human beings is one of the vilest crimes committed against humanity,” said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña. “I commend the Mexican Federal Police and the HSI Attaché Office in Mexico City for their commitment to tracking down Ramirez-Granados. This arrest is a testament to the outstanding bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States.” The New York investigation into the Granados sex trafficking organization began when a trafficking victim came to the attention of HSI. The victim, smuggled into the United States and forced into prostitution in June 2000, provided a detailed account of the physical and sexual assaults she suffered by a member of the Granados organization. She also made note of the threats made to her children after she said she no longer wanted to work as a prostitute. HSI special agents later identified and rescued an additional 25 Mexican national victims. According to HIS, the Granados family would befriend or romance young, uneducated women and then coercing them into prostitution in Mexico. They later would then smuggle the women into the United States, transporting them to the New York City area to continue work as prostitutes. Granados family members took all money earned by the victims and maintained control over the victims through physical and sexual abuse and threats of harm to the victims’ families. “HSI is the investigative arm of ICE and conducts criminal investigations to protect the United States against terrorism and other criminal activity that threaten public safety and national security, and to bring to justice those seeking to exploit our customs and immigration laws worldwide,” Saldana said when she appeared before the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Homeland Security on April 30th. “In FY 2014, HSI investigations led to the disruption or dismantlement of 520 transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). HSI made
more than 32,000 criminal arrests and seized more than 2.3 million pounds of narcotics, 20,000 weapons, and $720 million in currency and monetary instruments.” Saldana explained that HSI enforces more than 400 federal laws and regulations, with jurisdiction over the investigation of crimes with a nexus to the U.S. border or functional border. HSI focuses its broad investigative authority on three operational priorities – border security, public safety and counterterrorism/national security. HSI investigates customs and immigration crimes, including TCOs engaged in illicit activity related to export enforcement, human rights violations, narcotics, weapons and contraband smuggling, financial crimes, cybercrimes and child exploitation, human smuggling and trafficking, intellectual property theft and trade fraud, transnational gangs, and immigration document and benefit fraud.
“In FY 2014, HSI investigations led to the disruption or dismantlement of 520 transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). HSI made more than 32,000 criminal arrests and seized more than 2.3 million pounds of narcotics, 20,000 weapons, and $720 million in currency and monetary instruments.”
“One of the top investigative priorities for ICE is human smuggling and trafficking, for which ICE possesses a full range of investigative and border-related authorities,” Saldana said. “ICE is one of the principal federal agencies charged with enforcing U.S. laws related to human trafficking and has developed a comprehensive, victimcentered approach to aggressively target human traffickers by using information and intelligence from sources across the government and internationally.” According to HIS, the victims are forced into prostitution, involuntary labor and other forms of servitude to repay debts, often incurred during entry into the United States. In some cases, the victims are children. The victims find themselves surrounded by an unfamiliar culture and language without identification documents, fearing for their lives and the lives of their families. Trafficking in Persons is defined as sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such
act has not attained 18 years of age; or the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery. HSI’s workforce includes special agents, analysts, auditors and support staff. Its men and women are assigned to cities throughout the United States and to offices around the world. HSI’s international
force is the department’s largest investigative presence abroad and gives HSI one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement. HSI has broad legal authority to enforce a diverse array of federal statutes. Two veteran law enforcement officers, William S. Walker, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, HSI, and David M. Hepler, Supervisory Special Agent, HSI, were recently interviewed in the HSI Philadelphia field office.
“Homeland Security Investigations is a directorate of ICE and essentially HSI conducts long term criminal investigations that address systemic vulnerabilities that occur at and beyond the borders,” Walker said. “HSI conducts investigations more often than not relate to transnational crime. There are also certain crimes we investigate, to include human trafficking, that we enjoy full domestic authority to conduct. For instance, money-laundering, is another type of crime that we investigate, both the international and domestic aspects of it.” As assistant special agent in charge, Walker said he oversees a division of special agents who conduct investigations into human trafficking and other crimes against victims, as well as another group that handles crimes against children and child exploitation, and a third group that handles victims of white collar financial frauds and schemes ranging from banking institutions to an elderly person who’s defrauded by an international fraud scheme. “Human trafficking and human smuggling are two distinct, different crimes and sometimes the two crimes can overlap,” said Hepler. “A smuggling case involves a crime against our border, bringing foreign nationals from outside the United States into the Unites States, whereas human trafficking is totally different in that it is an exploitation of an individual. It would be taking the person against their will, inducing them into sex, slavery by force.”
fice,” Walker said. “In forced sex or forced labor cases, the victim, whoever that may be, is the most important piece of evidence in the case. That victim has to be courageous and brave and provide information we need to be able to hold those accountable.” Walker went on to say that they see victims born and raised in the city of Philadelphia and the outlying areas that become victims of human traf-
ficking, as well as foreign nationals. Human traffickers prey upon the victims exploiting their addiction to drugs, and social media has allowed those who prey on victims, unfettered access to do so, and in an anonymous way to do it. Social media and certain web sites can present challenges, Walker noted. “It is about encountering the victim, first and foremost, getting them the help and services they need to get
“Human trafficking and human smuggling are two distinct, different crimes and sometimes the two crimes can overlap,” said Hepler. “A smuggling case involves a crime against our border, bringing foreign nationals from outside the United States into the Unites States, whereas human trafficking is totally different in that it is an exploitation of an individual.”
Walker explained that with human trafficking, there is no tried and true description of a bad guy and there is no tried and true description of a victim.
Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International
In addition to threats, the trafficker can convince the victim that he or she is their boyfriend or girlfriend and they are going to be together forever and this is just a onetime thing. Walker spoke of a case of two victims from Vietnam who were essentially coerced into believing they were going to come to the U.S. for a better life and to meet the husband of their dreams and begin a new life, but once here they found themselves to be indentured servants. Hepler added that investigations evolve from a variety of subjects and areas, from a concerned citizen, a victim who hates the trafficker, or HSI’s law enforcement partners. “We use electronic surveillance, undercover capabilities, and other traditional law enforcement techniques to investigate cases,” Hepler said. “The big challenge is the victim themselves. You need them to cooperate with the investigation to make a successful case. Especially in sex trafficking.” Hepler said that while local law enforcement treats prostitutes as criminals, HIS treats them as victims.
“We see somebody who is running a prostitution operation and then it transcends or morphs into a human trafficking scenario through some sort of force, fraud or coercion - one of the three elements we need to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt with the U.S. Attorney’s Of-
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them their lives back, then developing that rapport, so our agents are trained in how to develop a rapport, because interviewing the victim of human trafficking is unlike most other types of interviews our agents conduct day-and-day. You are very likely not going to get all the information you need to arrest the bad guy at the very first minute, the first hour, or the first day,” Walker said. “Understanding that the victim very likely has been through Hell and back and may have even bonded with their trafficker through what they call “trauma bonding.” They may be unwilling for a number of reasons to provide any testimony at all against the trafficker.”
Walker explained that special agents, first responders and people who encounter victims of human trafficking need to be cognizant of different cultures. “If you don’t understand the culture you will never get to the point where Vol. 21, No.3
you can peel the onion enough to get the victim to come forward and give the testimony we need to put people in jail. It’s easy to say there is human trafficking going on anywhere USA, but it is another thing to prove it.” Hepler added that human trafficking is a very narrow and distinct crime, but people often use the term for a variety of crimes. “You have to think of the exploitation of an individual, a crime against a person,” Hepler said. “Human smuggling is a crime against our borders. That’s bringing in people willingly and they pay smugglers to bring them in to the United States. That’s totally different from human trafficking. Hepler said HSI will also utilize their authority to investigate money laundering, so when attacking organizations or individuals who are profiting from the exploitation of people, they will target their assets and profits as well. These funds can later be used to provide restitution to the victims. Walker said that HSI concentrates on any type of crime that involves crimes against the border. From drug trafficking to money laundering to intellectual property rights to U.S. companies here who criminally sell defense goods to our enemies overseas that can be used against American troops on the battlefield. “The portfolio of all the things HSI does is truly diverse. We have ten different groups of special agents just in Philadelphia that conduct different types of investigations,” Walker said. “We and the FBI are typically the two federal agencies that work these human trafficking cases. We deconflict and coordinate closely with them. HSI in Philadelphia, in particular, has spent the last year recognizing that educating state and local law enforcement not just Philadelphia in the city, but also in the outlaying counties and rural areas as well. Providing good training on the red flag indicators of human trafficking - what
to see and when to call us - has really been beneficial in expanding the number of case we have.” Walker said that human trafficking doesn’t just happen in the urban areas. Pennsylvania is the fourth largest agricultural state in the country and when there is heavy agriculture, there is likely to be some element of potential human trafficking. Walker said that the Department of Homeland Security’s national tip line is the sole conduit HSI uses. Administered out of Vermont, the tip line has people standing by 24/7 to take in tips from the public or law enforcement. The callers can be anonymous. The tip line number is 1-866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423). On September 24th, U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced more than $44 million in grant funding to combat human trafficking during her remarks in Seattle, Washington, to the Washington Advisory Committee on Trafficking. Seattle is one of 16 sites selected for an anti-trafficking task force award, receiving $1.5 million to support law enforcement efforts and victim services for the next three years. “Human traffickers prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our society, and their crimes— which are nothing short of modernday slavery—have no place in this country,” said Lynch. “These grants—administered by the Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the National Institute of Justice—will fund efforts across the country to fight human trafficking, to provide services for survivors and to expand research going forward.”
About the Author Paul Davis is a frequent contributor to The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security Int’l and IACSP.
How to Conduct An International Negotiation:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks at a State Luncheon in the Chinese President’s honor at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on September 25, 2015. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
10 Tips From A Global Security Consultant By Luke Bencie
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here is considerable debate right now about the US-Iranian nuclear deal. Was it fair? Who won and who lost? Was too much or too little left on the bargaining table? The answers to these questions will most likely only be known over time. Regardless, negotiating with persons from another country can often be significantly more difficult than negotiating with someone from your own nation. Yet in the global business arena, these negotiations take place everyday.
Numbers represent the truly universal business language. No matter the dialect, no matter the inflection and no matter the monetary unit, the numbers don’t lie, particularly when they’re carefully studied. Profits and losses, cash-flow statements, annual growth percentages and balance
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sheets all translate easily across borders. If you’re going to player on the global stage, you’ll need to understand the numbers – and be able to negotiate them anywhere with anyone around the planet. Between cultural differences, language barriers, and geopolitical issues, the more passports are
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involved, the more complicated the negotiation can become. Based on personal experience of doing business in over 100 countries, discussions with colleagues, and wisdom derived from other resources, here are my 10 Most Useful
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sits with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif before the two resume negotiations about the future of Iran’s nuclear program on January 14, 2015, in Geneva, Switzerland. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
Tips, each critical to achieving a win-win, for how to pull off an effective international negotiation (excerpted from my book, Global Security Consulting: How to Build a Thriving International Practice): 1. Do your homework. In any negotiation, particularly an international one, you must conduct research on your prospective partners as well as the deal itself. You must uncover as many details as possible, because knowledge is power, and within knowledge resides confidence. Start by examining the history of any previous deals the partners have done, including their possible constraints: • • • • •
How long did previous negotiations take? How much money was involved? What negotiating style was used? Was ego evident in completing the deal? Were there personal situations, such as divorce, that impacted the negotiations? • More basic, what’s in this new deal for them? • Are there cultural sensitivities or issues involved? You should also research industry trends and market forecasts to help understand the terms under which the deal was set. This broader perspective might also provide clues about your prospective partner’s thought processes and the underlying reason why he is considering doing business with you. Never walk into an international negotiation blindly. 2. Listen more than you speak. Some people speak when they should listen; that’s a potential kiss of death in international negotiation. There seems to be a misconception that the person who talks the most in a negotiation is somehow winning. Don’t fall for it. I always try to listen more than I speak, because I can only give away my position by talking. By listening, I have a better chance of understanding the other person’s motivations and objectives. Plus, the less I say, the more I keep the other side guessing.
3. Be polite. Don’t feel bad if you hate the thought of negotiating. Few people truly enjoy the process. But it’s necessary for doing business, particularly overseas. And if that’s the case, you want to do everything you can, within reason, to put your counterparts at ease, and the best way is to show good manners. Besides, doing business is always better when you like the people you’re dealing with. Life’s too short for you to work with a mistrusted partner. It’s always better to discuss your expectations sooner rather than later. It demonstrates respect and encourages cooperation. Anytime you don’t trust the person sitting across the negotiating table from you, politely excuse yourself and leave. You don’t need the headaches such a relationship inevitably will create. 4. Be flexible. To put it another way, bend but don’t break. I don’t necessarily mean you need to make unnecessary concessions, particularly on pricing matters. But being flexible means you’re willing to consider alternatives and unconventional options in lieu of digging your heels in on price. A word of caution: It’s important for both sides to be flexible. If you sense you’re the only one giving ground, be aware that your counterparts might be trying to take advantage of you. Be flexible, but insist – politely – on reciprocity. 5. Ask probing questions. You need to learn how to ask the right questions to discover your partner’s Needs, Wants, Wounds, Authority and Money (NWWAM). There’s nothing wrong with asking someone why they are behaving in a particular way. For example, “Mr. Hadid, I understand that no one wants to sacrifice profit, but perhaps you can tell me why you will not lower your margin on this particular deal just a few points.” Or, “Please, help me to understand why you want to keep that clause in the agreement.” Or, “Why is that issue is so important to you?”
Of course, the other side might not give you an honest answer. But it’s your responsibility to employ your BS detector. The important thing to remember is if you’re wondering, ask. 6. Trust but verify. This phrase was made famous by President Ronald Reagan referring to the relationship between the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War. Certainly you want to be friendly and respectful to your negotiating partners – and you hope they will extend you the same courtesy. Just be sure you’re not being played for a fool. Don’t take the other person’s claims as fact until you have performed your own due-diligence.
But being flexible means you’re willing to consider alternatives and unconventional options in lieu of digging your heels in on price. A word of caution: It’s important for both sides to be flexible. If you sense you’re the only one giving ground, be aware that your counterparts might be trying to take advantage of you. Be flexible, but insist – politely – on reciprocity.
7. Keep (most of) your thoughts to yourself. Poor negotiators have a tendency to come to the bargaining table and lay out everything they know and want right then and there. Clear communication is a vital part of negotiation, but there’s no sense assuming that the other side knows everything you and your team are thinking. Remember the scene in The Godfather when Sollozzo is pitching his deal to cooperate in the drug trade, and Sonny Corleone butts in with the surprised comment: Are you telling me the Tattaglias will guarantee our investment? Later on, Vito chastises his son: Never ever tell anyone outside the family what you’re thinking again. Vito was right, because Sonny’s careless comment precipitated an attack on the don’s life. The Godfather
is fiction, but that scene demonstrated wisdom. Never share everything with your counterparts; be honest, but provide only what is absolutely necessary. This is true even if you have obtained non-disclosure agreements and non-circumvention agreements. You are under no obligation to provide your thinking on all matters. It’s a safe bet the other negotiators will be acting that way. 8. Control the negotiation. I don’t mean talking incessantly or using an aggressive tone with others. You can listen twice as much as you talk and still fully guide the conversation. The way to control a negotiation is to ask the other participants a combination of direct and open-ended questions. If someone begins to ramble with an answer, you can politely reel them back in with a direct yes/no question. For example, “Ms. Whitcomb,
Be creative. Hard-andfast rules can often derail a negotiation before it begins. Creativity can often become the leverage that gets a stuck deal back on track. Remember that deals don’t always have to be black and white. If you cannot come to an agreement, consider restructuring the terms rather than compromising. There is always leverage available for the creative negotiator.
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I want to clarify something. You did say 10 percent, correct?” This allows for a break in the action and provides a chance for others to join in the discussion, or for you to ask another question. You can also use the technique if someone else tries to control the conversation. That person might try to monopolize the time by laying out expectations and demands for everyone else at the table. The way to counteract it is to interrupt them, politely, with a question demonstrating that although you’re listening, you’re nevertheless the person directing the discussion – even if no formal moderator has been assigned. I call this the adult-in-the-room technique. For example, “Mr. Polande, please allow me to interrupt you for a moment. You have gone on for quite some time, and I would like to hear the opinions of the others at the table. Could we please hear someone else’s ideas for getting this deal done?” 9. Come prepared. Call it a variation on the Boy Scout motto. Arriving prepared to a negotiation is different than doing your homework. It means what you bring with you and what your overall strategy will entail. On the television show The Apprentice, starring real-estate mogul D onald Trump, you might have noticed George H. Ross, Trump’s attorney for over 30 years, offering his insights from time to time. Mr. Ross published an exceptional book on negotiation, Trump-Style Negotiation: Powerful Strategies and Tactics for Mastering Every Deal. The key takeaway I gleaned from Ross’s expertise is the idea that you can create what he calls the “aura of legitimacy” by arriving with your own documentation, i.e., contract agreement forms, to begin your discussion. By preparing documentation that will finalize the terms of the negotiation on your side of the table, you have demonstrated preparation, willingness and enthusiasm for completing the
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deal. This will serve you in a number of ways: • You set the tone and timeline of the negotiation with your documents. You might even intimidate others into believing you’ve fully researched all viable options of the deal already; thus they should trust your conclusions. • Yo u ’ v e e n c o u r a g e d t h e other side to go along with you, because you’ve done all of the groundwork. • Your documentation will keep people on the record and discourage them from reneging on an agreement. • By controlling the documentation, you also control the conversation. • Yo u ’ v e d e m o n s t r a t e d you’ll be no pushover at the negotiating table. 10. Be creative. Hard-andfast rules can often derail a negotiation before it begins. Creativity can often become the leverage that gets a stuck deal back on track. Remember that deals don’t always have to be black and white. If you cannot come to an agreement, consider restructuring the terms rather than compromising. There is always leverage available for the creative negotiator. Keep these 10 tips tucked away in your back pocket before your next international negotiation and discover how much more successful your business dealings can be. For more tips, including my “Hard and Fast Rules of a Negotiation,” please pick up a copy of my book, Global Security Consulting: How to Build a Thriving International Practice.
About the Author Luke Bencie is the Managing Director of Security Management International, LLC, a global intelligence advisory firm. He is also the author of Among Enemies: Counter-Espionage for the Business Traveler. He can be reached at lbencie@ smiconsultancy.com
Defending The Gate:
Biometrics And Border Security By Luke Besse & Ryan Keenen
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n an increasingly globalized world, ideas, transactions, disease and people are crossing borders with more prevalence than ever before. In just the past few years, more than 7.6 million refugees have been displaced by violence in Syria, while the U.S. State Department estimates that 600,000-800,000 people are illegally trafficked annually. The security of national borders was thrust into importance by the unfortunate
events of 9/11 – where the 19 Islamist hijackers collectively utilized a total of 364 alias documents in the lead up to the attack. And it continues as a hot-button issue in the current rhetoric among potential candidates in the 2016 presidential election. 18
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Providing border security is an evolving practice, involving the use of new technologies such as biometrics, more secure travel documents and advanced sensors. All are playing a critical role in helping to make international travel safer and faster, and in reducing fraudulent entry. For example, the biometric equipped e-passport, first introduced by the European Union a decade ago, contains a chip that stores information about the passport holder such as gender, height and eye color, as well as a photograph. The latest passport technology allows facial and fingerprint biometric identifiers that link to recognition devices and scanners. This new development is making false identity much more difficult for criminals, terrorists or anyone else wishing to cross borders fraudulently. Despite years of overpromising and underdelivering, the truth is that biometrics offer a higher degree of privacy and security than any other method of identification. These systems identify individuals by using biological features unique to those individuals – features that are extremely difficult to falsify. Biometrics are much more reliable than token-based ID methods such as driver’s licenses and traditional passports. Likewise, biometric devices beat knowledge-based methods such as passwords and PINs. Their important advantage is that they scan a biometric entity, such as an iris, a face, a finger or a palm, and then codes biometric identifiers into a data template. True, in the past there have been tests in which fingerprint scanners have been fooled into a false acceptance by imitations made from Play Doh or cadaver fingers. But the recent development of multispectral fingerprint readers has laid such concerns to rest. Technological advancements in multispectral fingerprint readers, which work by detecting blood flow through a finger, require fooling these advanced scanners by constructing a latex finger and pumping a substance through it – something that is highly improbable. Likewise, biometric images
can’t be stolen and used to gain access because, contrary to popular belief, there is no stored “image.” Instead, the devices use coded data templates that match biological identifiers, something nearly impossible to compromise.
For example, the biometric equipped e-passport, first introduced by the European Union a decade ago, contains a chip that stores information about the passport holder such as gender, height and eye color, as well as a photograph. The latest passport technology allows facial and fingerprint biometric identifiers that link to recognition devices and scanners. This new development is making false identity much more difficult for criminals, terrorists or anyone else wishing to cross borders fraudulently.
Recently, biometric systems havebecome so reliable they can now be widely incorporated into airport security. A recent post in the Federal Register reports that this summer, at 10 of the busiest airports in the United States, you might see Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers when departing on an international flight. One goal of the test is to start developing methods of exit verification using the biometric data collected on arrival. CBP officers will be stationed near departure gates to intercept certain individuals before boarding. They will review the travelers’ documents and, in the case of certain aliens, they will use handheld wireless devices to scan fingerprints and take a photograph. They then will be immediately able to compare the scan to what is in the database and determine whether they need to pursue further questioning. The data collected will then be used to create a biometrics departure record in the CBP database. The word “biometrics” has been given a bad rap over the years – and perhaps rightfully so. But the technology now appears ready to assume a prominent place in border security. The ultimate goal of biometric systems is to prevent individuals from crossing borders illegally. Certain nefarious persons will always attempt to circumvent the latest technology, but the task of security professionals is to remain perpetually one step ahead. Biometrics should be considered one of several new tools in the security professional’s toolbox to help accomplish that task.
About the Author Luke Besse is a Business Development Associate at SMI. Ryan Keenen is a Junior Research Associate at Security Management International.
Are Western Diaspora Somali Extremists
Turning From Al Shabaab To ISIS? By Dr. Joshua Sinai
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Jubbaland forces carry their ammunitions during a security patrol against Islamist al Shabaab militants in Bulagaduud town, north of Kismayu, Somalia, August 17, 2015. Ahmed Madobe, a former Islamist warlord won re-election as president of Somalia’s southern region of Jubbaland, a territory partly controlled by al Shabaab militants and at odds with the central government of the Horn of Africa country. The fate of Kismayu and Jubbaland is seen as a test of the central government’s skill in building a federal system and pacifying a nation fought over for more than two decades by warlords and Islamist rebels. REUTERS/Abdiqani Hassan
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s of late 2015, Somali extremists in their Western diaspora communities were continuing to support al-Shabaab, but in a new lethal trend such support is being supplemented by their jihadi enthusiasm towards ISIS – the ascending “hot” brand in global jihad, particularly in Syria and Iraq. Thus, while Western security services continued to be concerned about the recruitment, indoctrination and travel of Western diaspora Somalis to join al-Shabaab’s combat teams and propaganda units, including the possibility that some of them might carry out attacks upon their return to their Western countries, they were also concerned about the increasing appeal of ISIS in the Somalia Diaspora and the travel of those susceptible to such propaganda to Syria and Iraq to join the fighting on behalf of Islamist extremism in those conflict zones.
Al-Shabaab Al-Shabaab (“The Youth” in Arabic) is the primary terrorist group in Somalia. It emerged around 2006 as the radical youth wing of Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts (which had afterwards ceased to exist), which controlled Mogadishu at that time, before being forced out by Ethiopian forces operating on behalf of the African Union. In the current period, although it has lost control of Somalia’s major cities, it still retains control of most of southern and central Somalia. Like al Qaeda and ISIS, al-Shabaab’s ideology advocates an extremist version of a Saudi-inspired Wahhabi-based Islam that imposes a strict form of sharia laws in the areas under its control, while opposing any form of Westernizing influences. The group is banned as a terrorist group by the U.S. and other Western governments and is reported to have between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters (exact numbers are not known). Several hundred Western Somali diaspora extremists have travelled to Somalia to fight with al-Shabaab, as well as hundreds more from Somalia’s neighboring countries, particularly Kenya, where many Kenyans are ethnic Somali Muslims and where the group maintains an active
The group’s most noteworthy terrorist attacks outside Somalia include the June 2010 coordinated suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, in which 74 people were killed while they were watching the World Cup soccer games.
recruiting network, particularly around the port city of Mombasa. Al-Shabaab is closely associated with al Qaeda, with Ahmed Abdi Godane, the group’s leader, pledging obedience to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2012. In September 2014, Godane was killed by a U.S. drone strike, and was succeeded by Ahmed Omar (also known as Abu Ubaidah). The group has reportedly formed links with other Islamist terrorist groups in Africa, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is based in the Sahara and Sahel regions. Although al-Shabaab’s primary areas of military operations focus on Somalia, it has launched frequent – and often large-scale – terrorist attacks in neighboring countries, particularly in Kenya and Uganda. The group’s most noteworthy terrorist attacks outside Somalia include the June 2010 coordinated suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, in which 74 people were killed while they were watching the World Cup soccer games on television; the September 2013 30-hour siege at the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in which 67 people were killed; and the early April 2015 brutal massacre at Garissa University College in Garissa, Kenya, in which nearly 150 people were killed and more than 100 injured.
The Somalia Diaspora in the West The Somali diaspora refers to expatriate Somalis who reside in countries other than their Somalia homeland, where they reside in their own concentrated communities. The Somali diaspora has grown exponentially since the beginning of Somali civil war in the 1980s and follow-on al-Shabaab insurgency, and the inability of the weak central government to restore order, stability, and economic growth throughout the country. This analysis focuses on the Somali diaspora in Western countries, although the overall Somali diaspora includes large numbers in the Middle East and other African countries. Although exact numbers are unknown and continuously increasing (including by asylum seekers), there are estimated to be more than 480,000 Somalis in their Western diaspora (out of Somalia’s total population of an estimated 10.7 million in 2015). These include (with the estimated numbers rounded out) Canada (150,000), United Kingdom (110,000), United States (85,000), Sweden (58,000), Norway (36,000), Denmark (18,000), Finland (15,000), Italy (8,000), and France (2,000-3,000).
Al Shabaab’s Appeal to Western Recruits As with members of other religious/ethnic diaspora communities in the West that face a spectrum of problems in fully integrating into their societies, only a tiny minority is likely to become ideologically extremist to the point of engagement in terrorist violence. Moreover, no single risk factor explains the involvement by such a tiny minority in terrorism. Rather, it is often the interaction and combination of multiple risk factors that operate at the peer, family, community, societal, and global levels that create the opportunity structure and opening for engagement in extremist and terrorist activities, whether at home or by traveling to a foreign conflict zone. Finally, extremist groups such as al-Shabaab fit the mold of what are termed ‘destructive cults’ through their totalitarian and hierarchical organizational structures, leadership by charismatic and messianic leaders, employment of deception in their recruitment of susceptible individuals, the use of mind control techniques to indoctrinate their recruits into believing the world is divided into ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ adversaries, isolation of their recruits from their families and friends (including, in the case of al-Shabaab, facilitating their ‘secret’ travel to Somalia), and, in the most destructive component, turning them into dispensable terrorist martyrs for their extremist causes. Following this model of radicalization and recruitment into ‘destructive cults’ and terrorism, alShabaab’s outreach to potential adherents in their Western diaspora communities employs several
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One of the most notable Western Muslims to join alShabaab is Samantha Lewthwaite, aged 32, from Bainbridge, England. A convert to Islam, she is known as the “White Widow” following the death of her husband, Germaine Lyndsay, who killed himself as part of the London 7/7 terrorist bombings. After joining al-Shabaab in Somalia, Lewthwaite is reported to play a leadership role in group, although her exact role is unknown. methods. In the first, videos, Twitter, and other social media tools are used to project itself as their unifying force in defense of threatened Muslims around the world. It portrays itself as the agent of God in implementing sharia in Somalia, particularly in defense of the umma (global Muslim Nation) in fighting the enemies of Islam in Somalia, including those Muslims in Somalia who are largely Sufi and who do not share its “pure” version of Islam. Al-Shabaab is also particularly adept at using Twitter in presenting its supporters with ‘real time’ messaging about the ‘heroic’ fighting by its forces in their ‘battles’ and refutations of critiques launched against their group by disaffected former members and other critics. In the second method, al-Shabaab uses a “topdown” strategy, with its Western agents searching for potential recruits at local mosques and community centers in Somali diaspora communities, such as Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota, which has the largest Somali population in the U.S., where its operatives also raise funds for the organization’s operations. In the final method, foreign recruits are of special interest to militant groups such as al-Shabaab because
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they play a dual role: as fighters and as propaganda symbols for radicalizing and recruiting disaffected Western Muslims to join them in a country such as Somalia with which a typical Western Muslim would have little tangible geographical or historical connection. Their recruitment messages, therefore, stress points such as “our cause on behalf of the umma is so important that you must join us because your Western brothers and sisters are willing to sacrifice their lives on our behalf.” It is such Westerners, as exemplified by Omar Hammami (also known as Abu Mansur al-Amriki), originally from Alabama, who have appeared in the organization’s propaganda videos that are posted in their online websites.
Size of Al-Shabaab’s Western Fighters Al-Shabaab’s total forces have been estimated by a BBC News report at between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters, with most of its foreign fighters recruited from the Muslim communities in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. A smaller proportion of its fighters are Westerners, especially from Somali diaspora communities, although a number of converts to Islam have also joined the organization. In recent years, it is reported that some 200 to 300 such Westerners have joined al-Shabaab, including an estimated 30-40 Americans and some 50 Britons. More than a dozen American fighters have been killed in Somalia, including Shirwa Ahmed, a Somali from Minneapolis/St Paul, the first American citizen to conduct a suicide terrorist attack on behalf of an al Qaeda-affiliated group, who died in 2009.
Trends in Recruitment of Diaspora Somalis Towards Al-Shabaab Although al-Shabaab has had success in recent times in radicalizing and recruiting diaspora Somalis into joining the organization or carrying out attacks on its behalf in their home countries, it appears that, like for other diaspora Muslim extremists in the West, ISIS has become the ascending “star” jihadi terrorist organization that is garnering their interest and involvement. To understand the context behind this new phenomenon and how to counter it, it is necessary to outline the three trends that have produced it.
Trend 1: Recruitment into Al-Shabaab In the first trend, as discussed earlier, some 200 to 300 diaspora Muslims, most of Somali origin, had left their Western countries and travelled to Somalia to join al-Shabaab’s forces. Reflecting the types of Western recruits who were attracted to al-Shabaab’s extremist messages, Omar Hammami, who was born in Alabama, was the son of a Syrian American Muslim and a Southern Baptist mother, but had become radicalized into Islamist extremism. In 2004 he married a Canadian Somali woman and travelled
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with her and their infant child to Egypt in 2005, before divorcing her and while in Somalia marrying another Somali woman. In al-Shabaab, he rose to become a military commander and one of the organization’s most visible spokesmen.
in the West, including the large Mall of America in Minnesota U.S., as well as other shopping malls in Canada and the UK. As of late 2015, such lone wolf attacks against Western shopping malls had not been conducted by al-Shabaab adherents.
One of the most notable Western Muslims to join al-Shabaab is Samantha Lewthwaite, aged 32, from Bainbridge, England. A convert to Islam, she is known as the “White Widow” following the death of her husband, Germaine Lyndsay, who killed himself as part of the London 7/7 terrorist bombings. After joining al-Shabaab in Somalia, Lewthwaite is reported to play a leadership role in group, although her exact role is unknown.
Trend 3: Growing Disillusionment with Al-Shabaab
With Western security services clamping down on the travel of diaspora Muslims to Somalia, numerous al-Shabaab “wannabes” had been arrested while attempting to leave their countries to join the group. These included the July 2010 arrest of Zachary Adam Chesser, aged 21, of Fairfax, VA, an American Muslim convert (whose wife was a Somali American), who had threatened the creators of the “South Park” cartoon show for depicting the Prophet Muhammad. He was arrested while attempting to board a flight with his infant son to Somalia via Uganda to join al-Shabaab as a foreign fighter.
Trend 2: Carrying Out Terrorist Attacks on Behalf of Al-Shabaab in Home Countries In the second trend, Western supporters of al-Shabaab either return from Somalia to conduct attacks against their home countries or carry out such attacks without first traveling to Somalia. Notable attacks and thwarted plots by its Western adherents include an attempt, in early January 2010, by a 28-year-old Danish Somali with links to al-Shabaab, who was armed with an axe, to kill Kurt Westergaard at his home. The attack did not succeed, with the suspect arrested. Westergaard was the Danish cartoonist who had depicted the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. The Somali attacker (whose name had not been released by Danish authorities), had legal residency in Denmark. In Europe there have been several examples of alShabaab “returnees” who have carried out attacks in their home countries. The most noteworthy attack occurred in May 2013 when Michael Olumide Abebolajo, aged 28, and Michael Oluwatobi Adebowale, aged 22, both Nigerian Britons, brutally murdered British soldier Lee Rigby outside his barracks in Woolwich. Abebolajo had earlier attempted to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, but was detained in Kenya and forced to return to Britain, where he had somehow escaped surveillance by British security authorities, which enabled him to carry out the attack. In an example of al-Shabaab calling on its Western adherents to carry out attacks in their countries, in February 2015 the group posted a video calling for lone wolf type attacks against major shopping malls
The experience of Western Somalis in al-Shabaab, however, has not been free of internal conflict with the group. This was particularly the case with Omar Hammami (discussed earlier) who had become infamous as its primary Western spokesmen. In early September 2013, however, Hammami was reportedly assassinated under orders by Godane, the group’s commander at the time, for his break-away dissident views. Hammami’s death was expected to discourage other would-be Western jihadis from joining al-Shabaab, although details about the number of those disillusioned by this event are not known.
Trend 4: Increasing Appeal of ISIS Although al-Shabaab and ISIS (Islamic State) espouse similar extremist religious and political objectives and engage in similar terrorist tactics, the Islamic State has been much more successful militarily, it controls larger territories in Syria and Iraq, has increased its presence in other terrorist conflict zones, and, as a result, has become a much more attractive “battleground of choice” for Muslims in the West seeking jihadism. In one of the first cases of a Western Muslim extremist with al-Shabaab links to shift such allegiances to ISIS, Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Briton who grew up in West London, had attempted to reach Somalia in February 2009 to join al-Shabaab, but was stopped when he arrived in Tanzania. After returning to England, he eventually made his way to Syria in 2012 where he joined ISIS and became infamous as “Jihadi John” – the supposed executioner of the group’s Western hostages. It is not only Western Muslims with a tangential connection to al Shabaab, such as Emwazi, who have been increasingly turning to ISIS, but Somali diaspora Muslims, as well. In mid-2015, for example, ISIS had reportedly deployed recruiters in MinneapolisSt Paul where, according to American journalist Dina Temple-Raston, they took advantage of prior recruiting infrastructures that had been set up by al-Shabaab, with several Somali-Americans either succeeding in traveling to Syria or being prevented from their travel plans by American counterterrorism agencies. Examples of a Somali-American succeeding in joining ISIS include Abdi Nur, aged 20, of Minneapolis/St Paul, who had joined ISIS 2014, becoming a “social media” recruiter for others in his Minneapolis/St Paul community. At the same time, however, Abdi Nur’s associate, Abdullah Yusuf, aged 18, was intercepted by U.S. authorities in Summer 2014 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport while attempting to travel to Turkey in order to reach ISIS in Syria. In an example of a further counterterrorism success that may have been related to Yusuf’s
arrest and the uncovering of his own associations with other extremists, in April 2015 the FBI arrested six Somali-Americans in Minneapolis and San Diego as they attempted to travel to Syria to join ISIS. ISIS has also extended its appeal to Somali diaspora communities in other Western countries, as well. In Canada, for example, it was reported in June 2014 that Farah Mohammed Shirdon, aged 21, from Calgary, and a former student at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, had joined ISIS as a fighter. In another case, Abu Dharda (known as Abu Musa al-Sumali), aged 20, a British national of Somali heritage, had joined ISIS in early 2014, appearing in the group’s propaganda videos. He was reportedly killed (with another Briton) in an ISIS battle with Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq in November of that year.
Conclusion Al-Shabaab is likely to maintain its position as the most significant terrorist threat in the Horn of Africa, as it will continue to carry out frequent and spectacular terrorist acts in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, and elsewhere. It will also likely increase its cooperation with Boko Haram, which has taken over extensive territory in Nigeria, where it imposes its own harsh version of Islamist rule. While al-Shabaab is likely to continue its protracted insurgency in this region, it is also likely to experience a drop in its Western Somali diaspora recruits who appear increasingly attracted to ISIS, although this decline in Western fighters and propagandists is not likely to affect its overall terrorist warfare. To further reinvigorate itself in the global jihadi movement, al-Shabaab might attempt to switch its alliance from al Qaeda, its longstanding ally, to ISIS. With ISIS in the ascendancy, this might provide the Somali group with extensive financial benefits, given the Islamic State’s financial wealth, and an enormous propaganda boost in global jihadism. It might also gain additional recruits from the Somali diaspora in the West, who might be persuaded to join an ISIS-affiliated and branded al-Shabaab, instead of traveling to Syria and Iraq which is also becoming increasingly difficult. At the same time, however, al-Shabaab’s military capability, while still effective in conducting spectacular terrorist attacks against soft targets, is not as effective as ISIS’s guerrilla forces and its inability to substantially increase the territory under its control in Somalia may not appeal to Western jihadists who are seeking the ‘glamour’ of jihadi battle victories against the ‘apostate’ Alawite and Shi’ite militaries in Syria and Iraq, respectively, and, most importantly, fulfilling ISIS’s dream of establishing Islamist institutions in their ‘liberated’ areas in the Middle East – the birthplace of Islam and the Muslim Caliphates which they wish to re-create.
About the Author Dr. Joshua Sinai is Director of Analytics & Business Development at CRA (www.cra-usa. net), in Vienna, VA. He can be reached at Joshua.sinai@comcast.net.
CounterInsurgency Tactics: A Tool For Domestic Policing By Dominic J. Traina
The cornerstone of any COIN effort is security for the populace.
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ince 2014, civil unrest has taken place in Ferguson, Berkeley, Cleveland, New York and most recently in Baltimore. These events have been triggered by incidents that have involved local law enforcement officers and the deaths of members of the local community. These cities along with others in the United States are plagued with similar social issues, such as income inequality, that ferment social and other economic woes that fuel high crime rates and unemployment. These issues fester in many urban areas throughout the United States. The unemployment rate in Ferguson, Missouri for example is at 26% for African-Americans. Understandably, cities throughout the U.S. should be concerned as civil unrest appears to be on the rise. Saint Augustine once noted in an essay about the elements of peace and war that, “The purpose of all wars is peace.” Hopefully, lessons have been learned from the recent events of civil unrest and opportunities for a greater understanding of these complex issues will be addressed.
Counterinsurgency (COIN) tactics and strategies learned over the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan could be considered useful by many of our local and state law enforcement officials. Future unrest could be thwarted by reviewing some of these lessons in counterinsurgency and incorporating some of the tactics into the widely used community policing that is already a huge part of the policing strategy in many major cities. Through enhanced COIN training, at the police recruit level and through additional advanced training for seasoned officers some civil unrest might be diffused. A question could be posed is; what type of nexus could be made between counterinsurgency tactics and community policing in an effort to stabilize urban disorder and improve relationships with local law enforcement?
I. Summary of Coin The insurgency that began in Iraq following the invasion in 2003 was not effectively countered for several years until 2007, when General David Petraeus took charge of the Iraq War. The uptick in violence was not even considered an insurgency for some time. Nevertheless, following some major shake ups within the Department of Defense, efforts were soon made to thwart the
violence. General Petraeus and staff had created the U.S. Army Field Manual 3-24, which essentially became the blue print for counterinsurgency. How do we define an insurgency? The U.S. Army Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency, explains:
“An insurgency is an organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict. . . . Stated another way, an insurgency is an organized, protracted politico-military struggle designed to weaken the control and legitimacy of an established government, occupying power, or other political authority while increasing insurgent control.” Therefore, the definition of a counterinsurgency is: “Counterinsurgency is military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological, and civic actions taken by a government to
Figure 1. Aspects of counterinsurgency operations
defeat insurgency.” In short a counterinsurgency is often perceived as a “low intensity” or “asymmetrical conflict.” This type of warfare is nothing new and has been around since the beginning of mankind. Yet, it seems difficult to understand and even more challenging to implement. Counterinsurgency is a unique style of warfare as a greater emphasis is placed on intelligence, security and peace-keeping operations, population control, propaganda, and efforts to gain the trust of the people. Notice that much of this requires human interaction and it is political. An insurgency, takes place when the state fails to meet the needs of its citizenry and no longer seems to be legitimate. Therefore, “the key in COIN is not to monopolize force but to monopolize legitimate force” In the FM 3-24 it is noted that, “Legitimacy is the main objective.” Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, was a commanding officer of an Army regiment in Iraq and once told his soldiers, “Every time you treat an Iraqi disrespectfully, you are working for the enemy.” Furthermore, he banned soldiers from using the term “haji” as this was thought of as a derogatory term towards the Iraqis. Some will argue that in many of our cities the police appear to have lost their legitimacy with the local population. If many citizens in urban areas feel as though they have been marginalized or disrespected by the police than it is unlikely that they would actively assist law enforcement.
Counterinsurgency theorist and practitioners argue that the primary mission of a counterinsurgency force is not to kill the enemy but to secure the population. Legitimate governments generate the popular support required to manage internal problems, change, and conflict.
Figure 2. Demonstration Algerian War, 1960
Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International
Counterinsurgency theorist and practitioners argue that the primary mission of a counterinsurgency force is not to kill the enemy but to secure the population. Legitimate governments generate the popular support required to manage internal problems, change, and conflict. In domestic policing it is imperative to catch the criminals; however, this is sometimes at a great cost of losing the support from the local population. Members of this community could be thought of as “accidental enablers” not really in support of criminal activity but not on the side of law enforcement, which is considered an external authority to some members of the community. In addition, some of the criminals soon become local folk heroes, similar to the likes of an Al Capone or Robin Hood, as these “accidental enablers” may have more in common with the criminals in their community than with a law enforcement agency in which they believe has lost its legitimacy.
A reflection upon the Algerian War, from 1954 – 1962, reminds us that the tactics used by the French during the uprising might have been effective at the tactical level. However, they failed miserably at the strategic
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level. These tactics included blowing up houses in Arab neighborhoods to gather information and terrorize the residents. This failed as it only encouraged more Arabs to join in on the uprising and delegitimized the ruling French government. Rarely, will the native citizens side with what is seen as a foreign invader and occupier. Moreover, hard power tactics inflame the insurgency. The law enforcement community can learn from these failed tactics and strategies in dealing with insurgencies; as the same logic could be considered when citizens in urban communities fail to assist local law enforcement.
II. Similarities Between Community Policing and Counterinsurgency Recently, a Justice Department investigation revealed that the Vol. 21, No.3
Cleveland Police Department is considered an occupying force as opposed to a partner and resource for the community it serves. Furthermore, the investigation concluded that a cultural shift should take place in an effort to change a mind-set of an “us-against-them” amongst the Cleveland Division of Police. Cleveland has adopted a new community policing initiative, which will integrate and inculcate community policing principles. Enhanced local engagement by the department will be beneficial to deescalating violence in the future. This is a long-term effort and this commitment must be continuously communicated to the populace. Community policing is defined by the U.S. Department of Justice as “…a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systems use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, and the fear of crime”. Community policing is the most widely used term for a loosely defined set of police philosophies, strategies, and tactics. Community policing focuses on preventing crime through active problem solving and forming partnerships that will benefit both Law Enforcement Officers (LEO) as well as citizens. In a piece titled, Community Policing and Terrorism, that was written by Mathew C. Schneider and Robert Chapman the authors note that, “community policing can be defined as a philosophy that, through the delivery of police services, focuses on crime and social disorder; the philosophy includes aspects of traditional law enforcement as well as prevention, problem-solving tactics, and partnerships. As a fundamental shift from traditional, reactive policing, community policing stresses the prevention of crime.” Many police departments use community policing along with the leveraging of technology to be a force-multiplier. This is similar to counterinsurgency as the population must be a part of the solution. Law Enforcement can achieve success by placing an emphasis on the proven results of community policing and the sharing of intelligence both vertically and horizontally, and by never discounting the efforts of good citizenship. Again, in counterinsurgency the population needs to recognize the legitimacy of the
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He notes that in 2006; 3,000 civilians were being killed in Bagdad every week. However, by September, 2007 the killings had been reduced by 95%. He argues that by starting a dialogue with the Iraqis and by obtaining a design brief on how to secure and defend their neighborhoods violence was significantly reduced. government, in this case local law enforcement, and either actively support or at the least not hinder the efforts of the counterinsurgents. Other similarities between community policing and counterinsurgency is that COIN accentuates a decentralized command, flexible responses to problems and cooperation amongst stakeholders and improved relationships with citizens and government officials. Furthermore, both community policing and COIN can only achieve success through essential elements such as the rule of law and legitimate governance. More identifiable similarities between community policing and counterinsurgency exist; COIN stresses the need for decentralized command, flexible response to problems, coordination between a wide range of organizations and the establishment of relationships with the citizenry with which military personnel interact. All of these techniques are major aspects of a successful community policing model.
III. Modifications in Training and Community Perceptions According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Report on State and Local Law Enforcement Training Academies (BJS Report), the majority of police recruits receive their training in academies with a stress-based military orientation. This traditional stress-based model is based off of the military and includes “paramilitary
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drills, intensive physical demands, and public disciplinary measures, immediate reaction to infractions, daily inspections, value inculcation, and withholding of privileges.” The nonestress model promotes academic achievement, physical training, administrative discipline, empathy, and a more relaxed and supportive atmosphere. Arguments can be made for the benefits from both of these types of programs. The stress program encourages self-discipline whereas the non-stress may encourage officers to engage in a more subtle and cooperative manner with citizens and community organizations. Again, both are essential elements for protecting LEO’s and being able to engage the public. The future changes in demographics and generational gaps, such as millennials overtaken baby boomers in population size, will call for the promulgation of new types of training doctrine. Enhanced counterinsurgency training in basic programs and advanced training for seasoned law enforcement officers can be essential to preparing law enforcement officers to adjust to societal changes in an ever evolving and increasingly more complex profession. A COIN tactic that could be taught to LEO’s is to call upon local proxies to take the lead in security. One case study on how this was done is from a presentation given by David Killcullen, who is a counterinsurgency author and strategist. He notes that in 2006; 3,000 civilians were being killed in Bagdad every week. However, by September, 2007 the killings had been reduced by 95%. He argues that by starting a dialogue with the Iraqis and by obtaining a design brief on how to secure and defend their neighborhoods violence was significantly reduced. Another element was to place field teams, made up of the indigenous community members, who understand that environment into the neighborhoods. Domestic efforts to embed local law enforcement into the community and community watch groups could be a force multiplier. Law enforcement field teams should compose of members from that particular community. These LEO’s will have a working knowledge of that area and should build upon the relationships already fostered. The LEO’s assigned to this field team will be more likely to succeed in the community. Once law enforcement creates a better relationship with the community; perceptions and attitudes can be driven and this will in itself placate the community and enhance security. Information operations or what use to be know as propaganda is a must in changing attitudes.
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Finally, in FM 3-24 it is noted that a COIN force must be a learning organization and that counterinsurgencies have been called learning competitions; learning to conduct complex COIN operations begins with study beforehand. More than ever before law enforcement has become a profession that requires LEO’s to be quick thinkers. Lastly, the basics for COIN is to break down barriers between soldiers and citizens the same can be said for the relationship between law enforcement and the communities that are served. Security is about building bridges. This should encourage LEO’s training programs at all levels to consider new modes of training to enhance community engagement. A new 2.0 Community Policing approach could possibly bring forth innovative ideas to tackle domestic unrest.
About the Author Dominic J. Traina holds an MA in International Relations and National Security from Troy University and a MS from the Naval Postgraduate School in Security Studies. He is employed in the field of global maritime supply-chain security and is an adjunct faculty member in the homeland security studies department at Tulane University.
Resources “The Economic Imbalance Fueling Ferguson’s Unrest.” Fortune The Economic Imbalance Fueling Fergusons Unrest Comments. N.p., 15 Aug. 2014. Web. 07 June 2015. http://fortune. com/2014/08/15/ferguson-income-inequality/ Ancient Rhetorical Excavations K-State Digs (: “The purpose of all wars...is peace.” The Pāx Romana—The War on Terror) http:// ancientrhetorickstatedigs.blogspot.com/2009/11/purpose-of-allwarsis-peace-pax.html Field Manual (FM) 3-24/Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency (Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army and Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, December 2006). P 1-2. “Insurgency and Counterinsurgency.” Https://rdl.train.army. mil/catalog-ws/view/100.ATSC/41449AB4-E8E0-46C4-8443E4276B6F0481-1274576841878/3-24/chap1.htm. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 June 2015. Field Manual (FM) 3-24/Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency (Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army and Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, December 2006). P 1-2. Gompert, David C. and John Gordon IV, et al. 2008. War by Other Means: Building Complete and Balanced Capabilities for Counterinsurgency. Santa Monica. Rand. Field Manual (FM) 3-24/Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency (Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army and Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, December 2006). P 1-21. “The Lessons of Counterinsurgency.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2006. Web. 07 June 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/15/ AR2006021502586.html “Demonstration / Algerian War / Algeria / 1960 | HD Stock Video 312-536-549 | Framepool Stock Footage.” Framepool Stock Footage Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2015.http://footage.
framepool.com/en/shot/312536549-algerian-war-french-armytumult-street-battle Eliot Cohen - Principles, Imperatives, and Paradoxes of Counterinsurgency - 2006 - pp. 49-53 http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ milreview/cohen.pdf Ibid. Investigation of the Cleveland Division of Police. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Investigation of the. Web. 07 June 2015. http://www.justice.gov/ sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2014/12/04/ cleveland_division_of_police_findings_letter.pdf Reaves, Brian. State and Local Law Enforcement Training Academies, 2006 / by Brian A. Reaves. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009. Print. http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/vets-to-cops/e030917193CP-Defined.pdf Scheider, Mathew and Chapman, Robert, “Community Policing and Terrorism,” April, 2003. http://www.homelanddefense.org/Journal/ Articles/Scheider-Chapman.html Field Manual (FM) 3-24/Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency (Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army and Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, December 2006). P 1-1 Reaves, Brian. State and Local Law Enforcement Training Academies, 2006 / by Brian A. Reaves. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009. Print. Reaves, Brian. State and Local Law Enforcement Training Academies, 2006 / by Brian A. Reaves. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009. Print. P10. David Kilcullen: “Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla” | Talks at Google (YouTube) http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=tVUI9U4WQ6E Field Manual (FM) 3-24/Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency (Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army and Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, December 2006). P 1-21.
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MRAP Armored Rescue Vehicles:
When You Need ‘Em, You Really Need ‘Em By Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis (Photos include those of Jim Weiss and P. J. Ryan)
It took the Lorain Police Department’s chief years to obtain an ARV that fit his department’s needs. His selling points for obtaining the MRAP were: 1) the high volume of crime in the city and the fact that it has illegal drug routes running through it; 2) the police department’s ability to maintain an MRAP; and 3) the fact that the MRAP would have ambulance/rescue capabilities and could be used as a rescue vehicle.
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WAT teams with armored rescue vehicles (ARVs) may use them when responding to active shooter, barricaded suspect, hostage taker, high risk warrants, or situatations involving armed bad guys, such as when responding to ideological-based members of a known terrorist group.
The violent rioting as seen in Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; and other cities brings to mind the rioting of the 1960s and 1970s where cities burned and police officers and their families were targeted. It was during that time that police scrambled to borrow bank money escort trucks from companies such as Brinks to use as a tool to rescue downed officers and others, as well as provide armored protection when escorting police to scenes involving the worst scenarios. Once again, out-of-control rioting becomes the closest thing to war that involved police will experience. As for police use of ARVs, when you need ‘em, you really need ‘em.
Terrorism Template Since there isn’t a universal American criminal law definition of “terrorism,” we use a working terrorism template expressed in two formats: 1) A terrorist is someone causing terror to meet his/her criminal ends. This could be a robber, a rapist, an active shooter, a hostage-taker, or someone who assaults another, acting alone or in a group. Terrorists can be homegrown militants or crimi-
nals or gangs, or they can have infiltrated the community with the intent to cause terror. These individuals are not ideological terrorist militants and could be called “quasi-terrorists;” 2) Terrorists can be ideological-based members of a known militant terrorist group, acting out to cause civil disorder or acts of terrorism. Homeland security is generally focused upon countering the ideological-based members of known terrorist groups.
The MRAP Historical Inspiration. During the 1940s, Jewish people of Palestine, in their struggles to become a nation, resorted to terrorist tactics such as improvised
The Lorain (Ohio) Police Department has military veterans who are familiar with MRAPs, and the department counts upon their skills and knowledge to make repairs and operate it. A retired Lorain P. D. officer with a body shop did the paint work, while members of the SWAT team did the sanding and preparation for the paint. One repair needed was to the air filtration system and another to the MRAP’s winch. The BEAST, Lorain Police Department’s MRAP, had served with the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, and when the police department repainted it, they left the Army unit insignia of a Wolfhound’s head (Wolfhounds, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment) intact to honor that Army unit.
explosive devices (IEDs), bomb trucks, and ambushes. Other ideologically/ politically-inspired militants learned the lessons of terrorism, and their opponents learned methods to counter these terror activists. For example, during the Belfast/Ulster troubles in 1979 at Warrenpoint, a small town in Northern Ireland, the IRA blew up a truck of British paratroopers. The truck was not blast-protected, and six paratroopers died. The IRA had also prepared for any responding soldiers with a secondary bomb, killing 12. This incident was certainly reviewed by American police, who had been through terrorist and militant bombs and ambushes during the troubles here in the 1960s and 1970s. Counter-terrorism forces inspired the development of the American military’s mine-resistant, ambushprotected (MRAP) armored vehicle which goes back to South Africa’s Border War (1966-1989). This was when the Casspir blast-resistant armored vehicle was developed for South Africa’s police, and later incorporated into that country’s military. A follow-up South African ARV was the Buffalo. Both had V-shaped, high-up hulls designed to deflect blasts from land mines and IEDs away from the driver and passenger compartments, which are separate. These vehicles also had runflat tires. The MRAP’s protection consists of .50 caliber ballistic protection all around. It also has air conditioning; a nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) filtration ventilation system; escape hatches in case it is flipped; and a winch that can pull the MRAP’s own weight. In addition, there is often a ramp that can be removed or used for training, and a seat suspension system to reduce impact reaction to personnel should the MRAP encounter an IED hit. The National Defense Authorization Act 1033 program had surplus MRAPs available for law enforcement to lease from the US government. This means the government still owns them, and they cannot be sold or scrapped by the American police agency leasing them.
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Some Law Enforcement Agencies Taking Advantage of the Surplus MRAP Program Licking County,
Ohio, Sheriff’s Office The Sheriff’s Office has 67 law enforcement deputies. Including jail/corrections deputies there are 92 deputies total; of these, 16 are on the part-time SWAT team. Licking County covers 687 square miles (the second largest county in Ohio), and in 2014 the population
times a year. These call-ups might include, for example, the take down of a father and son team committing armed robberies. Before obtaining their MRAP from Texas, SWAT was transported in a soft-skin panel van. The original seating had been removed and six school bus benches were installed facing each other. Painting and vehicle alteration were accomplished through public donations. For maintenance support, the department has a good working relationship with the Defense Supply Center (Whitehall) near Columbus.
The National Defense Authorization Act 1033 program had surplus MRAPs available for law enforcement to lease from the US government. This means the government still owns them, and they cannot be sold or scrapped by the American police agency leasing them. was estimated at 169,396. Within its infrastructure are rural areas, businesses, manufacturing, industry, and Interstate 70. There are also 20-30 different cultural groups within the county as well as bordering Franklin County where the city of Columbus is located. Of present concern is the Moslem influx in this corridor that includes Somalis and Syrians, with Sunni-Shiite friction. The Sheriff’s Office, as an accredited law enforcement agency, is mandated to train SWAT members a certain number of hours a year, and each year SWAT also trains together during SWAT week. Usually they are called up fewer than ten
The agency’s MRAP is in a 6x6 configuration, and is used defensively by SWAT during call ups. This means they don’t launch gas from it, but instead use it as armored protection and transportation in SWAT responses to violent situations. As a rescue vehicle with its critical high-ground clearance, the MRAP has also been used in disaster drills concerning the 100-year-old Buckeye Lake Dam, a huge dam that is now considered unsafe. Their MRAP has also worked well as a P. R. tool, and has been a positive device for recruiting.
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Ohio State University Division of Police Ohio State University (OSU) is one of America’s largest campuses. During the day it is a “city” of 100,000 in the greater Columbus area; in 2014 enrollment was 58,322. As far a population goes, the Columbus campus of OSU is the seventh largest “city” in Ohio. The campus has its own utilities, T.V., and hospital, all within the domain of the campus’s 911 first responders. OSU’s Columbus campus is in Franklin County, a high-intensity drug trafficking area. OSU Division of Police employs about 54 full-time and four part-time police officers. Ten of their full-time officers are members of their Special Response Team (SWAT), a parttime team that has been trained in advanced tactical topics that meet the training standard recommendations of the National Tactical Officers Association. Other campus police agencies have attempted to obtain military surplus ARVs in the past. Some, like the University of California-Berkeley, failed to sell the idea to campus administrators. In general, however, American police departments elsewhere have been quite successful. OSU PD had to demonstrate their need as well as the means to obtain the MRAP and maintain it. They did. Since 9/11, a prime potential terrorist target on campus is the famed Ohio State University Horseshoe Stadium. Consequently, OSU PD Special Response Team, in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, has instituted exceptionally tight security to protect the 105,000 Buckeye football fans. Integral to this counter-terror protection, OSU PD SRT deployed their MRAP at the home games. OSU’s MRAP has received positive responses from the public as well as harsh media commentaries. Lorain, Ohio, Police Department Lorain has a population in the range of 60,000 to 65,000 people; it covers 26 square miles. There are 105 sworn police officers on the Lorain Police Department, with 14 officers on the part-time SWAT team.
It took chief Cel Rivera years to obtain an ARV that fit his department’s needs. His selling points for obtaining the MRAP were: 1) the high volume of crime in the city and the fact that it has illegal drug routes running through it; 2) the police department’s ability to maintain an MRAP; and 3) the fact that the MRAP would have ambulance/rescue capabilities and could be used as a rescue vehicle. The Chief said he’d been trying to get a good ARV for his department for years and years when he learned that the National Defense Authoriza-
GPV Sergeant 4x4, two Peacekeepers, and two 6x6 MRAPs. The two MRAPs are somewhat recent additions to their vehicle fleet, and obtained under the federal government’s 1033 program.
Danzig, the county’s two MRAPs included 360-degree cameras for driving safety, paint, and emergency equipment. Their cost was $33,015, where the federal government had paid $1.5 million for them.
Urban Pinellas County consists of 282.56 square miles with the Gulf of Mexico bordering its west coast. Its population is 933,258. The county is policed by 835 law enforcement deputies and additional detention deputies. There are 24 incorporated municipalities within the county, and the sheriff’s office contracts 13 of these to police. A number of the county’s municipalities, such as St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, and
Using a lesson plan based upon the US military, the Sheriff’s Office developed their own course for the operation of their ARVs to fit their urban policing needs, both on and off the road.
These OSU Division of Police Special Response team train in officer down situational tactics using their MRAP for cover.
tion Act, 1033 program had surplus MRAPs available for law enforcement. And when he heard that one could be obtained for nothing, he jumped at the idea and convinced the city administration as well. Even in the aftermath of the Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting riots and cries from certain quarters over the militarization of American’ police, members of the Lorain P.D. SWAT team have heard of no open negativity toward their MRAP. So far, there is mainly an awe-struck factor when the MRAP rolls by. Pinellas County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is unique in that it has five ARVs: one
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Tarpon Springs, have independent police departments. The Sheriff’s Office has a part-time SWAT team of 30 deputies, who annually respond to 12-18 callouts. This includes utilizing SWAT members who are working as Patrol Deputies at the time of the call to respond to a potential high risk situation. Once on scene they assist commanders in determining if a reduced or full SWAT callout is necessary to assist Patrol in resolving the incident. Their ARVs are not just for SWAT use; other units such as patrol, etc., can utilize them, too. The agency also partnerships with a private ambulance company for 12 paramedics who are SWAT-trained as tactical medics. According to Lieutenant Nick Lazaris and Sergeant Gregory
Their stated needs for obtaining their two MRAPs were protection of deputies, evacuations, high risk warrants, active shooters, meth labs, and natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes,
The sheriff’s office needed to make only minor changes to their MRAPs to make them fit their missions. Their two MRAPS, for example, did not come with turrets. They also don’t have weapon mounts and some patrol car equipment like ticket printers, but they do have larger first aid kits. Instead of altering the MRAPs’ seating arrangement, the agency retained the stock seating in which each seat is equipped with a four-point safety harness. Other features retained were driver and co-driver doors, double doors for the passenger compartment, and the standard roof hatch. It must be noted that MRAPs do not have super powers. They can become
The MRAP’s protection consists of .50 caliber ballistic protection all around. It also has air conditioning; a nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) filtration ventilation system; escape hatches in case it is flipped; and a winch that can pull the MRAP’s own weight. In addition, there is often a ramp that can be removed or used for training, and a seat suspension system to reduce impact reaction to personnel should the MRAP encounter an IED hit.
and tornadoes. ARV callouts are situational. For example, an MRAP was used to respond to a shots-fired incident where the suspect had murdered his neighbor. The SWAT team arrived in an MRAP, and operators within the MRAP set up and controlled a robot. It was determined that the shooter had killed himself. The agency’s two late-generation MRAPs can ford three feet of water using their six-wheel, independent suspension systems, although it was noted that when agencies apply for an MRAP, they are basically not given a choice as to which generation, model, or size vehicles they will receive.
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stuck like any other vehicle. The agency does not do high-speed driving to and from incidents with their ARVs. And yes, the sheriff’s office is up to speed in their studies of responses to and from terrorist events. For example, they are well aware that it is a terrorist tactic to target and ambush secondary responders to an earlier terrorist event by ambush or IED attacks. Pasco County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office Pasco County covers 747 square miles and has a rapidly expanding population of about 470,000. Within the county’s boundaries are six mid-
and small-sized cities with city police departments. Pasco County borders Pinellas County on the north. According to Captain James Steffens, who is in command of the Special Operations Division within the county’s Law Enforcement Bureau, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) is made up of 435 law enforcement deputies and 400 detention deputies. The large county sheriff’s office SWAT team has combined with some SWAT police officers from the New Port Richey Police Department, a much smaller city agency within the county, as well as medics from some of the other of the county’s municipalities.
sion, and was built in 2000 by BAE Industries for an original cost of $412,000. Like all MRAPs, it is leased, not bought, from the federal government through the National Defense Authorization Act-1033 program. Leasing cost is $2,000 per year. If the sheriff’s office does obtain a 4x4 MRAP, their 6x6 vehicle will be set up as the sheriff’s office armored medical services vehicle where volunteer doctors and tactical medics will have a place especially equipped to handle their specialized rescue needs. (Unified SWAT has the services of two volunteer ER physicians on standby).
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office needed to make only minor changes to their MRAPs to make them fit their missions. Their two MRAPS, for example, did not come with turrets. They also don’t have weapon mounts and some patrol car equipment like ticket printers, but they do have larger first aid kits.
This created a fully-functioning, Unified SWAT team. Since this SWAT team was formed in 2011, it is now annually handling in the range of 100 SWAT callouts. The Sheriff’s SWAT is authorized 55 operators; currently it has 40. The sheriff’s office has also obtained a Lenco BearCat, and, more recently, a 6x6 MRAP. The agency has long been waiting under the federal government’s National Defense Authorization Act-1033 program to acquire an additional 4x4 MRAP; as to whether they will ever get the second vehicle is an unknown. Their 6x6 MRAP has a Caterpillar diesel engine, an Allison transmis-
The 6x6 can also be used for highwater medical extractions in the county’s low lying areas. Unified SWAT has trained for and been involved in hostage taker, active shooter, barricaded suspect, high risk warrants, and other operations. Examples: 1. A suspect fired on deputies, their cruisers, and arriving SWAT. Street deputies and SWAT returned fire, killing him. 2. A man affiliated with a militant group had a fortified compound in a wooded area. This compound was set up to engage law enforcement. Unified SWAT created two
elements with a warrant to address two possible scenarios, as the team didn’t know the man’s specific location. They felt he was either in his fortified compound or in the surrounding wooded area. One SWAT element addressed securing the compound and making an arrest if the suspect was there, and the second element addressed taking the suspect if he was in the woods. The team approached using the BearCat; it was smaller than the 6x6 MRAP and they hoped that the BearCat could make through the dense foliage and rough terrain easier. The BearCat barely made it. The MRAP was kept on alert status with its crew should it, too, be needed. The second SWAT element maneuvering in the woods made the apprehension. 3. Word was received by the Sheriff’s Office that a member of an extremist group/ gang was threatening to kill Pasco County’s Sheriff during an historically-themed street parade through the city of New Port Richey. To send a clear message to the extremist group, the manned BearCat led the parade with the sheriff walking behind it in its protective vicinity. The agency’s MRAP was a bit further back in the parade. The assassination attempt did not take place. Even though the Sheriff’s Office didn’t have enough probable cause to arrest the would-be assassin, the deputies did find causes to arrest some members of this group. If the threat had not been taken seriously, the two ARVs would not have participated in the parade. Another example of the need for more than one ARV is that the Sheriff’s Office can field both ARVs with two elements in the coordinated servicing of six search warrants in one reactive situation. Two of the warrant servicing SWAT elements will be able to utilize an ARV. SWAT trains to use the agency’s 6x6 MRAP and BearCat to sup-
port various missions. Training includes using the vehicles as ballistic protection and blocking barriers for community members and peace officers by placing the vehicles between the suspect and victims. They also use them for chemical agent deployment; as a platform for cover fire; reconnaissance for intelligence gathering and site orientation; to rescue community members and peace officers; for surveillance devices deployment; to transport community members and peace officers; and to aid in verbal communications to attempt to obtain suspect(s) surrender. Also, Unified SWAT is a believer of and trains in utilizing their ARVs to take space away from the bad guy(s) in a barricaded structure by, for example, using a ram to stop any further loss of life, as supported by the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA). Various types of ARVs are in use today, including those that have been custom built, military surplus, or from companies specializing in manufacturing them for police and military uses. Among the least expensive ARVs available to law enforcement offering the most protection are militarily surplus, and currently one of the most popular and among the least expensive ARVs in use by law enforcement are military MRAPs (mine-resistant, ambush-protected).
About the Authors Jim Weiss is a retired Police Lieutenant from Brook Park, Ohio, and a former Army Military Policeman and State of Florida Investigator. In 2001, Mickey Davis, a Floridabased journalist and editor, became Jim’s writing partner.
References 1) “Armored Rescue Vehicles: MRAP Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected.” Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis. Tactical Response, November-December 2014, Hendon Publishing. 2) “Answering Terrorism Prevention and Homeland Security Threats.” Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis. LAW and ORDER, September 2014, Hendon Publishing.
Secure Driver:
Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Your Tires By Anthony Ricci
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here are many styles of vehicles on the road today. We could travel to all ends of the earth, but one thing would remain the same no matter what kind of car or truck we looked at: they all sit on 4 pieces of rubber called tires. These four tires are arguably the single most important feature on any vehicle, yet they are probably one of the most overlooked. Take a second and really concentrate on what the tires on your vehicle go through on a typical Sunday drive. Firstly, they have to be strong enough to hold the right amount of air pressure to support the entire vehicle. Secondly, they have to put up with the stress of rolling around all day on hot asphalt. Every rotation the tires make causes friction, which in turn causes huge amounts of heat build up. Think of rubbing your hands together very quickly
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and how fast they start to warm up - now imagine rubbing your hands together at highway speeds for hours at a time! Finally, as those tires are heating up we are going to introduce them to a variety of forces which will push, pull, stretch, twist, distort, and add stress to the most important component related to basic car control. How would you like to be your tires, responsible for controlling this 4000-pound vehicle at high rates of speed, with a driver whom takes you for granted and has very little knowledge of how you work?
Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International
So now that you understand the stress your tires face every time you take them on the road, what can you do to start respecting your tires and avoid possible flats and blow outs? First, we need to recognize what it is our tires do, and even more importantly – what they cannot do. I’m sure we can all agree that our vehicles have at least 3 basic functions: go, stop and turn. Anytime the driver uses the gas pedal, brake pedal or steering wheel, one of these basic functions is put into action and weight is being transferred in a given direction. If the vehicle
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is accelerating or decelerating in a straight line, the weight is either going to the rear or the front of the vehicle. This weight applies a longitudinal force, which goes though the cars suspension system and eventually ends up pressing down on the tire’s contact patch (the space of the tire that is connecting your vehicle to the ground). When the driver turns the steering wheel a sideways force, known as lateral force is applied to the vehicle. These lateral forces also end up at the tire contact patch. The amount of force generated will depend on speed (for longitudinal force) and sharpness of the turn (for lateral force). Now we know that everything has limits. Although the tires’ basic function is to keep the vehicle on the road, even the most high quality performance tire can only be asked to perform at 100% of its capability. Meaning that once the force exerted on the tire exceeds its capabilities, it will – no matter how good – begin to slide or skid (lose adhesion). Secondly, we need to keep in mind the signs of wear that our tires will show over time. In a normal situation, the tread on your tires will wear down at a roughly equal rate evenly across the surface of the tire. Additionally, both front tires and both rear tires should generally wear at the same rate. Depending on front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive, either the front set or rear set should wear more quickly than the other – this is normal. However, if your vehicle is improperly aligned, has suspension issues, or if the tires are under or over inflated, abnormal tire wear can occur. Camber wear can occur if your tire leans too far in or out, and will result in a rapid wear down of the inside or outside tread of your tire, while the remainder of the surface shows little signs of wear. Toe wear can occur if your tires are not parallel to each other and are pointed too far in or too far out, and will result in a smooth feeling when you run your hand over the tread in one direction and a rough feeling in the opposite direction. Cupped wear usually indicates a suspension issue or unbalanced tires, and will look like scalloped dips along the edge of the tire tread. If your tires are under inflated they will experience significant wear on the outer ends of tread, and if your tires are over inflated they will show signs of significant wear at the center of the tread. Your tire pressure should be regularly checked with an accurate tire
pressure gauge to avoid this kind of wear. If your tires are showing signs of abnormal wear, you should consider taking your vehicle to a qualified service professional to be examined. Ultimately this will result in a safer driving experience for you and those around you. Now we understand what our tires experience and the demands that are put on them, and also the kinds of wear that they will show over the length of tire life. But how do we know when our tires have reached their end and need to be replaced? A common tire tread gauge tool can most likely be found under the cushions of your couch or the cup holder in your car. All you need is a penny and a quarter. Take the penny, with Lincoln’s head facing downward, and place it in several tread grooves along the tire. If only part of Lincoln’s head is covered by the tread, you have roughly 2/32” of tread left and should consider replacement – as most state laws consider tires to be worn out when they’ve reached 2/32” tread depth. Now take that quarter, holding it the same way with Washington’s head facing downward, and place it in the same tread grooves as with the penny. If the top of Washing-
ton’s head is always covered by the tread, you have roughly 4/32” of tread remaining. And to find out if you have 6/32” or more remaining, take the penny back out, but flip it around to show the Lincoln Memorial. Flip it upside down and place it in the tread grooves. If the top of the memorial is always covered, you’ve got roughly 6/32” of tread remaining. This is a great trick to use when your tires are reaching the end of their life and you need to monitor their wear closely to avoid possible flats and blow outs.
demanding conditions we put our tires in, the types of stress exerted on them every time we take the car for a drive, and the kinds of wear patterns that can arise due to different situations, it is a lot easier to realize just how important (if not the most important) tires are to the safe operation of our vehicles. So next time you’re heading out to take a drive, give yourself a few extra minutes to closely inspect the state of your tires. You never know, you just might find something that could end up saving your life, or at least your car’s life!
Before reading this you may not have given a lot of thought to those four pieces of rubber keeping your vehicle connected to the road. But after understanding the
About the Author Anthony Ricci is President of ADSI (http:// www.1adsi.com)
A IACSP Q & A With
Bryan Denson
B
ryan Denson is the author of The Spy’s Son (The Atlantic Monthly Press), a nonfiction book about the life and crimes of a father-son spy team. Jim Nicholson was one of the CIA’s top veteran case officers who taught spycraft at the CIA’s clandestine training center, called “The Farm,” and later was a branch chief in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. For more than two years, he
met covertly with Russian SVR officers in locations around the world and turned over troves of classified documents, including the identities of hundreds of trainees.
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In 1997, Nicholson became the highest ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage. While in a federal prison, Nicholson groomed his youngest son, Nathan, to be a spy. In his early twenties, Nathan was asked by his father to courier messages out of prison to his Russian contacts. Film rights have been purchased by Paramount Pictures and Robert DeNiro and Shia LaBeouf may portray the father-son spy duo on the big screen. Denson is a winner of the George Polk Award, the Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award, and was named a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize in national reporting. Denson was a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards, a second-place finisher in The Society for Features Journalism for news series and projects, and an honorable mention for the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. Paul Davis, a contributing editor to the IACSP of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security Int’. conducted the interview. IACSP: Would you give us a brief overview of the story behind “The Spy’s Son” and how you came to write a book about it? Denson: Jim Nicholson has four superlatives in the annals of American espionage. He’s the highest ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage. He was the only convicted two-time turncoat in U.S. history. He was the only one to pull it off behind the bars of a federal prison. The fourth superlative, which is fascinating to me as a journalist is, he is the only CIA officer who fell under investigation for espionage who was brought down by a literal spy versus spy operation under the roof at CIA headquarters in Langley. To me the insertion of John Maquire into the story makes it interesting. IACSP: John Maquire was the CIA officer assigned as a deputy to Nicholson by the CIA/FBI investigation team to spy on Nicholson at Langley, right? Denson: Yes. John Maquire is a Baltimore boy like me, an ex-cop, an explosive expert and I will tell you, probably a great bit smarter than Jim Nicholson. The relationship he developed was one of cozying up to a man
who was under investigation for really awful things that he found horrifying. He took the job seriously. There are two criminal episodes in this story. There is the case in the 1990s where Jim Nicholson fell under investigation for espionage, and there is the later case where he goes to prison and he recruits his own son to begin to go aboard and pass messages to the Russian SVR, so the father can continue. He turns his own son into an agent. For Nathan’s part, he really didn’t fully understand what that meant. He thought the SVR questions posed for his dad, who was behind the bars of a prison, was a bit of “Monday morning quarterbacking:” that they were just trying to make sure they understood how he was caught and that sort of thing. He did not realize that the Russians were really looking for the Russian who gave Nicholson up. And that is an important distinction, because Jim, owing to his experience as an intelligence officer, would have known precisely who the Russians were looking for. IACSP: Our readers are professionals and I think many of them, like me, are not going to buy Nathan Nicholson’s story. I understand that you spoke to him for long periods and he was your principal source, and he may be likeable, but this young man served in the U.S. Army, which means he sat through numerous security and counterintelligence briefings. I used to conduct these briefings when I did security work in the Defense Department, so I don’t buy that he was as naïve and innocent as you portray him in the book. He may not have known the Russians were looking for the guy who gave his father up, but he knew he was committing espionage. I don’t buy that he was the abused son and his father was the only bad guy. They are both bad guys to me. Denson: Nathan bears culpability, no question. He accepts responsibility for what he did. I will tell you though, he wasn’t in the Army long enough to get deep intelligence briefings. IACSP: You get security briefings in basic training. I joined the U.S. Navy when I was 17 and at 18, I had access to top secret documents when I served on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. I could have walked off the carrier in Hong Kong with a sea bag full of secrets and made a million dollars. I didn’t do this because I knew
it was wrong. And one does have to have served in the military or government to know that passing messages from a father in prison for espionage to a foreign government is wrong. Denson: Nathan did not have anything looking like a security clearance. He was doing the rudimentary training to get into the intelligence field. He wanted to get into military intelligence because that’s what his dad had done. I don’t believe that Nathan fully comprehended what his dad was getting him to do. He believed at first that he was carrying messages to the Russians for the sole purpose of explaining that his family was in trouble and Jim wanted to withdraw money from his Russian pension. Nathan clearly knew it wasn’t quite right for him to be doing this. Later he discovered that it was quite wrong. He began to get ulcers over it. He felt like a lobster in a pot over a slow boil. By the time he fully realized he was committing espionage, it was too late to extricate himself. Jim kept goading his boy into this. He quoted this biblical passages from the Old Testament about being faithful, and saying the Lord was with us. It was ruthless what he did to his son. Now, did Nathan at some point understand that he was breaking the law? Absolutely. His public defender lawyers and three women investigators – the “Mom Squad” who saw what Jim had done and hated him for it – had to slowly explain that his dad had used him. He worked him over. He was very clever with what he did, very spy-like. Nathan’s intention was to just help his dad and family who were in mounds of dept.
IACSP: Sure, that was the motivation, but I believe the son as well as the father was culpable. Let our readers buy your book and they can make their own judgment. While reading your book, I thought of another spy and his son story with a different outcome. Robert Lee Johnson was a U.S. Army sergeant who spied for the KGB and was serving time in Lewisburg when his son stabbed him to death in the visiting area. Denson: I am no apologist for Jim Nicholson. I take him to task throughout the book for all of the things he did to the country and his family. IACSP: How did you come to write about this fascinating spy story? Denson: I cover the federal courts for the Oregonian and OregonLive and I was summoned to the courthouse where I had a contact in January of 2009. I was told that a big case was coming into Magistrate Court. My contact gave me a briefing on the Nicholson case and showed me a terrific article by David Wise that was in GQ magazine called The Spy Who Sold the Farm. My first impression of Nathan was that he was equally bad and that this was a father/son plot. He looked every bit the bag man that the government was portraying him to be. My original impression of him was not a good one. My expertise is domestic terrorism, eco-terrorism, in the American West and I had done a lot of domestic terrorism reporting and investigating. I did not know the first thing about espionage. IACSP: I don’t suppose you see a lot of espionage cases in Oregon. Denson: You don’t. But from the beginning I was equally interested in the father-son dynamic. As a guy who focuses on long-form narratives that try to dig deep into the way people move through the world, I was really interested in what motivated this dad to do this and what sort of character flaw would allow the son to join him in this. I realized that ultimately there would have to be a showdown between the father and son with Nathan having to confront his father in court. A son testifying against his own father in court is gold for a
journalist. And the fact that there was a globe-trotting, highly trained CIA operations officer who was in prison with two other Cold war spies, Christopher Boyce and James Harper. The three spies under one prison roof was astonishing to me. IACSP: So you initially wrote a series of articles on the case in the Oregonian. Denson: I wrote the daily newspaper pieces and the first piece I wrote had a headline something like, His Son was His Father’s Bagman. That story went far and wide and I got a call two days later from a Hollywood producer. So I knew I was going to write a series. My first interview with Nathan was at the newspaper in a conference room in the basement with video cameras running and his lawyer present and we did eight hours. He never balked at one question. I covered all of the developments in the case as daily newspaper stories and I received a call from Brian Kelly (Editor’s Note: Kelly was the CIA officer falsely accused of being a spy by the FBI, when the spy they were looking for was in fact FBI Special Agent Robert Hansen). Brian became my mentor. He called me up and said the stories are great, but there are a couple of things wrong, such as I was calling CIA people agents, not officers. IACSP: I often see that error on TV or in movies and novels. CIA people are called officers and their assets, or hired spies, are the agents. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies employ special agents. Denson: Exactly. Ultimately, he gave me not just a crash course, but a long-term crash course. Brian was so accessible and so patient with me. IACSP: He did that with a good number of reporters. I spoke on the phone and exchanged emails with him as well. He thought educating people about the CIA and intelligence work was important. Denson: I know. He wanted me to come to Washington D. C. to the Spy Museum, where he was on the board, and speak with him.
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He died a few weeks before our event. It was heart-breaking to me. I never met him face-to-face. One of the people he introduced me to was Kathleen Hunt, who had worked with Nicholson in the counterterrorism branch. She is the one who started asking questions about Nicholson’s requisitions for spy cameras and such. She also worked for Aldrich Ames during a Cold War posting. She was Brian Kelly’s best friend when he fell under investigation.
he an effective CT chief? Did you discover what his tenure was like?
IACSP: What secrets did Jim Nicholson give away to the Russians?
Denson: Yes, and Jim’s branch was doing legitimate counterterrorism work. Now this was Maguire’s entire career, developing assets in the Middle East to work against the bad guys. He’s wearing two
Denson: The key things he gave away were the names of a lot of access agents that we had developed
Denson: He saw his position as a branch chief in the counterterrorism center as a way-station. He did not realize he was under investigation so he thought he was going to go in there and knock the lights out and then get an overseas posting. IACSP: This was prior to 9/11, before CT received a lot more attention, right?
sent him to the prison in Oregon, all of his correspondence and all of his phone calls were monitored. So some analysts sat with this stacks of tapes of his calls and copies of his letters. And here comes a six-page letter that Jim had written expressly for Nathan’s Russian handler to read at their meeting in Cyprus. This letter sounded so weird to the analyst because Jim was writing about his recent health checkups and the financial troubles of his family. Jim was laying out a road map that was explaining to Nathan’s handler why he needed help and monetary support from the SVR. So the CIA shows up at the FBI’s field office in Portland, Oregon and they say this does not look right and they believe Jim and Nathan are up to something. The FBI puts together a counterintelligence team. The successes and failures of this operation are in the book. IACSP: Considering that Jim Nicholson was an experienced operations officer and also taught tradecraft at the CIA’s farm, he made some very dumb mistakes. He has his Swiss banker business card with his account number written on the card in his wallet. He also leaves his PC with classified documents in his van at the CIA parking lot when he goes on a trip.
in Russia. This was directly after the fall of the Soviet Union. He gave up the name of the CIA station chief in Moscow and he gave up reports on the CIA’s assessment of the Russia’s military might and that sort of thing. He also gave up the Aldrich Ames debriefings writing out long notes to the Russians. The worst thing he did was giving up the names of the attendees at multiple classes at the CIA’s farm. Some of these people were non-official cover spies, which put their lives at risk. How can you do that? He was an extreme narcissist.
hats. He’s helping Jim Nicholson get up to speed on all this stuff and Maguire also had this other role of befriending and keeping an eye on Jim. Maguire told me he did more espionage during that investigation than in his whole career. This is a fascinating piece of FBI/CIA history. It was one of the rarest cases where the CIA and the FBI reluctantly but effectively made a case against a really bad guy – pre-9/11.
IACSP: He was a station chief overseas but he became a branch counterterrorism chief because he was suspected of espionage, right? But treason with Russia aside, was
Denson: CIA analysts began to notice some peculiarities in the correspondence between Nathan and Jim. Because of Jim’s plea agreements in the 1990s case that
IACSP: How were Jim and Nathan Nicholson finally caught. What brought them down?
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Denson: I think Jim Nicholson could not imagine a scenario in which he would have been outsmarted by the CIA or the FBI. I open the book by stating Jim Nicholson in court thinks he’s the smartest man in the building. But I know there were six people in that room smarter than him. IACSP: Both Jim and Nathan are devout Christians. How does a devout Christian justify treason and espionage? Denson: Jim Nicholson believed God was on his side. That’s the bottom line. That’s extreme narcissisms when you think God is on your side when you committing criminal espionage against your own country. IACSP: Good luck on your book and the coming film and thank you for speaking to us.
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IACSP Reader’s Lounge Gabriel Weimann, Terrorism in Cyberspace: The Next Generation (New York, NY: Columbia University Press/Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2015), 313 pages, US$90.00 [Hardcover], US$30.00 [Paperback]. Reviewed by Dr. Joshua Sinai
I
n the United States, Canada and Western Europe, dozens of al Qaeda, al-Shabaab- and ISIS-related terrorist-related plots have been thwarted by government counterterrorism agencies through electronic surveillance of terrorist operatives’ suspicious activities on the Internet. While their activities were likely also monitored “on the ground,” the fact that terrorists of all extremist ideological and religious types are so reliant on using their computers and smartphones to access the Internet for their communications, command and control, propaganda, and other operations, that cyberspace has become an essential focus for counterterrorism agencies’ own operations to defeat them. 42
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Tracking the suspicious pre-incident activities of potential terrorists in cyberspace is also so crucial, in fact, that in certain cases where terrorists succeeded in carrying out their attacks, such as Major Nidal Hassan’s murderous rampage at Fort Hood and the Tsarnaev brothers’ horrific bombing of the Boston Marathon, sufficient electronic data had existed about their future attack-related online activities, but in both cases counterterrorism agencies had failed to ‘connect the dots’ to appreciate the significance of such early warning evidence in their possession prior to these incidents. Because it is obvious to counterterrorism professionals from intelligence and law enforcement communities that it is crucial to electronically monitor such suspicious activities (with full legal compliance), it has been somewhat surprising to see the recent controversy in the United States Congress over reauthorization of electronic surveillance operations under the Patriot Act [which was passed in a modified form in early June 2015]. For this reason, among others, we are fortunate to have Gabriel Weimann’s Terrorism in Cyberspace: The Next Generation, which is an authoritative account of the ways in which terrorists operate in cyberspace, the components of effective countermeasures, and the issues involved in balancing upgraded security with civil liberties. Dr. Weimann (whom I know and, for full disclosure, also wrote the blurb on the book’s back cover), is Professor of Communications at the University of Haifa, Israel, where he leads a research program that tracks terrorist activities on the Internet. He is also the author of the landmark book on this topic that was published in 2006 Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, The New Challenges (Washington, DC: USIP Press). In his new book, Gabriel Weimann addresses the following questions: how are terrorists exploiting the Internet, what new trends in terrorists’ operations in cyberspace can be expected in the future, how can terrorists’ operations on the Internet be effectively countered and defeated, and how can we balance the need for security while protecting civil liberties and privacy of law abiding citizens. Dr. Weimann explains that terrorist groups — and lone wolves — view the Internet as an ideal arena to exploit for their communications, propaganda, training, fundraising, command and control, intelligence gathering, and mobilizing support for their violent activities because of its ease of access from anywhere around the world, “lack of regulation, vast potential audiences, fast flow of information,” and, most importantly, the anonymity to post “their extremist beliefs and values” and then “disappear into the dark.” (p. 21) Terrorists and their supporters exploit the
mann warns that terrorists are keen to develop a cyber-warfare capability, with the possibility of “money, ideology, religion, and blackmail” being used to recruit such “cybersavvy specialists” in the future.
Internet’s websites, email services, chatrooms, virtual message boards, Google Earth, YouTube and other online video sharing sites, as well as social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Such exploitation, however, is not being conducted openly, as their tech-savvy operatives (many with engineering backgrounds) often use encryption tools and anonymizing software to make it difficult for counterterrorism agencies to identify “the originator, recipient, or content of terrorist online communications.” (p. 23) \Dr. Weimann identifies three new trends in terrorists’ Internet exploitation: narrowcasting (targeting propaganda and recruitment messaging to narrow audiences that are deemed to be especially susceptible, such as children, women, lone wolves, and susceptible individuals in diaspora communities), encouraging the proliferation of lone wolf adherents, such as Major Nidal Hassan, to conduct terrorist operations on their own, and advancing cyberterrorism as an instrument of their warfare. The proliferation of lone wolves is especially worrisome, according to the author, because “they are extremely difficult to detect and to defend against.” (p. 66) Nevertheless, they are also detectable to counterterrorism agencies because they must still “connect, communicate, and share information, know-how, and guidance — all online — on the ‘dark web,’” which exposes such activities for possible detection. (p. 66) Cyberterrorism is the most threatening of the trends, according to Gabriel Weimann, because they would be able to use their “computer network devices to sabotage critical national infrastructures such as energy, transportation, or government operations.” (p. 150) Dr. Wei-
How can terrorist exploitation of cyberspace be countered and defeated? While the Internet and its online platforms, as Dr. Weimann points out, provide terrorists with “anonymity, low barriers to publication, and low costs of publishing and managing content,” (p. 150) at the same time they also provide counterterrorism agencies with the capability to damage and block their websites. Under what Dr. Weimann terms the “MUD” model (monitoring, using, and disrupting), he recommends covertly tracking their activities on the Internet in order to gain information about their strategies, motivations, internal debates and associations, while disrupting them with ‘hard’ power cyber-weapons to spread viruses and worms to damage their websites. These would be accompanied by ‘soft’ power elements that conduct psychological operations to discredit their extremist propaganda and offer constructive alternatives to their adherents and operatives instead of resorting to terrorism. In light of the still continuing controversies over the electronic surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act (as well as similar controversies in other countries around the world), the book’s final chapter, “Challenging Civil Liberties,” is particularly valuable in discussing the challenges presented by the need to preserve civil liberties when monitoring and countering online terrorist activities. To remedy such controversies, Dr. Weimann cites the impact of Edward Snowden’s illicit revelations of the U.S. government’s counter-online surveillance measures and proposes a set of guidelines to regulate governmental online surveillance that will still be sufficiently strong to defeat them. “Terrorism in Cyberspace” is a timely and indispensable resource for all those concerned about effectively countering terrorists’ exploitation of the Internet and the dark elements that reside there. Please note that this is an expanded version of reviews that originally appeared in the June 2015 issue of the quarterly journal Perspectives on Terrorism (www.terrorismanalysts.com) and The Washington Times on June 2, 2015. Reprinted with permission.
About the Reviewer Dr. Joshua Sinai is Director of Analytics & Business Intelligence at CRA (www.crausa.net). He can be reached at: Joshua. sinai@comcast.net.
IACSP Homeland Security Bookshelf
By Dr. Joshua Sinai The following are noteworthy recently published books on various aspects of homeland security. The capsule reviews are arranged alphabetically, by authors’ last names.
Security for Colleges and Universities
Lawrence J. Fennelly and Marianna A. Perry, editors, (Alexandria, VA: ASIS International, 2014), 246 pages, $60.00 [Paperback].
T
he contributors to this practitioner-oriented edited volume examine the security challenges confronting colleges and universities, such as active shooters, bomb threats, crimes (including sexual rape), and fires. The volume is divided into three sections: first, the nature of the threats, conducting threat and risk assessments, and the components in establishing security programs, including hardening soft targets; second, key elements of effective physical security and training programs, including future technological trends in physical security; and, finally, short discussions of 34 topics in higher education campus security such as active shooters,
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Risk Assessment and Security for Pipelines, Tunnels, and Underground Rail and Transit Operations
a crime analysis checklist, mass notification systems, partnerships for crime prevention, such as with local law enforcement, and managing the consequences of weapons of mass destruction-type incidents. The final chapter’s discussion of how to assess “threatening and intimidating” communications by students and others connected to such educational institutions is especially noteworthy, as it is often an important precursor to an actual attack, while at other times the threatening individual may be found to be less inclined to carry out a violent act and can be referred to mental health counseling for remediation.
Anna M. Doro-on, (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2014), 414 pages, $79.96 [Hardcover].
General Aviation Security: Aircraft, Hangars, FixedBased Operations, Flight Schools, and Airports Daniel J. Benny, (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2012), 347 pages, $70.36 [Hardcover].
Supply Chain Security: A Comprehensive Approach Arthur G. Arway, (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2013), 189 pages, $57.56 [Hardcover]. This comprehensive handbook discusses the policies and protocols required to develop and maintain a company’s supply chain security to protect such assets. This includes the capability to rapidly respond to threatening incidents such as theft or attack against nodes in its supply chain. The book’s chapters cover topics such as identifying the components of a supply chain in various industries; the types of threats that impact on supply chain well-being; establishing a security program, including risk management, to oversee the safety of a supply chain, budgeting for security; government and industry regulations governing supply chain security; technology resources, such as global positioning systems, for enhancing supply chain security; and case studies of incidents affecting companies’ supply chains and the nature of their responses to such breaches. The Appendices include templates of checklists for security requirements, procedures, audits and budgets.
With commercial aircraft and airports continuing to pose iconic targets for terrorists to attack, this handbook presents valuable, practitioner-based resources for developing effective security programs against these threats. Following an overview of the threats against different components of general aviation (such as against aircraft, airports, and hangars), the remaining chapters discuss the types of terrorist groups likely to attack the aviation sector; the components of physical security required to deter such threats (such as intrusion detection systems and security cameras); the roles, responsibilities and training of security forces; the nature of emergency response to such attacks; and government regulations for securing the aviation sector. The final chapter provides a listing of reference resources and publications on aviation security. The Appendices include a valuable sample general aviation airport security plan.
With gas and oil pipelines, tunnels and rail transit systems subject to continuous terrorist attacks (and other types of disasters) around the world, this comprehensive and detailed handbook presents a quantitative risk assessment methodology to enable security planners to protect these critical infrastructure nodes from such threats. The risk assessment methodology is based on what the author terms “cumulative prospect theory,” which is a quantitative psychology assessment process to measure the engineering, environmental, and economic impacts of both direct and collateral damage from such attacks. The book’s chapters cover topics such as the types of threats in the form of hazards, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction likely to target such facilities; how to conduct quantitative threat, risk, and vulnerability assessments to measure and prioritize the likelihood of such threats and their potential impacts; and the defensive measures that need to be implemented to harden these targets and safeguard them from such threats. The handbook includes numerous tables and figures that illustrate and operationalize the author’s methodologies for enhancing the security of these vital critical infrastructure nodes.
Risk Analysis and Security Countermeasures Selection Thomas L. Norman, (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2009), 422 pages, $61.56 [Hardcover]. With the strong need by security professionals for tools to assess, measure and
prioritize the risks and vulnerabilities their facilities and personnel face from a spectrum of threats, this comprehensive handbook presents the types of practitioner-based qualitative and quantitative methodologies that will enable them to conduct such assessments and prioritize the resources needed to effectively respond to such threats. The chapters, which are clearly written, cover topics such as an overview of risk analysis methods; the skills required to conduct such assessments; characterizing and identifying one’s critical assets; assessing the criticality of one’s assets and the consequences of attacking them; conducting threat and vulnerability analyses; estimating the probability of different categories of threats, such as terrorism and criminality; how to prioritize risk; the components required to develop effective security countermeasures, including prioritizing the selection and effectiveness of such countermeasures; and the elements required to write effective reports.
Understanding Terrorism Innovation and Learning: AlQaeda and Beyond Magnus Ranstorp and Magnus Normark, (Eds.), (New York, NY: Routledge, 2015), 298 pp., $ 145.00 [Hardcover]. [Please note that Routledge and CRC Press are both imprints of Taylor & Francis Group.] Following an introductory survey of the subject of terrorism innovation and learning tradecraft as it is applied to the case of al Qaida and its affiliates (a theme running throughout the volume), the book’s chapters discuss topics such as the theoretical underpinnings of terrorist innovation decisions (by Gary Ackerman), innovation in terrorists’ manufacture of IEDs (by John Allison), trends in terrorists’ weaponry and targeting (by Adam Dolnik), innovation in al Qaida’s ideology of attacking the West (by Soren Hove), Jihadists’ innovation in utilizing cyberspace’s new social media (Nico Prucha), innovation in jihadists’ training (by Paul Cruickshank), and, by this column’s reviewer, innovation in terrorists’ counter-surveillance tradecraft. The remaining chapters provide case studies of innovation and learning in the British Jihadi scene (by Rafaello Pantucci), Denmark (by Morten Skjoldager), and Germany (by Yassin Musharabash and Guido Steinberg). The editors’ concluding chapter discusses the volume’s general findings. Dr. Ranstorp is Research Director at the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies (CATS) at Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International
the Swedish National Defence College, Stockholm, and Dr. Normark is a Senior Analyst at the Division of CBRN Defence and Security at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI).
Aviation and Airport Security: Terrorism and Safety Concerns Kathleen M. Sweet, [Second Edition] (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2008), 384 pages, $77.56 [Hardcover]. This handbook on the terrorist threat against commercial airlines and airports presents a comprehensive overview of all the issues involved in protecting this critical infrastructure sector. The volume’s chapters cover topics such as the importance of air transportation; the evolution of terrorist threats against this sector, such as aircraft hijackings; the use of aircraft as missiles (such as in 9/11); international conventions against attacking civilian aircraft; defensive measures against such threats in the forms of passenger screening, metal detectors, and ‘no-fly’ lists; the use of private and government security personnel; the significance of ensuring cargo security; the importance of instituting proper risk management practices; and safeguarding all aspects of an airport, including perimeter and other access areas. Although some of the book’s material is outdated, its overall framework is still relevant for understanding current security concerns.
Application of Big Data for National Security: A Practitioner’s Guide to Emerging Technologies Babak Akhgar, Gregory B. Saathoff, Hamid R. Arabnia, Richard Hill, Andrew Staniforth, and Petra Saskia Bayerl, editors, (Boston, MA: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann, 2015), 316 pages, $69.95 [Paperback]. The contributors to this textbook discuss the latest trends in the concepts, methods, and technologies involved in what are termed “big data” and “high performance” analytics that are employed by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to counter, detect and, ultimately, to defeat terrorism and crime. The volume is divided into five sections: an overview of big data (in the form of structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data and the technologies that are used to visualize it to uncover evidence); how these computational technologies are employed to counter Vol. 21, No.3
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terrorism, active shooters, criminals, as well as protecting critical infrastructure); the types of technologies and computational tools that are employed, such as data mining and Bayesian networks; and the legal and social challenges in applying big data in law enforcement, including the need to balance security, privacy, and civil liberties. Law enforcement and intelligence practitioners will especially be interested in the case studies on how big data and high performance analytics have been used to uncover terrorist plots, such as the 2004 Operation CREVICE in the UK, as well as monitoring the activities of potential active shooters during their pre-incident phases via their social media postings.
Corporate Security Management: Challenges, Risks, and Strategies Marko Cabric, (Boston, MA: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann, 2015), 242 pages, $50.96 [Paperback]. This is a comprehensive and detailed reference resource for security managers in various industries. The book’s chapters cover topics such as the basic principles of security; a security department’s key corporate partners; the nature of the private security industry and its role in protecting its clients; the duties of security managers and their teams; incorporating intelligence into security; how to protect companies, including their facilities, people, and supply chains, against the spectrum of threats facing them; and training the general workforce in security awareness. Sprinkled throughout the volume are highly useful templates for conducting threat, risk, and vulnerability assessments, incident investigations, and the steps required in planning for various types of disasters that might threaten a company, including planning the evacuation of employees to safe areas. Also valuable is the chapter on protecting a company’s proprietary information, whether “electronic, hardcopy, or spoken” and how to conduct investigations when such breaches occur.
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The Handbook for School Data Mining and Safety and Security: Best Predictive Analysis: Practices and Procedures Intelligence Gathering Lawrence J. Fennelly and Marianna and Crime Analysis A. Perry, editors, (Boston, MA:
Colleen McCue, [Second Edition]
Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann,
(Boston, MA: Elsevier/Butterworth-
2014), 420 pages, $59.95
Heinemann, 2015), 422 pages,
[Paperback].
$67.96 [Paperback].
The contributors to this comprehensive handbook provide a wealth of practical information and procedures for school staffs and administrators to secure K-12 schools against a spectrum of threats, such as active shooters, bullying (including cyber bullying), crimes, vandalism, and hazards (such as dangerous spills from classroom labs). The chapters cover topics such as the types of threats and hazards confronting educational institutions; how to conduct Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) security surveys and assessments; prevention and mitigation methods, including general intruder response guidelines; mass notification requirements in the event of an emergency; procedures for hiring private security services, including liability issues; templates for establishing access control, intrusion detection systems, security lighting, video surveillance technologies, and fire alarms; and the importance of partnering with local first responders and law enforcement agencies. The final chapter presents a listing of “100 Things You Need to Know About School Security.” Note: This book differs from the editors’ASIS International volume, reviewed earlier. It has different contributors (although it retains some from the earlier volume) and its chapters are substantially lengthier.
Predicting the likelihood of future terrorist attacks, their frequency, the types of weapons used, targeting locations, and timing of incidents is one of the greatest challenges in counterterrorism analysis. This textbook presents a comprehensive overview of the field of predictive analysis as it is primarily applied to crime analysis, where it is an established law enforcement intelligence practice with great success over the years in identifying crucial trends and patterns that have contributed to apprehending criminals with greater efficiency. With criminal and terrorist activities at times overlapping, such predictive tools and methods have great utility for counterterrorism, as well. This textbook is divided into five sections: an introductory overview of basic statistics and data mining; methodologies to conduct predictive analysis, such as the intelligence cycle, sampling, and selecting appropriate algorithms for modeling criminal activities; applying such methodologies to predicting various types of crimes, including conducting risk and threat assessments of crime patterns; examples of how such methodologies are used in surveillance detection of criminals and their activities; and future trends in predictive analysis, such as its use in generating geospatial patterns of crime incidents and in monitoring the suspicious activities of criminals in the Internet’s social media websites. As a textbook, it is supplemented by an instructor’s manual and other online resources. The author is a veteran law enforcement intelligence practitioner who has worked at the Richmond, VA, Police Department as well as consulting firms in Northern Virginia.
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Business Continuity From Preparedness To Recovery Eugene Tucker, (Boston, MA: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann, 2015), 324 pages, $63.71 [Paperback].
Keeping Religious Institutions Secure Jennie-Leigh McLamb, (Boston, MA: Elsevier/ButterworthHeinemann, 2015), 210 pages, $29.71, [Paperback]. With religious institutions under increasing threat by terrorists and active shooters, this volume provides highly useful information on security principles and best practices for protecting such soft targets against such threats. The chapters cover topics such as an
This is a comprehensive and detailed practitioner-based handbook on planning and managing business continuity for organizations and companies from emergency planning to address potential disasters to recovery from such crises. The volume’s chapters cover topics such as defining business continuity; the history of major crises that have required business continuity planning in place such as the Y2K Millennium Bug and al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks; understanding the government and industry standards and regulations that govern the implementation of business continuity practices and capabilities; conducting a business impact analysis (BIA), including risk assessment; and testing and exercising a business continuity plan, including ensuring for continuous management review and auditing of these plans. The handbook includes valuable templates, documents, and exercise samples for conducting business continuity planning.
Emergency Preparedness for Business Professionals: How to Mitigate and Respond to Attacks Against Your Organization overview of violent threats against religious institutions; understanding components of security such as the disaster/crisis/and incident management cycle; conducting risk assessments; tailoring countermeasures to protect such facilities and persons; implementing and managing physical and electronic security programs; identifying and managing individuals who may be ‘at risk’ for carrying out a violent attack; responding to active shooter events; managing crisis communications and media relations; and establishing security partnerships with local law enforcement authorities.
Bradley A. Wayland, (Boston, MA: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann, 2015), 264 pages, $50.96 [Paperback]. A comprehensive practitioner-oriented handbook on developing and implementing a comprehensive emergency response program to prepare for, and thereby mitigate, possible attacks against one’s organization or company. The volume’s chapters cover topics such as the components of risk assessment and emergency response planning, including applying
a risk assessment matrix for these purposes; the types of emergency incidents likely to threaten an organization or company, such as terrorism, active shooters, workplace violence, and natural disasters; the components involved in establishing an emergency preparedness program, ranging from security and recovery awareness training and exercises for establishing a command and control/crisis management leadership team; establishing response and recovery mechanisms and checklists; case studies of effective and ineffective emergency responses to previous disasters; and legislation governing the need for organizations to implement emergency response programs.
About the Reviewer Dr. Joshua Sinai is Director of Analytics & Business Intelligence at CRA (www.cra-usa.net), in Vienna, VA. He can be reached at Joshua. sinai@comcast.net.
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