The Counter Terrorist Magazine - April/May 2014

K AN S A S BOM B ER • G R E EN O N B L U E IN A FGH A NISTA N • BA C RIM • IN TERNET S E CUR I T Y

Journal for Law Enforcement, Intelligence & Special Operations Professionals

Counter The

APRIL/MAY 2014

VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 2

SAUDI INFLUENCE OPERATIONS IN AMERICA

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Counter

The Journal for Law Enforcement, Intelligence & Special Operations Professionals APRIL/MAY 2014

VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 2

COVER STORY:

30

CONTENTS

30

YOU ARE DRIVEN TO

LEAD

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46

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SAUDI INFLUENCE OPERATIONS IN AMERICA

By Dean T. Olson

FEATURES:

08

Firsthand: GREEN ON BLUE IN AFGHANISTAN

By Francis Marion

18

Case Study: KANSAS BOMBING DISRUPTED BY STING

By Richard Marquise

46

BACRIM: COLOMBIAN BANDAS CRIMINALES EMERGENTES

By John P. Sullivan

56

INTERNET SECURITY FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENTS

By Michael Gordon

DEPARTMENTS: 06

From the Editor

44

Book Review

“An Explanatory Memorandum” from the Archives of the Muslim Brotherhood in America

69

Innovative Products

72

Training Review

Nobel for Bangash

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 5

Counter The

FROM THE EDITOR:

Nobel for Bangash

By Chris Graham

N

VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 2 APRIL/MAY 2014

inth grader Aitazaz Hassan Bangash was on his way to school in Pakistan on a Monday morning when someone dressed in a school uniform asked him where the school was. A witness said, “Aitazaz became suspicious… The other students backed off, but Aitazaz challenged the [person] and tried to catch him. During the scuffle, the bomber panicked and detonated his bomb.” Aitazaz and the bomber died at the scene. Witnesses say the blast injured two other people. Aitazaz may have saved the lives of hundreds of students who were in morning assembly.1 Aitazaz’s alertness, initiative and selflessness are to be commended. Who has given more to protect others? I nominate Aitazaz Hassan Bangash for the Nobel Peace Prize. The guidelines of the Nobel organization may need to be adapted to make a posthumous award possible, but Bangash’s family could, no doubt, make use of the $1 million (+) award. Naming this 14-year-old would both provide inspiration to children around the world and enhance the reputation of the Nobel committee, which has embarrassed itself with previous awards to communists, terrorists, and disgraced UN officials. If you agree that Aitazaz Hassan Bangash would make a good Nobel candidate, let the committee know at postmaster@nobel.no.

Semper Fidelis,

Chris Graham Editor, The Counter Terrorist www.30-10pistol.com

Zahir Shah Sherazi and Saima Mohsin. “Teen Dies Stopping Suicide Bomber at School in Pakistan.” CNN January 9, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/world/ asia/pakistan-boy-stops-suicide-bomber/ accessed February 28, 2014.

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Journal for Law Enforcement, Intelligence & Special Operations Professionals

Editor Chris Graham Director of Operations Sol Bradman Director of Advertizing Carmen Arnaes Production Assistants Giselle Manassa Melissa Berne Contributing Editors Kevin Freeman Jennifer Hesterman Richard Marquise Tom Nypaver Dean Olson Steve Young Graphic Design Morrison Creative Company Copy Editor Laura Town

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Firsthand:

GREEN ON BLUE IN AFGHANISTAN I write this article understanding that the human mind not only has a unique way of healing, but also of erasing some critical details of dynamic and traumatic experiences. I have done my best to recall this incident accurately.

By Francis Marion

M

y purpose is to honor my teammates and provide information that other Americans, particularly senior military command staff, might learn from. This will hopefully serve to provide insight for those who continue to develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) for keeping our U.S. Special Operations Force (USSOF) personnel who conduct village

stability operations (VSOs) safe.

Shortly after midnight, gunshots rang out. For the team members not in the command post, these shots sounded a great deal closer than normal, but our Afghan Local Police (ALP) did shoot at suspected Taliban attempting to cross into our area from time to time. We had become accustomed to RPGs and machine gun fire between midnight and 3 AM.

An Afghan Soldier with the Afghan National Army, 6th Kandak, test fires his rifle, outside of an Afghan Border Police compound, in the Nazyan district, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, March 10, 2012.

Photo by: Spc. Amber Leach 8 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 9

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Afghan police officers enter a house while conducting a patrol in Kolagu, Paktia province, Afghanistan, March 9, 2012, during Operation Khoti Kheyl. Photo by: Spc. Phillip McTaggart

We later determined that the shooter was dressed in a variant of an Afghan National Police (ANP) uniform, carrying an AK-47 with an extended magazine and a chest rig containing extra magazines.

He nervously walked into our command post and was immediately led back outside by one of the men who wondered how the individual was walking around alone and armed during the middle of the night in our compound.

In addition to our team, we had a United Arab Emirates Special Forces (UAESF) team and an Afghan National

10 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

Army Special Forces (ANASF) team living in our village stability post (VSP).

The UAESF rarely wore uniforms. They were prohibited from going on missions, but we believed that NATO wanted to be able to say that an Islamic nation joined the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). They served no operational purpose. Their selection for Special Forces was conducted by selecting members of a particular bloodline or socioeconomic status. They were out of shape and generally smoked hookah 24 hours a day.

The ANASF, by contrast, were armed

and clothed in their uniforms almost constantly. Since they smoked hashish by night, they helped to secure our compound by standing security posts during the day. A sister team had an ANASF man climb into one of their guard towers with an RPG and fire rockets into the area where the team slept screaming “Allah Akbar.” Our team rotated operators on and off post throughout the night, alongside an American infantry squad, in order to maintain security.

As soon as our infiltrator was led

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As soon as our infiltrator was led outside the command post, he turned his weapon and fired, killing the man who accompanied him before he could draw his pistol in defense.

outside the command post, he turned his weapon and fired, killing the man who accompanied him before he could draw his pistol in defense. Our remaining personnel inside heard the shots and reacted immediately. As the shooter reentered the command post (now knowing the exact positions of the remaining men) he shot through the walls while receiving return fire from another man’s pistol. As two men attempted to escape through the side door and flank the shooter, one of them was shot in the arm as rounds came ripping through the wall. As the shooter pushed farther into the command post, attempting to kill those who fled, the door swung open from an adjacent room where our Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technician (already wounded) immediately engaged the shooter at less than five meters with his M4. The shooter killed him instantly, but our EOD technician halted the attack on the men who escaped out the side door.

Aside from those in the immediate

12 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

vicinity of the command post, no one completely understood what had just happened. All that was known was that approximately 45 rounds had just been fired very close by. One of the men who escaped applied a makeshift tourniquet to his teammate’s arm, and once the bleeding was stopped he singlehandedly cleared his way to our hooches, knocking on every door to alert the remainder of the team that a lone shooter was loose in the compound. He described what the shooter was wearing, what he was armed with, his last known location, and that our team had suffered three Americans killed and one shot in the arm. Because of the warning we received, we were able to collectively respond without sustaining further casualties.

Armed with a mix of small arms and limited night vision equipment, the remainder of our team systematically cleared the immediate area and maneuvered to the command post. The American infantry attachment helped to secure our perimeter while we worked inside to organize a response.

Our Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) discovered the radio dedicated to controlling air assets had been shot.

Team members worked to swap out the communications equipment and send the “troops in contact� report and MEDEVAC request quickly via satellite.

A MEDEVAC flight arrived and transported the casualties. The escorts remained behind to help us track down the shooter. Our JTAC worked the pair of attack helicopters to scout all of the likely egress routes, while an AC-130 was tasked to look inside our compound for any lone armed individuals.

We soon received a report that the shooter was not working alone. He had a small group of insurgents outside our compound walls who helped him escape the area. The report indicated that the

group used a close-by mosque as a rally point to drop their weapons, change their clothes, and begin their escape. Their final destination was predictably Pakistan.

Our air assets found a group of five individuals who fit the profile attempting to move along a route that we had long known to be used by the Taliban. The gunship could not confirm if any of the five had weapons, so our hands were administratively tied. Aircraft watched the men as they used a barge to cross the river. Five motorbikes were staged in advance, facing westward in preparation for the individuals’ escape. Based on known insurgent tactics and techniques, coupled with the reporting we were receiving, we were able to establish positive identification. The Taliban knew our rules of engagement and routinely exploited them. Hiding in local mosques and compounds was a favorite technique.

Our close air support asset was running low on gas and engaged four of the men.

We later received confirmation that we had indeed killed four Taliban who aided the attack. We also confirmed that the shooter was still alive. It was now obvious that the fifth man had been the shooter.

We begrudgingly let him live because of our rules of engagement.

We later learned that this man made his way to Pakistan, where he was welcomed as a hero of the Taliban. A propaganda video was made of the man being promoted and rewarded.

Eventually, we were told that he was killed by U.S. forces.

It is no secret that the people of Afghanistan are the center of gravity in an Afghan counter-insurgency (CoIN) fight.

The VSO approach attempts to project stability in insurgent-controlled areas by focusing on the center of gravity: the population. We lived inside the village.

The question is, how can we show the Afghan population that the system of

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U.S. Marines conduct a patrol with Afghan National Police. Photo by: Sgt. Earnest J. Barnes

The question is, how can we show the Afghan population that the system of government we intend to establish will provide a greater degree of stability and prosperity than that of the Taliban?

government we intend to establish will provide a greater degree of stability and prosperity than that of the Taliban?

Our team conducted this mission with enthusiasm and professionalism, often forgoing our own personal safety and security in the name of mission accomplishment. After all, we understood the increased risk, accepted it, and acknowledged that in order for us to be effective, we would have to remove as many degrees of separation as possible between us and the individuals we sought

to influence. This is the precise reason the Taliban makes executing these “green on blue” attacks a priority. We believed that our efforts were collectively the key to success in Afghanistan. A visiting senior officer said that we were a model VSP for the entire country. Everyone wanted to know what it was we were doing that was so unique: how, despite our losses, we continued to make progress.

We had many vulnerabilities. We hosted many shuras in our compound and began an attempt at an expansion of

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 15

Village elders listen to Haji Mohammad Wazir, the governor of Nawbahar district, during a shura, or meeting, at the Afghan National Police compound in the district in Zabul province, Afghanistan, March 7, 2012. Photo by: David Brandenburg

16 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

our influence into the surrounding areas.

Our “outdoor shura room” was located in the middle of our compound. In order to access it, locals would enter into our compound through our main gate and would be escorted down the thoroughfare past the command post, gym, dining hall, recreation tent, and a majority of the berthing areas. The command post was easily distinguishable by the array of antennae and constant foot traffic. At the time of the attack there were no locks on any of the doors to prevent entry.

We thought there were enough armed personnel constantly present to prevent unwanted entry. We hired villagers to support construction projects inside our compound in an effort to provide jobs.

Our concerns as a team were voiced and dismissed as paranoia.

Our main door was secured only by a small cypher lock. During the day, the foot traffic in and out of that door was immeasurable. Although we changed the code on that door regularly, the village children played a game attempting to learn the code being entered. We had numerous suicide bomb threats and other various threats of attack. Numerous times we witnessed support personnel and attachments failing to properly shield the lock when the code was being entered. As a result, we would have to immediately change the code out of fear that one of the ever-present children or elders saw it as well.

Perhaps our gravest error was knocking a hole in our compound wall leading directly to the Afghan National Police (ANP) station, which was adjacent to the portion of our compound where the team slept. The walls were approximately fifteen feet tall and one and one-half feet thick, made of straw and dried mud.

In that hole, we attempted to build a doorway with a light metal frame, a thin metal door, and a makeshift lock, all

cured by mud packed around the frame and left for the sun to dry and harden.

Many members of the team were not comfortable with the decision to place this doorway in our compound wall.

Again, our concerns were voiced and dismissed. We suspect this is how the shooter gained entry.

Our compound’s security lighting plan was virtually nonexistent. There was no physical compartmentalization on the inside of our compound walls. We realized the high potential for an insider threat in advance and could have made it difficult for an intruder to navigate the interior successfully. There were no individually coded doorways to get from one end of the compound to another.

This was thought to be an advantage if we ever had to fight from our walls to repel an assault. We would have had clearcut channels to provide weapons and ammunition resupply to the posts along the perimeter.

Another key point to consider is that the entire concept of VSO hinges on the ability to screen and vet the candidates from the partner nation paramilitary forces we are tasked with building and training. Widely known incidents suggest there is no reliable criminal data base in Afghanistan. ISAF has little idea who we are giving weapons to. The regulations we have to follow in order to establish a history of enemy involvement, from which we can positively identify individuals as insurgents, mirror those of a state-side law enforcement agency, but counterinsurgency is not synonymous with police action.

We were professionals who obeyed orders and achieved success no matter the hand we were dealt. Why are teams tasked with what appears to be a VSO experiment without real input from those who have lived alongside Afghans?

Those who understand what Afghans

value, those who live according to Afghan customs and courtesies and even speak the languages, should drive planning. We could have saved everyone a lot of time by simply telling the policy makers that Afghans want money, roads, vehicles, food, and to be left alone.

Are we too politically correct to understand that no matter what we do, we are still considered to be unbelievers and at the end of the day, we will be used as a temporary means to an end?

The villagers knew we would eventually leave and that all the money and effort we put into their village would result in short-lived benefit. The Taliban is playing the long-game. President Karzai makes it publically known that he does not support our efforts. He professes that we are simply an occupation force. The villagers were grateful to be temporarily liberated from the Taliban, but

understood they had to choose their sides wisely. In a few short years, the Taliban would be back with a vengeance and would most likely cut the heads off of all of those who betrayed their faith during their absence.

Some time after this green on blue attack, our VSP was demilitarized.

The territory we fought to hold and stabilize is now under Taliban control.

American assistance is finite. The Taliban know this, and as a result will only fight us seasonally. During the winter months, they pack up and go back to Pakistan, leaving behind a skeleton crew to continue harassment operations in support of their plan to lengthen the fight and outlast our presence.

Our temporary success came with a great cost to our team. We were successful only because of the individuals on the ground who forced the concept to work.

We had to break nearly every common sense security SOP we had collectively learned as a team since day one in order to conduct this mission.

While many are grateful for a temporary respite from the Taliban, Afghans have to choose sides, knowing that one side is leaving. The people of Afghanistan have significantly different values from Westerners. We overestimate the idea that a system of government based on Western Judeo-Christian principles (whether an individual considers himself Christian or not) may be a very realistic fit for the historically unmalleable Muslim people of what we call Afghanistan.

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Marion (pseudonym) is a veteran of the Afghanistan war. He is a former noncommissioned officer of the U.S. military.

TM

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Case Study:

KANSAS BOMBING DISRUPTED BY STING

By Richard Marquise

Most of the terrorist attacks that were committed in 2013 within the United States appear to have been committed by domestic terrorists—those having little or no foreign influence.

Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. Photo by: 8thcountry

D

uring 2013 there were 34 terrorist attacks that took place in the United States. Twenty of which were committed by individuals affiliated with the Animal Rights Movement.1 Only one successful attack appears to have been influenced

18 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

by international events: the Boston Marathon attack. Few of these attacks received much notice.

However, arrests were made in at least 25 cases in which a “terrorism” charge was lodged. Of those cases, 21 appear to have been connected to international

terrorists. Many of the arrests dealt with individuals who were charged with providing material support to terrorists abroad. These include at least four arrests that involved individuals who wanted to provide support for the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria.

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 19

Osama bin Laden.

Photo by: Hamid Mir

Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen October 2008.

Photo by: Greg A L

“I have been studying subjects like jihad, martyrdom operations and shariah law… I… understand that jihad and the implementation of shariah law is absolutely demanded of all the Muslim Ummah [community].”

20 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

While many of these arrests may not have directly prevented attacks in the United States, a December arrest in the heartland stopped a plot which, if successful, could have been as devastating as the bombing in Oklahoma City.

During 2013, 58 year old Terry Lee Loewen, an employee at the MidContinent Airport in Wichita, Kansas, began engaging in online discussions with someone he appears to have thought held beliefs similar to his own. By August, his conversations had begun to turn to violence. He stated in one conversation, “I have been studying subjects like jihad, martyrdom operations and shariah law…. I… understand that jihad and

the implementation of shariah law is absolutely demanded of all the Muslim Ummah [community].” Days later, an undercover FBI employee (UCE) offered to introduce him to someone who could help him engage in “violent” jihad.2 In later communications he wrote that he had great admiration for Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki (the New Mexico-born Islamist who inspired a number of individuals around the globe who have committed or attempted to commit significant terrorist attacks, including Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day underwear bomber). Loewen said he had read al-Awlaki’s essay entitled “44 Ways to Support Jihad.” In one email, Loewen noted that he had “numerous ideas of ways I could perform jihad in the path of Allah but outside [prayer], none of them are legal.”3 In late August, he offered to take the UCE on a tour of the Wichita MidContinent Airport. He went on to say that he had become “radicalized in the strongest sense of the word… but direct jihad against a civilian target is not out of the question. …Point being, is my having access to airport property the primary reason for the tour- if the answer is ‘no’ then I will not bring it up again.”

He described his access at the airport in emails and referred to himself as the “access guy.”4 In early September, Loewen wrote, “I believe the potential for me to do more is staggering… but I know nothing about explosives. Don’t you think with my access to the airport that I should be put to good use?” By early September, Loewen wrote that he had decided to only contribute money to “needy Muslims,” but said that if not for his family “I would have already carried out some sort of operation.”5

By early October, Loewen again expressed interest in carrying out an operation. He did express concern that he was “being set up.” On October 7, Loewen sent the UCE photographs of his airport access badge as well as pictures of the entrance gates to the tarmac and the devices used to access the gates.

Loewen said he assumed there were no surveillance cameras at the gates. He did state in one email that he was going to be unable to get “gate access” until early in 2014. However, by mid-October he wrote, “Inshallah [God willing], this operation will be huge. Just to be a part of any operation with these brothers is a great honor for me, but of [sic] it can instill and [sic] great financial loss to the tagoot [those who worship other than Allah] who run this country, then I will feel truly blessed.”6 While he was communicating with the first UCE, Loewen was under the impression he was dealing with a member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In late October, the first UCE introduced Loewen to a second UCE (UCE 2). UCE 2 had a personal meeting with Loewen and led Loewen to believe that he was a member of AQAP. On November 8, Loewen indicated to UCE 2 that he was interested in becoming a martyr. During this meeting, Loewen discussed taking a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device to the terminal, which would be near a number of planes. He suggested a second individual (possibly UCE 2) could wear a suicide vest to coincide with the explosion outside.7 On November 19, Loewen again met with UCE 2 and expressed his desire to martyr himself. He said he wanted to kill as many people as possible and provided a diagram of the terminal and tarmac, including distances between the gate areas. Loewen agreed to purchase an item

that would be needed for the explosive device. He said he would obtain all of the necessary components for the device and would wire the explosive himself, as that was something he did as a part of his job. They agreed on a final plan and once Loewen received final gate access, “they would drive to the terminal in the early

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 21

morning hours and detonate the device between the terminals for maximum casualties, and both [UCE 2] and Loewen would die in the process.”8 In early December, Loewen obtained containers in which the explosives would be housed. He also provided UCE 2 another diagram marked with an “X” to indicate where the vehicle should be parked to cause the most damage.

Loewen also provided time schedules and indicated that early morning would be the best time for the attack. On December 6, Loewen renewed his access

badge and three days later used it to verify he would have gate access to the tarmac.

On December 11, Loewen and UCE 2 assembled the bomb and agreed that Friday, December 13 would be the day they would carry out the attack. Loewen did not go to work that day (December 11), but spent the time writing notes to his family.9 On December 13 at 4:45 am, UCE 2 picked Loewen up at a local hotel and drove to the area where the bomb was stored. Loewen finished wiring it to make it operational (the explosive materials

provided by the FBI were inert), and at 5:19 am, the pair drove to the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. They arrived at the gate around 5:40 am, and Loewen exited the vehicle and twice attempted to use his badge to enter the gate. He was then arrested.10 Among the items Loewen left behind was a letter for a family member. It read in part, “By the time you read this I will- if everything went as planned have been martyred in the path of Allah. There would have been an event at the airport which I am responsible for. The operation was timed to cause maximum carnage + death. …My only explanation is that I believe in jihad for the sake of Allah + for the sake of my Muslim brothers + sisters. …Fact is, most Muslims in this country will condemn what I have done. …I expect to be called a terrorist (which I am), a psychopath and a homicidal maniac…”11

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DISCLAIMER: This project was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number 2008-GD-T8-K015 administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/FEMA, Training and Exercises Integration Secretariat. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 23

Masjid al-Ikhlas, Newburgh, NY, USA, where the 2009 New York City bomb plot was hatched. Photo by: Daniel Case On December 18, 2013, Loewen was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Wichita, Kansas, on three counts of Attempting to Use a Weapon of Mass Destruction, Attempted Use of an Explosive Device, and Attempted Material Support for a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (AQAP).

24 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

If convicted, Loewen faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, not less than five years and not more than 20 years on the charge of attempting to use an explosive to damage property, and a maximum penalty of 15 years on the charge of attempting to

provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.12 Loewen, who was also known as Terry Lane, was described by neighbors as someone who “pretty much kept to [himself ].” The neighbors said that he and his wife were private people. The local media reported he was an avionics

technician for Hawker Beechcraft Services and a long-time member of the Wichita community. He had only one known criminal charge and that was for carrying a concealed weapon at the Wichita airport in 2009.13 Loewen’s case is neither the first, nor will it be the last, incident of an

American-born citizen, having no connection to the Middle East or any terrorist group, planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the United States.

If Loewen had been successful, the attack at the Wichita Airport may well have been devastating. Many believe that terrorists only target larger cities or special events. The Boston Marathon attacks targeted an internationally known event, and the two brothers who were involved were alleged to have told a man they had kidnapped that they planned to go to New York to carry out additional attacks, possibly at Times Square.

However, dating back to 2009, significant terrorist plots were disrupted in cities of all sizes and locations. These include Riverside/Newburgh, NY (James Cromitie et al.), Charlotte, NC (Daniel Boyd et al.), Denver, CO/New York, NY (Najibullah Zazi et al.), Springfield, IL (Michael Finton), Dallas, TX (Hosam Smadi), Washington, DC (Farooque Ahmed), Catonsville, MD (Antonio Martinez), Seattle, WA (Frederick Dominique and Joseph Davis) and Killeen, TX (Jason Abdo).

The media has described the Wichita case as a “sting.” One Kansas defense attorney said, “If the fragile mental state of an otherwise upstanding individual is exploited to commit a crime that the individual otherwise would not have taken steps to commit, how does that make us safe and why spend taxpayer money on prosecution?”14 A study done by researchers at Fordham University in 2011 reported that in the ten years after 9/11 the entrapment defense was used in about ten terrorism cases, and all were unsuccessful.

The author of the study indicated she was not in favor of sting operations.15 It is difficult to argue with success.

Many of the cases cited above utilized “sting” operations and had successful

Naiz Khan, target of an FBI terror investigation­. Photo by: Thomas Good

Photo released by the U.S. Army of Pfc. Jason Abdo.

Photo: U.S. Army

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 25

MACTAC MULTIPLE-ASSAULT COUNTER TERRORISM ACTION CAPABILITY

Any investigation— especially an investigation that is potentially as sensitive as a counterterrorism investigation— needs to be closely supervised.

outcomes. How should the U.S. government protect citizens? If one of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh’s conspirators had informed the government about his plot and government agents then arrested him as he acquired his materials and planned his attack, what would have been the end result? One can only guess, but Oklahoma City might only be known as a great place to live and not a city where one of the most significant terrorist attacks in history took place.

In the Loewen case, government agents, in conjunction with prosecutors, likely reviewed each of the emails and recorded conversations to ensure that Loewen was only doing what he was predisposed to do. Yes, a government agent made his plot easier to advance, but if Loewen had found someone who was not a

government agent and this person was equally as disposed to carry out a criminal act, would we be talking about Wichita like we now speak of Oklahoma City?

Law enforcement officers need to continue to be alert to terrorist indicators and share information with the Joint Terrorist Task Forces and state Fusion Centers. Any investigation— especially an investigation that is potentially as sensitive as a counterterrorism investigation—needs to be closely supervised. Investigations must be monitored not only by the law enforcement agents involved, but by agency leadership as well as prosecutors, to ensure that a suspect is not made to do something they would not have done on their own.

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 27

international terrorists. The numbers bear that out. The fact that there were 25 prevented plots during 2013 suggests that our law enforcement agencies are doing their jobs. Agencies are sharing information and they have demonstrated the tenacity to conduct long-term undercover operations to arrest individuals who want to use violence to further their agendas.

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Marquise is the Director of the Department of Justice’s, Bureau of JusticeAssistance State and Local Antiterrorism Training (SLATT) program. He is a retired FBI senior executive who led the investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and is the author of Scotbom: Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation.

Timothy McVeigh about to be led out of a Perry, Oklahoma courthouse two days after the Oklahoma City bombing. Photo by: Olaf Growald

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ENDNOTES “Slatt.org.” Institute for Intergovernmental Research: State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) Program, January 6, 2014. Available at: https://www.slatt.org/.

2 “United States of America v. Terry L. Loewen.” (Criminal Complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, Wichita Docket, December 13, 2013).

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 “Press release of the U.S. Attorney.”

(Western District of Kansas, December 18, 2013).

13 Bill Wilson. “Neighbors Describe Terrorism Suspect Terry Lee Loewen.”

The Wichita Eagle.com, December 13, 2013. Available at: http://www.kansas. com/2013/12/13/3177345/neighborsdescribe-terrorism-suspect.html. Retrieved January 6, 2014.

14 Associated Press. “Terry Lee Loewen Case: Stings Used to Fight Domestic Terrorism.” The Epoch Times, December 16, 2013. Available at: http://www. theepochtimes.com/n3/402614-terry-leeloewen-case-stings-used-to-fight-domesticterrorism/. Retrieved January 18, 2014.

15 Karen Greenberg. “How Terrorist ‘Entrapment’ Ensnares Us All.” The Guardian, December 12, 2011. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/dec/12/ how-terrorist-entrapment-ensares-us-all.

Retrieved January 6, 2014.

1

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 29

SAUDI INFLUENCE

OPERATIONS IN

AMERICA

By Dean T. Olson

30 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

Decades ago, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began to use its phenomenal oil wealth to fund the spread of a puritanical version of Islam known as Wahhabism in Western countries, including the United States.

T

he Wahhabi variant of Islam has been the dominant faith of Saudi Arabia for more than two centuries. In the 30 years following the OPEC Oil Crisis of 1973, Saudis spent more than $87 billion to spread Wahhabism worldwide.1 An austere form of Islam embraced

by Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and some Muslim Brotherhood factions, Wahhabism demands a literal interpretation of the Quran. It

is a militant strain of Islam known best for the hate-fueled vision that inspired the 19 suicide terrorists (15 of whom were Saudis) on 9/11. Wahhabists view Muslims not practicing their form of Islam as infidels and enemies to be subjugated or killed like Christians and Jews.2 Influence operations are a subset of psychological operations designed to convey selected information to foreign audiences to influence

their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, nongovernmental organizations, other groups, and the population as a whole.3 The fundamental purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce attitudes and behavior favorable to the sponsorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objectives. Because Wahhabism views other interpretations of Islam as heretical, a major focus of these Saudi influence operations is to

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 31

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achieve Wahhabi dominance over the practice of Islam in the West.

Saudi influence operations are driven by a religious imperative to spread the faith until the entire world is under the sway of Islam. The methods used to achieve this domination are based on the Islamic concept of jihad. It is an unambiguous concept in Wahhabism, defined as holy war that seeks to force unbelievers to convert to Islam and live under the 7th century Islamic code of law called shariah.4 In the years prior to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the U.S. government paid little attention to the flow of money and religious propaganda exported worldwide from Saudi Arabia.

Beginning in the 1960s, the Saudis funded radical movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, to establish an elaborate network of Islamic charities,

32 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

foundations, student associations, and schools around the world.5 While Saudi officials continue to assert publicly and in private discussions with U.S. officials that the government cannot be held responsible for the actions of non-governmental organizations, private donors, and religious leaders, these protestations belie the fact that much of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) network in Saudi Arabia was created by Saudi government officials, providing an arm’s length relationship and plausible deniability.

Many NGOs are funded by the Saudi government or members of the royal family. The Wahhabi-dominated religious hierarchy in Saudi Arabia is tightly controlled by the Saudi regime and royal family.6 The Commission investigating the terror attacks on 9/11 found: “While Saudi domestic charities are regulated by

the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, charities and international relief agencies such as the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) are currently regulated by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. This Ministry uses zakat, obligatory Islamic charitable giving, and government funds to spread Wahhabi beliefs throughout the world.”7 Wahhabism experienced explosive growth worldwide beginning in the early 1970s, when Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools and mosques from Islamabad, Pakistan to Culver City, California.8 Saudi efforts to spread Wahhabism in the United States began as simple proselytization called da’wa, literally “invitation to Islam” in Arabic. Saudi influence operations have blossomed into a multifaceted effort that has successfully affected the perceptions and behaviors of the institutions of

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 33

American society, including politics and religion, diplomacy, education, the judiciary, law enforcement, and the military.

Members of Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the U.S. are pawns in these influence operations. The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and acts as a transnational Islamist organization.

Their motto is: “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and dying in the way of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.” The English language website of the Brotherhood states the organization is “an Egypt-born Islamist organization founded for launching Jihad against the infidels in general, and the Christian West in particular, has been an ideological protectorate of Saudi Arabia for over half a century.”9 Muslim Brotherhood operatives in America strive to “present Islam as a civilization alternative.”10

In thousands of public school districts across the United States, taxpayers are unaware that they pay to disseminate pro-Islamic materials that are antiAmerican, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish.

34 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

Mohamed Akram, a senior Muslim Brotherhood operative in the United States and chronicler of this strategy, penned a memorandum entitled “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America.”11* In that document, Akram laid out a plan to conquer and Islamize the United States as a stepping stone toward the larger goal of ultimately establishing “the global Islamic state.”

12 Federal investigators found Akram’s memo in the home of Ismael Elbarasse, a founder of the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, after serving a search warrant in 2004.

Akram’s 18-page document listed 29 likeminded “organizations of our friends” that shared the common goal of dismantling American institutions and turning the U.S. into a Muslim nation.

These “friends” were identified as groups that could help convince Muslims “that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands… so that… God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.” The list includes many Muslim Brotherhood front groups that are now routinely sought out by politicians and the media. These groups have been alleged to be “moderate” Muslims in America.

The entire cultural jihad process is designed to create rapid ideological change. At its core are two organizations that coordinate and direct much of the work of the global Wahhabi movements: the Muslim World League (MWL), also known as Rabita, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, or WAMY. Both are based in Saudi Arabia, where

they enjoy quasi-official status and strong government support.13 The Saudi Wahhabi effort to undermine our nation from within is most pronounced in our schools.

Many Americans are unaware that their children are on the front lines of a hidden cultural jihad.14 In thousands of public school districts across the United States, taxpayers are unaware that they pay to disseminate pro-Islamic materials that are anti-American, antiIsrael, and anti-Jewish. Often bypassing school boards and edging out approved curricula, teaching programs funded by Saudis make their way into elementary and secondary school classrooms, often with the help of a federal program, Title VI of the Higher Education Act. Analyses of these materials have found them to be full of inaccuracies, bias and proselytizing for Islam. They also have found that many of the major history and social studies textbooks used in schools across America are highly critical of democratic institutions and forgiving of repressive ones. These materials praise and sometimes promote Islam, while criticizing Christianity and Judaism and being filled with false assertions and historical inaccuracies.15 In an ingenious deception, the system of federal subsidies to university programs of Middle East Studies under Title VI of the Higher Education Act has been serving as a kind of Trojan horse for Saudi influence over American K-12 education.16 Because federally subsidized Middle East Studies centers are required to pursue public outreach, the centers meet this obligation by designing lesson plans and seminars on the Middle East for America’s K-12 teachers. These university-distributed teaching aids slip into the K-12

*Editor’s note: See this issue’s Book Review “An Explanatory Memorandum” From the Archives of the Muslim Brotherhood, by Mohamed Akram.

Sidi Abdul Wahhab Mosque in the medina of Libya's capital Tripoli. Photo by: Abdul-Jawad Elhusuni

curriculum without being subject to the normal public vetting processes.

Meanwhile, the federal government, which both subsidizes and lends its stamp of approval to these special K-12 course materials, has effectively abandoned oversight of the program that provides them. By lavishly funding several organizations that design Saudi-friendly English-language K-12 curricula, all that remains is to convince the “outreach coordinators” at prestigious, federally subsidized universities to purvey these materials to America’s teachers.17 To reinforce the effectiveness of this subversion, outreach coordinators or

teacher-trainers at a number of university Middle East Studies centers have been trained by the very same Saudi-funded foundations that design K-12 course materials. These Saudi-friendly minions happily build their outreach efforts around Saudi-financed K-12 curricula.18 Without realizing it, America’s taxpayers subsidize—and provide official federal approval for—K-12 educational materials on the Middle East that have been created under Saudi auspices.

The basic outlines of the problem were exposed in 2004 by Sandra Stotsky, a former director of a professional development institute for teachers at

Harvard, and a former senior associate commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education. Stotsky’s stint as a commissioner ran from 1999 to 2003. She was present when the Massachusetts Department of Education tried to respond to the challenge of 9/11 by organizing special seminars in Islamic history for K-12 teachers. The department accepted a proposal with participation from Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, which, as a prestigious university and a federally subsidized Title VI “National Resource Center,” seemed an obvious choice.19 The Massachusetts Department of

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 35

Education commissioned a teachertraining seminar designed to cover Islamic history and touch on key contemporary questions, such as the nature of Islamic Fundamentalism and terrorism, the lack of democracy in the Middle East, and the challenge of gaining basic legal and political rights for women in much of the Muslim world. It quickly became apparent, however, that Harvard’s outreach program had little interest in tackling these issues, or in representing a broad range of views on contemporary Middle Eastern culture. Stotsky came to feel that the Massachusetts Education Department’s efforts to achieve balance in its teacher training seminars were giving way to a “distorted” and “manipulative” political agenda.20 Stotsky found that the source of the problem with many of the supplemental resources used for history and social studies is the ideological mission of the organizations that create them.21 While their stated goal is to combat intolerance by expanding students’ knowledge of other cultures and providing them with other “points of view,” the organizations’ real goal, based on an analysis of

their materials, appears to be the indoctrination of children by bending and falsifying historical content. They compound this approach by appealing to teachers’ sense of “fairness” and their currently presumed obligation to promote “social justice” and withhold negative moral judgments about other cultures.

Saudi influence enters the classrooms in three different ways. The first is through teacher-training seminars that provide teachers with graduate or continuing-education credits. The second is through the dissemination of supplementary teaching materials designed and distributed with Saudi support. Such materials flood the educational system and are available online. The third is through school textbooks paid for by taxpayers, some of them vetted by activists with Saudi ties who advise and influence major textbook companies about the books’ Islamic, Arab, Palestinian, Israeli, and Middle Eastern content.22 The process used in the attempt to indoctrinate school children begins with manipulative and incomplete supplemental resources for history

and social studies teachers, combined with equally misleading professional development workshops that propagate the distorted content and recommended teaching practices of such materials to teachers and their classrooms, thereby influencing what both teachers and students learn.23 The devious methods used to indoctrinate children include: omitting important details about the topic including those that are positive for this country or the West, or negative about non-Western cultures; providing false information; focusing attention on details of chiefly anthropological interest, thereby omitting culture-specific details of historical significance; dwelling on negative details about America or the West disproportionately to historical context; inflating the significance of a minor historical event; and making false historical analogies. More than one method is used in many cases.24 An example of particularly egregious curricular material that flagrantly falsifies history in its attempt to indoctrinate both teachers and students is the Arab World Studies Notebook, published jointly by the Middle East Policy Council and the

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Arab World and Islamic Resources and School Services (AWAIR). The Middle East Policy Council (formerly the Arab American Affairs Council) sponsors workshops about the Arab world and Islam for teachers, while AWAIR runs the workshops and distributes printed materials and videos. The 1989 version (about 300 pages long) stated among other non-facts that Yasir Arafat was president of a newly declared State of Palestine, that the United Nations General Assembly had voted to recognize this state in 1988, and that the Canaanites were the ancestors of many present-day Palestinians. The 1998 Notebook (now 513 pages long) appears to induce teachers to embrace Islamic religious beliefs, support political views favored by MEPC and AWAIR, and disseminate those religious beliefs and political views in their classrooms.

Its attempt at indoctrination goes beyond presenting religious myths as matters of fact, and includes some bizarre history. One article titled “Early Muslim Exploration Worldwide: Evidence of Muslims in the New World Before Columbus” claims that Muslims from

Europe were the first to sail across the Atlantic and land in the New World in 889. It also advances the unsupported notion that West African Muslims had not only spread throughout South and Central America but had also reached Canada, intermarrying with the Iroquois and Algonquin nations so that, much later, early English explorers were to meet “Iroquois and Algonquin chiefs with names like Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik.”25 ISLAM: A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100 was published in 1991 by Interaction Publishers of Carlsbad, California and promoted as a curriculum manual for history teachers in grades 6-12. It consists of enough material for a three-week program of instruction in which students “simulate becoming Muslims” and “learn about the history and culture of Islam.”

Like the Notebook described above, it falsifies history with ludicrous claims and anachronisms.26 Among the mechanisms used for legitimating the content and providers of manipulative supplemental curricula resources, and for spreading their

“…English explorers were to meet “Iroquois and Algonquin chiefs with names like Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik.”

influence, the most important are professional development workshops.

The use of these supplemental curricula resources fails to help students understand 9/11 and why so many Muslims hate America; Islamic Fundamentalism or Islamist terrorism; lack of democracy in the Muslim world; the lack of basic legal and political rights for women in most of the Muslim world; the lack of a free press in most of the Muslim world; the deplorable state of elementary, secondary, and higher education in the Muslim world; and the dramatic decline in intellectual creativity and scientific achievement in the Muslim world since 1500.27 The full extent of Saudi curricular funding, and the magnitude of its influence over university outreach programs funded under Title VI, was only revealed in late 2005 by a special four-part investigative report by the

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 37

Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). As the JTA put it: “Saudi Arabia is paying to influence the teaching of American public schoolchildren. And the U.S. taxpayer is an unwitting accomplice…

Ironically, what gives credibility to… these distorted materials is Title VI of the Higher Education Act… Believing they’re importing the wisdom of places like Harvard or Georgetown, they are actually inviting into their schools whole curricula and syllabuses developed with the support of Riyadh.”28 One of the groups Saudi money supports is AWAIR. According to the JTA, AIWAR’s founder, Audrey Shabbas, also edits the controversial Arab World Studies Notebook. Shabbas is reportedly employed by the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) to conduct its teachertraining and seminar programs. And MEPC (formerly the Arab American Affairs Council) is headed by a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and allegedly receives direct funding from Saudi Arabia.29 The JTA also asserts that the Middle East Policy Council was seeking funding for its teaching efforts from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz in late 2005. Alwaleed personally initiated contacts with MEPC after hearing about its seminars designed to shape American teachers’ perceptions of the Middle East.

It appears that the partnership between MEPC and Prince Alwaleed has borne fruit. In March 2007, Prince Alwaleed30 announced that he was supplementing his earlier donation of $100,000 to MEPC with a $1 million gift for its teacher-training programs.31 In 2011 U.S. Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper made the transparently false statement that

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JuNE 9-12, 2014 • Las VEgas, JuNE 9-12, NV 2014 • Las VEgas, NV elements of the Muslim Brotherhood [italics added] were “largely secular” in testimony to Congress. The 2013 Boston Marathon bombing was the 59th publicly known Islamist-inspired terror plot against the United States since 9/11.32 In recent years, the number of such plots has tripled from three per year to nine.33 And yet, on January 15, 2014, news broke that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder would soon issue new Department of Justice (DOJ) guidelines that will prohibit religious “profiling” in terror cases.34 The FBI, part of the DOJ and the federal law enforcement agency primarily responsible for counterterrorism, had already been forced to scrub references to “Islam” and “jihad” from its counterterrorism training materials.35 Attorney General Holder reportedly now wants to make it illegal for agents to even consider religion and national origin in their investigations. The FBI purge of anti-terrorism training material and curricula deemed “offensive” occurred following a February 8, 2012 meeting between FBI Director Robert Mueller and various Islamic organizations, many of them apparent

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 39

United States President Barack Obama is briefed on the 2013 Boston Marathon explosions, in the Oval Office, on 16 April 2013.

Photo by: White House

Muslim Brotherhood front groups.36 Among them were the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). Both the ISNA and CAIR had been named by the government in 2007 as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist financing trial.37 What is the source of information that has led these officials to make such illogical statements and issue such counterproductive orders?

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Olson is a retired sheriff’s department Criminal Investigation Bureau commander. He is the author of Tactical Counterterrorism: The Law Enforcement Manual of Terrorism Prevention, published by Charles C. Thomas Publishing.

40 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

ENDNOTES Amb. Curtin Winsor, Ph.D. (200710-22). “Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism and the Spread of Sunni Theofascism”.

Global Politician.

2 Olson, Dean, 2008. Perfect Enemy: The Law Enforcement Manual of Islamist Terrorism, Charles C,. Thomas, Pub., Springfield, IL, p. 48.

3 Judicial Watch Special Report: U.S. Government Purges of Law Enforcement Training Material Deemed “Offensive” to Muslims, December 5, 2013, Judicial Watch,, Washington, DC 20024, p.

302.

4 Footnote to Surah 2:190 on page 39 of The official Wahhabi version of the Qur’an is entitled The Noble Qur’an published in Saudi Arabia by the “King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur’an, Madinah, K.S.A.” 5 http://www.investigativeproject.org/ 1

documents/testimony/324.pdf 6 Ibid 3. P.41 7 “..The 9-1 1 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Lipon the United States” W.W. Norton & Company: July 2004 at p. 372.

8 Ibid 3, p.40.

9 Ramashray Upadhyay, “‘Muslim Brotherhood’ – An ideological Protectorate of Saudi Arabia?,” Ikwhanweb, December 29, 2009, http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article. php?id=22363&ref=search.php 10 http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/ viewSubCategory.asp?id=815 11 Ibid 3, p. 244.

12 Ibid 3, p. 48.

13 Center for Policing Terrorism, n.d. Guide to Wahhabi Organizations in North America, Center for Policing

Terrorism. Manhattan Institute, NY for Policy Research. www.cptmi.org/ http://www.cpt-mi.org/ WahabbiOragnziationsNorthAmerica. pdf 14 Pen vs. Sword, 2004. The Islamization of American Schools: A critique of the course and textbook on Islam taught to the 7th grade students in California Public Schools, The Pen vs.

The Sword, Los Angeles, CA, December, 2004.

15 Hostein, Lisa and Fishkoff, Sue, 2005. Tainted Teachings, What Your Kids are Learning about Israel, America, and Islam, Parts 1 through 4, JTA Staff Report, Jewish Telegraph Agency, October 27, 2005, http://jta.org/ schools.asp.

16 Kurtz, Stanley, 2007. Saudi in the

Classroom: A fundamental front in the war, National Review Online, http:// article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjRhZjYw MjU4MGY5ODJmM2MzNGNhNzljM zk4ZDFiYmQ. Published July 25, 2007.

17 Ibid 16.

18 Ibid 16.

19 Ibid 16.

20 Ibid 16.

21 Stotsky, Sandra, 2004. The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America’s History Teachers, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, Washington, DC. 22 Ibid 15.

23 Ibid 21.

24 Ibid 21.

25 This particular bit of fake history may soon be cleaned up at the request of the Algonquin Nation. In 2003, the Algonquin Nation Secretariat, in

Quebec, became aware of the academic travesty being committed in its name (i.e., English explorers meeting Algonquin chiefs with Muslim names) and issued an alert on November 28, 2003, “to state that there is no credible evidence to support these theories, in the archival record, academic study, or in oral history” and that “we are extremely concerned that such nonsense would be circulated as curriculum intended for use in schools.”[13]The Secretariat calls upon the sponsors of the Arab World Studies Notebook to render an “explanation and an apology” for “material that is so patently untrue and academically indefensible.”

26 Ibid 21.

27 Ibid 21.

28 Ibid 15.

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 41

Ibid 15.

This is the same Prince Alwaleed whose $10 million post-9/11 gift was returned by New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani because that gift was accompanied by a letter blaming American foreign policy for the attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

31 Ibid 16.

32 Jessica Zuckerman, Steven P. Bucci, PhD, and James Jay Carafano, PhD, 60 Terrorist Plots Since 9/11: Continued Lessons in Domestic Counterterrorism, Special Report 137, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC. 33 Ibid, p.3 34 Apuzzo, Matt, 2014. Justice Dept. to change rules on terror investigations, New York Times, Jan. 16, 2014, p. A1.

35 Scarborough, Rowan, 2013. Obama’s scrub of Muslim terms under question; common links in attacks, Washington Times, April 25, 2013 36 Judicial Watch Special Report: U.S. Government Purges of Law Enforcement Training Material Deemed “Offensive” to Muslims, December 5, 2013, Judicial Watch,, Washington, DC 20024.

37 Johnson, Scott, 2007. AUGUST 22, 2007 Coming Clean About CAIR, CAIR finds itself among the unindicted co-conspirators of the Holy Land Foundation, http://www.nationalreview. com/articles/221895/coming-cleanabout-cair/scott-w-johnson. U.S. v.

Holy Land Foundation, United States District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, CR NO. 3:04-CR-240-G, Attachment A, List of Unindicted Co-conspirators.

29 30

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 43

BOOK REVIEW

“An Explanatory Memorandum” from the Archives of the Muslim Brotherhood in America Written by: Mohamed Akram

Reviewed by: Chris Graham

n August 2004, an alert Maryland police officer observed a woman wearing traditional Islamic garb videotaping the support structures of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from a vehicle, and conducted a traffic stop. The driver, Ismail Elbarasse, was detained on an outstanding warrant issued in connection with investigations of fundraising for Hamas.

The FBI executed a search warrant on Elbarasse’s residence in Virginia. In the basement, agents found a secret room full of documents. Documents from this raid were entered into evidence during the U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation trial.

One of the most important papers was entitled An Explanatory Memorandum: On the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America. Written by Muslim Brotherhood, North American Board of Directors member and senior Hamas leader Mohamed Akram, it is accessible in “An Explanatory Memorandum” from the Archives of the Muslim Brotherhood in America (Center for Security Policy, 2013). The memorandum is reproduced from the official federal court translation of government Exhibit 003–0085 3:04 – CR – 240 – G from U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation, et al.

CSP’s introduction describes the memo: “It was meant for internal

America which was approved by the Shura Council and the Organizational Conference for the year [1987] is ‘Enablement of Islam in North America,’ meaning: establishing effective and a stable Islamic Movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood which adopts Muslims’ causes domestically and globally, which works to expand the observant Muslim base, aims at unifying and directing Muslims’ efforts, presents Islam is a civilization alternative, and supports the global Islamic State wherever it is.”

The Muslim Brotherhood document explains: “The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist process’ with all the word means. The Ikwhan [Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.

Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny…”

I

44 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

review by the Brothers’ leadership in Egypt. It was certainly not intended for public consumption… in …the United States.” The intro also asserts, “[These] papers … confirm what investigators and counterterrorism experts had long suspected and contended about the myriad Muslim-American groups in United States: nearly all of them are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The translated document states, “The general strategic goal of the Group in

The memo asserts that the role of the Brotherhood “is the initiative, pioneering, leadership, raising the banner and pushing people in that direction. They are then to work to employ, direct and unify Muslims’ efforts and powers for this process. In order to do that, we must possess a mastery of the art of ‘coalitions,’ the art of ‘absorption,’ and the principles of ‘cooperation’ …. The success of the Movement in America and establishing an observant Islamic base with power and effectiveness will be the best support and aid to the global Movement project.”

Akram explains, “If we examined the human and the financial resources the Ikwhan [Brotherhood] alone own in this country, we and others would feel proud and glorious. And if we add to them and the resources of our friends and allies, those who circle in our orbit and those waiting on our banner, we would realize that we are able to open the door to settlement and walk through it seeking to make Almighty God’s word the highest.”

The Muslim Brotherhood memo advocates a “gradual” process. It states, “We have a seed for a ‘comprehensive media and art’ organization: we own… audio and visual center + art production office + magazines in Arabic and English

… + photographers + producers + programs anchors + journalists + in addition to other media and art.…”

The memo provides “A list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends… ISNA, Islamic Society of North America, MSA, Muslim Students Association, MCA, Muslim Communities Association, AMSS, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, AMSE, Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers, IMA, Islamic Medical Association, ITC, Islamic Teaching Center, NAIT, North American Islamic Trust, FID, Foundation for International Development, IHC, Islamic Housing Cooperative, ICD, Islamic Centers Division, ATP, American Trust Publications, AVC, Audio-Visual Center, IBS, Islamic Book Service, MBA, Muslim Businessmen Association, MYNA, Muslim Youth of North America, IFC, ISNA FIQH Committee, IPAC, ISNA Political Awareness Committee, IED Islamic Education Department, MAYA, Muslim Arab Youth Association, MISG, Malaysian Islamic Study Group, IAP, Islamic Association for Palestine, UASR United Association for Studies and Research, OLF, Occupied Land Fund, MIA, Mercy International Association,

ISNA, Islamic Circle of North America, BMI, Baitul Mal Inc., IIIT, International Institute for Islamic Thought, [and the] IIC, Islamic Information Center….”

Muslim Brotherhood alumni support the worldwide ideology of Islamic supremacism, either by serving as a nonviolent “carrot” to subvert governments, as is advocated in An Explanatory Memorandum, or as a “stick” to deliver manipulative pressure by serving in terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, Hamas, and countless others. It is their objectives that must be defeated, not merely one of the complimenting strategies or the other.

An Explanatory Memorandum should be required reading for the law enforcement agents and military personnel of all Western nations. The book is invaluable for officials who wish to avoid embarrassing themselves further with dangerous ignorance, and for citizens who wish to understand the threat they face and possess the knowledge necessary to educate friends and family.

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Graham is a former commander of a military anti-terrorism unit and he is the editor of The Counter Terrorist magazine (www.30-10pistol.com)

Standard and Reverse Polarity Views

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 45

BACRIM:

COLOMBIAN BANDAS CRIMINALES EMERGENTES

By John P. Sullivan

Conflict and crime converge in interesting ways. As the relevance of the nation-state declines, gangsters, revolutionaries, and terrorists interact in a variety of ways that are increasingly significant.1 “Bacrim” may represent an emerging and adaptive adversary in Colombia, the epicenter of contemporary drug wars.

A

BACRIM: PARAMILITARY SUCCESSORS

n estimated 3,800-10,000 people are believed to participate in criminal bands formed from the remnants of Colombia’s paramilitaries.2 These groups, known as bandas criminales (criminal gangs) or bandas criminals emergentes (emerging criminal gangs)—BACRIM—are exploiting the vacuum left in the wake of the demobilization of the Autodefensas

46 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

Medellín (Antioquia),Colombia Photo by: EEIM

Unidas de Colombia, or AUC (United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia) in 2006.

The demobilization of the AUC left many of its 31,670 members adrift.

The AUC, which was formed in the late 1990s to combat the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia/ Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), derived approximately 70% of its revenue from narcotrafficking. As a

result, many demobilizing paramilitaries saw the amnesty for armed groups as an opportunity to move into the narco trade for themselves. Former paramilitary leaders and soldiers formed new bands to exploit the lucrative drug trade.3 The term BACRIM was coined by former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to describe the emerging criminal gangs. Alternative names for the gangs

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 47

Terrorist attack by the FARC with a car bomb at the headquarters of Caracol Radio. The attack left 43 people injured.

Photo by: Julián Ortega Martínez

Álvaro Uribe, President of Colombia.

Photo by: Center for American Progress

48 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

include New Illegal Armed Groups (NIAGs)4 and neo-paramilitaries. Among the gangs identified as BACRIM are: Águilas Negras, Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, Banda Criminal de Urabá, Los Urabeños, Los Machos, Los Paisas, Renacer, Nueva Generación, Los Rastrojos, ERPAC, Cordillera, Cacique Pipintá, Grupo de Martín Llanos, Los Nevados, and La Oficina de Envigado.5 BACRIM are believed to operate in 31 of Colombia’s 32 departments. Estimates of their strength range from a National Police assessment of 3,870 members to an Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (INDEPAZ) assessment of 7,000.

Human Rights Watch places the estimate higher at 10,000 members.6

The top six groups include: Los Urabeños, in the departments of Antioquía, Chocó, Bolívar, Magdalena and Norte de Santander; Los Rastrojos, in Nariño, Cauca and Putumayo; and El Bloque Meta, Los Libertadores de Vichada, Renacer and Los Machos, in Meta, Vichada and Guainía.7 In 2008 Bacrim presence was reported in 259 municipalities, by 2009 in 278, in 2010 360, and in 2011 they were found in 347 of Colombia’s 1,102 municipalities (a slight decrease). In 2011 Los Rastrojos sustained a presence in 207 municipalities, while Los Urabeños were present in 181. Águilas Negras was present in 88 municipalities, Los Paisas in 87, and ERPAC in 36 towns. The situation is reportedly most critical in

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 49

Antioquía, Bolívar, Chocó, Sucre, and Valle.8 The ERPAC officially surrendered to the government in 2011, but less than half its members actually surrendered.

The remaining members continue their operations as part of two rival factions: El Bloque Meta and Libertadores de Vichada.9

BACRIM ACTIVITIES

FARC guerrillas during the Caguan peace process March 22, 2006.

Photo by: DEA Public Affairs

The BACRIM are involved in drug trafficking, extortion, unauthorized mining, and smuggling contraband.

However, their core competency is deeply rooted in narcotrafficking, including growing coca, processing coca into cocaine, and moving cocaine to international cartels. The BACRIM are also involved in gambling, prostitution, unauthorized logging, extortion, arms trafficking and fuel smuggling.10 The BACRIM work with a range of gangs and guerrilla groups to sustain the drug trade. According to a BBC report, the Colombian government believes that, “in some regions they have joined forces with left-wing rebels [like the FARC and ELN-Ejército de Liberación Nacional] to run drug-trafficking operations, while

in other areas the new gangs and the guerrillas have clashed.”11 The various BACRIM bands also fight among themselves for turf and control of illicit trade flows. For example, battles between Los Rastrojos and Los Urabeños in 2006-2009 left 2,300 dead during that three-year timeframe.12 Public corruption is also a key feature of BACRIM activity. In order to protect their turf and business interests and gain freedom of movement, BACRIM (like other organized crime entities) suborn public officials through bribes and corruption. Over 200 contemporary Colombian anticorruption investigations involve BACRIM connections with officials. These officials include police, security forces, municipal council members, and mayors.13 The corrosive presence of BACRIMlinked corruption is believed to be the legacy of linkages between public officials and the BACRIM’s paramilitary predecessor the AUC. The current political power of the BACRIM is assessed to be less substantial than that of the AUC, but it has the potential to grow if left unchecked.

TRANSNATIONAL CONNECTIONS BACRIM have spread their tentacles beyond Colombia’s borders. This expansion results from a dual desire to enhance profit and to elude the reach of the Colombian government. This expansion is also a consequence of the global illicit flows: the markets are global and transnational actors gain competitive advantage. Los Rastrojos are believed to be allies of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel while their rivals Los Urabeños are linked to Sinaloa’s enemy, Los Zetas.14 Certainly, the expanding transnational reach of Mexican cartels and transnational gangs like Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) have contributed to this search for new markets. BACRIM leaders have been found in Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. In addition, BACRIM are believed to be directly operating in Spain and Italy, where they can earn three times the profit they can realize from trading with Mexican cartels.15

Operation Martillo, Spanish for hammer, is a U.S., European and Western Hemisphere partner nation effort targeting illicit trafficking routes in coastal waters along the Central American isthmus. Photo by: U.S. Navy

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Fuel containers which have been modified to carry an estimated $70,000 of cocaine each sit on the flight deck of the guided-missile frigate USS Carr (FFG 52) after being seized during Operation Martillo. Carr and her crew have been supporting Operation Martillo (Spanish for Hammer), an interagency operation combating the spread of illegal drugs to the U.S. and the use of Central American coastal waterways as shipment routes by organized criminal organizations. Photo by: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ian W. Anderson

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead drives a semi-submersible boat while meeting with Colombian coast guard forces at Naval Base Bolivar in Cartagena, Columbia, Dec. 5, 2009. Photo by: Tiffini Jones Vanderwyst

ADAPTIVE ACTORS AND STATE CHALLENGES Colombia has been working toward demobilizing guerrilla groups. As part of a “transitional justice” initiative toward peace, the Colombian Congress approved a “Legal Framework for Peace.” As part of that framework, guerillas were recognized as actors in armed conflict and given lenient judicial treatment on their surrender. Members of the BACRIM are excluded from this approach (which was applied to ERPAC in 2011 and the AUC in 2003 on the rationale that they

52 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

are purely criminal actors).16 Despite this view, victims of BACRIM atrocity are eligible in Colombia for the same type of reparations afforded victims of conventional guerrilla groups.17 The BACRIM are clandestine challengers to the state. Like other “criminal insurgents,” they seek to avoid interference from the government.18 They do so by corrupting and co-opting state officials and institutions. Co-opted officials give the BACRIM cover and help them elude prosecution. The BACRIM morphed from guerrilla groups, becoming militarized criminal enterprises

(essentially third generation gangs),19 using violence as a means of seeking control of narco enterprises and other criminal activities (mainly extortion).

As law professor David Attanasio observed, “BACRIM primarily affect marginalized populations of limited interest to state officials. The main areas where BACRIM have control are rural areas suitable for the manufacturing or transportation of cocaine and impoverished zones in cities.”20 While many note the BACRIM, like other brigands, have a sparse political agenda, the gangs do have a

political dimension. In Medellín the Urabeños claimed responsibility for a drop in murders in the aftermath of a criminal pact between themselves and the Oficina de Envigado.21 The pact and drop in murder have clear political dividends, especially as the “Urabeños like to maintain the pretense they are a political organization in the mold of their paramilitary predecessors, capable of replacing the state when it fails.”22

CONCLUSION: LESSONS FOR SECURITY The BACRIM seek dominance in criminal enterprise, as well as territorial and social control in the areas they operate, in order to sustain organizational viability and profitability. In sustaining viability and profitability, they challenge the state. Two major lessons emerge. First, relying on vigilantes to combat rebels

is fraught with danger. The vigilantes (paramilitaries or autodefensas) need funds to operate and often garner them from criminal enterprises. Second, armed groups rarely totally abandon violence when the conflict is over. Opportunity for rebels, criminal soldiers, and gangsters is limited. Violence and profit (as well as plunder) often become their “reason for being.” This is a continuing concern in Colombia, where the government is negotiating a peace with the FARC. Like the AUC before them, many FARC operatives may find opportunity among the BACRIM. In addition, in Michoacán, Mexico, we are also seeing a rise of autodefensas (self-defense forces, aka vigilantes) as the state appears ineffective or insufficient for combatting drug cartels. It may be a function of time before that current crop of vigilantes mimics the BACRIM.

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Sullivan (PhD) is a senior fellow at Small Wars Journal-El Centro and an adjunct researcher at the Fundación Vortex in Bogotá, Colombia. He serves as a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

ENDNOTES For an overview of converging illicit networks, see Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization, ed. Michael Miklaucic and Jacqueline Brewer, National Defense University Press, 2013.

2 Ernesto Suárez Gómez. “BACRIM: Heirs to Colombia’s paramilitary groups.” Infosuryhoy, September 18, 2013. Available at: http://infosurhoy. com/en_GB/articles/saii/features/ main/2013/09/18/feature-02.

1

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 53

Gómez, 2013.

4 NIAG is the term preferred by the International Crisis Group, see “Dismantling Colombia’s New Illegal Armed Groups: Lessons from a Surrender.” Latin America Report, No41, June 8, 2012. Available at: http:// www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latinamerica-caribbean/andes/colombia/041dismantling-colombias-new-illegalarmed-groups-lessons-from-a-surrender. aspx.

5 “BACRIMs, Colombia’s “New” Nightmare.” LatAm-Threads, August 18, 2012. Available at: http://latamthreads.blogspot.com/2012/08/bacrimscolombias-new-nightmare.html.

6 Gómez, 2013.

7 Gómez, 2013.

8 “Bandas criminales operan en 347 municipios.” El Espectador, November 17, 2011. Available at: http://www. elespectador.com/impreso/temadeldia/ articulo-311652-bandas-criminalesoperan-347-municipios.

9 “ERPAC.” InSight Crime. Available at: http://www.insightcrime.org/groupscolombia/erpac.

10 LatAm-Threads, 2012.

11 “Profiles: Colombia’s armed groups.”

BBC News, August 29, 2013. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldlatin-america-11400950.

12 Gómez, 2013.

13 James Bargent. “Investigations 3

Show Reach of BACRIM in Colombia.”

InSight Crime, November 5, 2013.

Available at: http://www.insightcrime. org/news-briefs/over-200-investigationsshow-reach-of-bacrim-corruption-incolombia.

14 Paula Delgado-Kling. “Mexican Cartels Making Territory in Colombia, Allying with Bacrim and FARC.” Talking About Colombia, March 12, 2013.

Available at: http://talkingaboutcolombia. com/2013/03/12/mexican-cartelsmarking-territory-in-colombia-allyingwith-bacrim-and-farc/.

15 Gómez, 2013.

16 Mariel Perez-Santiago. “Colombia’s BACRIM: Common Criminals or Actors in Armed Conflict?” InSight Crime, July 23, 2012. Available at: http:// www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/ colombias-bacrim-common-criminals-oractors-in-armed-conflict.

17 David Attanasio. “Emerging Voices: Drug Cartels, Bacrim, and Other Militarized Criminal Organizations–A New Role for the Inter-American System?” Opino Juris, August 29, 2013. Available at: http://opiniojuris. org/2013/08/29/emerging-voices-drugcartels-bacrim-militarized-criminalorganizations-new-role-inter-americansystem/.

18 John P. Sullivan. “From Drug Wars to Criminal Insurgency: Mexican Cartels, Criminal Enclaves and Criminal

Insurgency in Mexico and Central America, and their Implications for Global Security.” Vortex Working Paper No. 6, Bogotá: Fundación Vortex, March 2012. Available at: http://www.scivortex. org/6FromDrugWarsCriminalInsurgen cy.pdf.

19 John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker. “A Crucible of Conflict: Third Generation Gang Studies Revisited.”

Journal of Gang Research, 19.4 (2012): 1-20. Available at: http://scholarship. claremont.edu/cgu_fac_pub/140/.

20 Attanasio, 2013.

21 Charles Parkinson, “Urabeños Claim Responsibility for Drop in Medellin Murders,” InSight Crime, January 13, 2014. Available at: http://www. insightcrime.org/news-briefs/urabenosand-authorities-dispute-credit-for-drop-inmedellin-murders.

22 Parkinson, 2014.

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INTERNET SECURITY FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENTS

By Michael Gordon

T

he main objectives of a person doxing a law enforcement officer include: to cause embarrassment, to harass, to blackmail, or to take revenge.

The biggest challenge, however, is that once the personal information is publically disseminated, related and unrelated individuals with criminal intentions have enough information to commit a myriad of crimes.

The groups Anonymous and AntiSec perpetrated a notable example of doxing against law enforcement officers during the 2011 International Chiefs of Police Conference (IACP) in Chicago.1 A press release by Anonymous on October 21, 2011 said, “In solidarity with the Occupation Movement and the International Day of Action Against Police Brutality, allied #anonymous and

#antisec vessels took aim at the corrupt bootboys of the 1%: the police. We hacked, defaced, and destroyed several law enforcement targets, leaking over 600MB of private information including internal documents, membership rosters, addresses, passwords, social security numbers, and other confidential data.

According to the IACP’s development documents, their systems cost several

“Doxing” is short for document tracing and revealing information about a person, often for a nefarious reason.

This information is gathered through publically available sources on the Internet, social media sites, and via social engineering or hacking.

56 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 57

Anonymous with Guy Fawkes masks at the Scientology area in Los Angeles. Photo by: Vincent Diamante

Doxing is not limited to technology savvy activist groups and could easily be committed by your neighbor, co-worker, supervisor, or a person you may have come in contact with on the streets or arrested.

58 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

hundred thousand dollars. We are pleased to destroy it all for free, leaking their private info and defacing their websites in one swift blow.”

Doxing is not limited to technology savvy activist groups and could easily be committed by your neighbor, co-worker, supervisor, or a person you may have come in contact with on the streets or arrested. Doxing creates many safety issues and concerns for law enforcement agents. Doxing is a high tech assault practiced in all jurisdictions today.

So what would they be looking to obtain? Some of the most commonly targeted pieces of information are: • Full name • Age, gender, and date of birth • Location and place of birth • Email addresses and username

• Phone number • Social networking profiles, websites, and blogs • IP addresses • Internet Service Provider • Computer Operating Systems • Home Address • Websites • Pictures • Financial information • Medical information • Romantic/sexual information

HOW EASY IS THIS INFORMATION TO OBTAIN? The very first place someone doxing often starts is Google. Google indexes nearly everything on the Internet, sometimes even the most private

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 59

U.S. Marine Cpl. Jonathan S. Ayala a Communication specialist from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (15th MEU) programs a Deployed Security Interdiction Device (DSID) during a field radio operation at Camp Del Mar, Camp Pendleton, Calif. Aug. 3, 2011. The DSID. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Danny L. Shaffer II

60 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

information. In my two day Open Source Intelligence and Social Media Research and Investigations course, I devote one portion of the class solely to advanced Google searching techniques.

I am simply amazed at how easily abundant information and pictures of law enforcement professionals can be obtained through advanced Google searches, without any additional effort.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are virtual jackpots for finding information on an individual. Most people, including law enforcement agents, want privacy online but post tremendous amounts of information about themselves on social media sites.

“People who work for LAPD” or “People who work for Department of Homeland Security” typed into Facebook’s Graph Search yields an amazing amount of information on unwary and vulnerable law enforcement professionals. I suspect that most have no idea how much of their information is available.

That brings us to the fact that most social media users are unaware of the proper security settings or unaware of how to properly set the security settings.

This lack of proper security settings makes it easier for a bad guy to find out your most detailed personal information.

Location and other details can often be harvested from posted photos.

Twitter, for example, can be a treasure trove of information for a person simply skimming through users’ tweets.

Information such as phone numbers, additional social media accounts, friends, and pictures with locations can be found in user tweets. One common problem is that most people use the same user name and email accounts for multiple social media accounts. Locating multiple social media accounts leads to more information, email addresses, pictures,

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 61

Counter The

Asia Pacific Edition

and possible physical addresses. Many times people will leave location services turned on their mobile applications when they post pictures, status updates, or comments to social media sites, thus making the individual a much easier target to geolocate.

So you say you’re not on social media? Are you mentioned in a friend’s social media? Making people searches on the Internet using websites such as Spokeo2 and Pipl3 can offer a great deal

62 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

of information on law enforcement agents. Most of these sites provide a great deal of information at little to no cost.

During my training courses I ask the law enforcement students in attendance to use these sites so they can see how much of their sensitive information is accessible online. It hits home for my students when they see their personal details and that of their family readily accessible to anyone with an Internet connection and the desire to search.

The Counter Terrorist Magazine Asia Pacific Edition is finally available for the Asia Pacific region counter-terrorism and homeland security practitioners. The Asia Pacific Edition not only gives the readers a worldwide counter-terrorism perspective but also in-depth information about counter terrorism activities in Asia. The Asia Pacific Edition provides an excellent platform for counter-terrorism and homeland solutions providers to access and penetrate the Asia Pacific market.

Another way your information can be discovered is through your IP Address.

Sites like whatstheirip.com4 provide links that can be sent to a targeted individual.

Once this individual clicks on that link, the bad guy would receive an email with the individual’s IP Address. Making matters worse, if the targeted individual sent someone an email, the bad guy could go to a site such as whatismyipaddress. com5, insert the email source of the target, and trace the target’s IP address.

Even posting a comment on a WordPress website or blog can expose your IP address.

Photo tracing with websites such as tineye.com6 and Google Images7 is a quick way to see if pictures of a targeted individual have been used on any other website, or even if they are fake.

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 63

www.homelandsecurityssi.com STEPS FOR PROTECTION One of the best ways to protect yourself as a law enforcement agent is to get off of social media sites. With so much information leaked from social media sites, the safest bet is to run as far from social media sites as possible. Go to the website deleteyouraccount.com8 for links to delete many of the popular social media sites.

64 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

If you are unwilling to leave Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, consider a fake account with a fake name and a new email address. Remember, don’t use the same user name for each social media account you’re going to keep open. With the sophistication of facial recognition you might want to think twice about what pictures you post on your fake profile. Try the mobile app “Burner”9 to

get a disposable phone number in case you need a phone number to register and create your new social media account. Keep in mind, a fake account really does little if you continue to post what school you went to, where you work, or what neighborhood you live in.

Make sure all of your Internet profiles are set to private. Use Google, Yahoo, or Bing search engines and type in your user

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name, email address, or name to make sure all your Internet profiles are secure and private. Go to Pipl and Spokeo websites and dox yourself. If you can find your information, so can any other person snooping around the Internet.

Ensure you use different email addresses for different social media sites and accounts you have online. One email with many Internet/social media accounts equals one very big problem.

Making matters worse, by using the same password for each and every one of these accounts, if one gets compromised, they all get compromised.

THE BOTTOM LINE Everyone has online vulnerabilities.

Even if you are smart enough to stay off social media, employing agencies, medical providers, and others routinely leak your information. Everyone leaves a digital footprint online and completely

cleaning it up is impossible. Watch what you say and expect that all online communications are permanently archived and accessible by outsiders.

Being responsible online goes a long way.

Those of us in law enforcement have a very small expectation of privacy in the real world and an even smaller one online. Understanding how the Internet and social media work can go a long way toward preventing you or your family from being doxed.

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Gordon is CEO of Dataveillance (www.dataveillance.us) and serves as a police officer in South Florida. Mr. Gordon is a former Marine with over 28 years of law enforcement experience.

He has worked as a patrol officer, traffic investigator, recruiter, training officer, narcotics detective, and analyst.

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ENDNOTES Paolo Passeri. “Another Friday, Another Dump.” Hackmageddon, October 22, 2011. Available at: http://hackmageddon. com/2011/10/22/another-friday-anotherdump/. Retrieved January 27, 2014.

2 Spokeo. Available at: www.spokeo.com.

3 Pipl. Available at: www.pipl.com.

4 Whatstheirip. Available at: www. whatstheirip.com.

5Whatismyipaddress. Available at: www.whatismyipaddress.com.

6 Tineye. Available at: www.tineye.com.

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The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 71

TRAINING REVIEW

Tactical Officer Proficiency Course

By Greg Lapin

T

he majority of law enforcement agencies—local, state, and federal— have a continuing need for unbiased, up-to-date training. I believe most law enforcement agencies train in something like a fish bowl, and the oldest, biggest fish in the bowl usually dictates what SOPs, TTPs, and training are used.

At times this leads to antiquated, or unsound tactics.

Our Tactical Officer Proficiency Course (TOPC), is not a beginner’s course. It is not just a shooting package, and it is not 72 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

a CQB course. It is a skills enhancement course. We sit down with each team prior to commencing the training and do a job analysis with them. Where do they work?

What type of terrain? What is their main job, threat, call out, or crime? What do they feel their greatest need is? From where and from whom did their firearms training come? Have they received or attended any outside training? What is the team’s CQB experience? What are their SOPs? Do they use strong wall, direct to threat, opposing corners, or something else?

This course is designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of a team of tactical officers. We don’t reinvent the wheel with them, but we do bring them up to date and expose them to some “best practices.”

Day one is shooting. We use day one to assess officers’ marksmanship and weapons manipulation skills. We usually spend most of the day adjusting grips and making stances more aggressive. The majority of officers we deal with have good understandings of sight picture and trigger control, but once we fault Circle 329 on Reader Service Card

The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014 73

check their grips and stances, get them driving their support thumbs more on pistols, grasping the ends of the hand guards on their M4s, and opening up their stances a bit, they are amazed at the change in recoil management and gun control. At the end of the day, we work with the officers on the use of cover/ concealment and, more specifically, on understanding and mastering their optical off-set. We explain the effects of canting a weapon, given their specific zero and the engagement distance, and we get them exposing themselves less.

On day two, we focus our range drills on the CQB tactics that we cover in the house and introduce the “high ready” and “breakdown” positions. They are different tools for different applications and a professional gun toter should be versed in both a low ready and a high ready. It is my experience and opinion that in the majority of CQB, the high ready (when used correctly) is safer for teammates and faster for getting the gun into the room.

We show them the specifics and get them shooting range drills that utilize the high ready. The breakdown is nothing more than what the retention position is for your pistol: with both hands still on the gun in your normal grip position, the rifle is sucked back and up high underneath your arm. Your barrel is aligned to chest height and your muzzle is brought back drastically to allow you to get closer to corners and thresholds without exposing anything. It opens up your field of view, allowing you to see “hands” without compromising speed on target. The break down is almost solely for the number one man. The rest of the team should be in either the high ready or low ready, depending on the situation and their positions.

At this point, guys aren’t just getting comfortable with the techniques, but start to really see the benefits. We

74 The Counter Terrorist ~ April/May 2014

then move into aspects often overlooked by law enforcement personnel on the entry. We start with facades of open doorways. In most law enforcement-related entries, speed is not a massive concern. Unless you’re really worried about vital evidence getting destroyed or it’s a hostage situation, why rush?

A murder suspect can’t flush himself down the toilet. We start by clearing as much of the room from outside as possible before making entry. This is not something we developed, nor is it new.

Foreign special operations forces have been doing this for more than a decade in order to mitigate explosive threats and because of hardened emplacements being set up in rooms. We finish out the day getting the guys working in two to four man teams, making entry on the doorways utilizing the new techniques they’ve learned.

The next three days are typically spent in the shoot house. Some teams request some open-air work; vehicle assaults or small unit patrolling techniques, so we cater each course to suit the specific unit.

In the shoot house, we start by simply watching. We then start offering the officers a different way of doing things.

Most often, we start by slowing the guys down, teaching them to clear rooms before they make entry and offset angles to cover threats that their buddies are exposed to. After three days of CQB, most guys start seeing the benefit of these newer methods and become much more efficient in the house.

This course has been very rewarding for us. A TOPC student from a few months ago told us he could hear us yelling at him in his head during a recent intense

and tragic gun fight. Unfortunately, two of his fellow deputies, one of whom was a rookie on their SRT and also in their TOPC, were ambushed and killed by two subjects with AKs. Still visibly shaken from the incident, he recounted the incident, explaining fine details about his position, movement and awareness. The deputy was a senior deputy who was no stranger to violence. On that day he took out two lowlifes who were armed with AKs while he was armed with a pistol. He utilized cover and maneuver and worked with his teammates to end the fight.

Technology changes, bad guys change and tactics must adapt. It is necessary to stay not just one, but multiple steps ahead, and to remain a humble student.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Lapin is a former detective and member of a specialized tactical team.

He has provided “operational support” and advanced training to U.S. government agencies in high-threat regions around the world.

•

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