Counter Terrorist Magazine Dec / Jan 2014 / 2015

PUTIN’S RING OF STEEL • RESCUE IN IRAQ • ISIS WARLORD BAGHDADI • MS-13 RECRUITMENT

Journal for Law Enforcement, Intelligence & Special Operations Professionals

Counter The

DEC 2014/JAN 2015

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EBOLA AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

By Al J. Venter

FEATURES:

08

Firsthand: U.S MARINES RESCUE POWS IN IRAQ

By J.E. McCollough

20

Case Study: PUTIN’S RING OF STEEL

By Eileen Jorns

50

ISIS WARLORD BAGHDADI: PROTÉGÉ OF AL-QAEDA CHIEF ZARQAWI

By Walter Purdy

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THE WAVE OF ILLEGAL ALIEN CHILDREN AND MS-13 RECRUITMENT

By Joseph J. Kolb

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Counter The

FROM THE EDITOR:

Joe DeBergalis and the NRA

By Chris Graham

O

Journal for Law Enforcement, Intelligence & Special Operations Professionals

n October 23, 2014 a man who reportedly had Islamist propaganda on his Facebook page attacked New York police officers with a hatchet. Officers shot the man and ended his attack after two officers were wounded. On October 22, 2014 Canadian Parliament Sergeant-atArms Kevin Vickers shot the jihadist Michael Zehaf-Bibeau after he killed an unarmed Canadian soldier manning a ceremonial post, preventing him from killing others. On September 25, 2014 Islamist Alton Nolen beheaded his 54 year-old female former coworker at the outset of a rampage cut short by the Vaughn’s CEO who shot the man.

At the founding of our country, framers of the U.S. Constitution recognized the need for truly free people to be armed. In their day, armament was necessary for citizens to resist King George III’s oppression, and defend against bands of marauders and thieves. Today, your family is armed to defend against cross-border gangs, Islamist terrorists, and standard criminals. Nobody knows better than you do that the citizen targeted for attack is the true “First Responder” to any criminal incident.

Unfortunately, the caliber of our national leadership has deteriorated significantly from the time of President Washington. Today, one can expect to see a newscast on any given day with footage of a politician standing behind an armed personal security detail explaining why you should incrementally surrender your freedoms so that you can be protected from yourself.

The strongest protector of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights in general, and Second Amendment in particular, is the National Rifle Association (NRA). If you take your oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic” seriously, you have probably already joined the NRA. If you haven’t, I encourage you to join me (http://home.nra.org/membership/list/join) and re-elect law enforcement officer Joseph P. DeBergalis, Jr. to the NRA Board of Directors when you receive your election ballot in the NRA’s magazines mailing in January.

Semper Fidelis,

Chris Graham Editor, The Counter Terrorist www.chrisgrahamauthor.com

VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 6

DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015 Editor Chris Graham Director of Operations Sol Bradman Director of Advertizing Carmen Arnaes Production Assistant Ashley Villegas Contributing Editors Kevin Freeman Jennifer Hesterman Richard Marquise Tom Nypaver Dean Olson Steve Young Graphic Design Morrison Creative Company Copy Editor Laura Town Advertising Sales Chris Bell Bell@homelandsecurityssi.com 305-632-2309 Publisher: Security Solutions International 13155 SW 134th St. • STE 103 Miami, Florida 33186 ISSN 1941-8639 The Counter Terrorist Magazine, Journal for Law Enforcement, Intelligence & Special Operations Professionals is published by Security Solutions International LLC, as a service to the nation’s First Responders and Homeland Security Professionals with the aim of deepening understanding of issues related to Terrorism. No part of the publication can be reproduced without permission from the publisher. The opinions expressed herein are the opinions of the authors represented and not necessarily the opinions of the publisher. Please direct all Editorial correspondence related to the magazine to: Security Solutions International SSI, 13155 SW 134th Street, Suite 103, Miami, Florida.

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The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 7

By J.E. McCollough

Firsthand:

U.S. MARINES RESCUE POWS IN IRAQ

U.S. intelligence had periodically gotten scraps of information about U.S. POWs, most recently a few days prior in Baghdad. The military had Special Forces and CIA teams dedicated to look for them, but no one had yet been able to get accurate enough or timely enough information to locate them.

A

fter Baghdad fell and they were still missing, we knew that the chances of finding them alive had greatly lessened. We assumed that whatever regime element was still holding them was probably afraid that keeping the POWs captive was dangerous. We were afraid the Iraqis would just kill them rather than risk being caught with them.

April 13, 2003 was their twenty-second day of captivity.

Outside Samarra, while LtCol Clardy was talking to the tribal elders using Ra’ad, an old man approached Jason and in broken English said he knew where the Americans were being held. Jason wanted more information, but as soon as the old man caught sight of the tribal

8 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

Photos courtesy of the author.

elders talking with LtCol Clardy he fled, saying they were “evil.” When the sheiks left, however, he returned. This time he approached one of the 3rd LAR Marines, who immediately found Randy. Any mention of the POWs meant instant, focused attention.

Matt and I had already informed Nate about the potential lead on the POWs, and by 10 am he had informed LtCol Clardy of what was going on. Intelligence on the POWs presented a serious problem for LtCol Clardy. Obviously, the POWs were a major priority for the entire U.S. military and real possibility of recovering them wasn’t something he could pass up. But 3rd LAR’s position outside of Samarra on the west bank

of the Tigris was only supposed to be a blocking position, preventing any Iraqi military elements on the eastern side of the river from attacking the main body of Task Force Tripoli as it advanced north toward Tikrit. As much as LtCol Clardy wanted to take advantage of the intelligence on the POWs, he had his orders and a mission to conduct on a specific timeline. When its screening mission was done at the Samarra rivercrossing, 3rd LAR would have to move out to support the attack on Tikrit.

Randy began talking with the old man. He was probably in his 70s or 80s, skinny, dressed in an off-white dishdasha (traditional male Arab robe), and smoking a cigarette. He was sitting in an

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 9

old white four-door sedan with maroon leather interior. As old as the car was, it was in good shape, and the old man was in the same condition. His face was worn and lined like a well-used baseball mitt, but his dark eyes were sharp and alert and his movements were quick and sure. He must have been nervous, he was alone and approaching an invading army with information that might get him killed if anyone found out. But his eyes held only respect, not fear. He held himself differently than many of the Iraqis we had talked to, though not because of his physical stature. He couldn’t have weighed more than 150 pounds soaking wet. But it seemed like he knew what it was like to be in command. He had authority in his bones.

He explained in broken English he was the sheik of a local tribe, feuding with the elders who had approached us earlier. He presented Randy his business card, made of thick, white, textured card stock with silver writing in Arabic. The man explained that he knew where the American POWs were located and would like to negotiate their release. He said that the men holding the POWs were regular Iraqi police who were not loyal to Saddam; they continued to keep the POWs because they feared retaliation from Chemical Ali and Saddam supporters in the Samarra area if the POWs were freed.

Without a linguist, the going was difficult, but more information was forthcoming. The elder told Randy that his nephew was actually the senior guard and he simply wanted to give the POWs back to the Americans. Randy replied that if that was the case then his nephew should just load them up and bring them to the Marines at the checkpoint outside Samarra.

But the old man said the guards were not willing to take that risk. While still in

Samarra they had a measure of control.

They didn’t trust that the Marines would let them go after having held Americans prisoner. Using his sketchy Arabic and working through the old man’s broken English, Randy pressed for more details.

The tribal elder informed him the POWs had been brought to Samarra in a white Red Crescent ambulance and that the ambulance was parked in the driveway in front of the house.

The detail about the ambulance got Randy’s attention. This was something that hadn’t been broadcast on the news. It was a detail we had learned in Baghdad a few days earlier, when Sgt Mike Yugo on another HET had done an interrogation and learned the possible location of the POWs. A Special Forces team had rushed to the site. They didn’t find the POWs, but the locals said that “the Americans” had been there but had been moved a few hours prior in a Red Crescent ambulance.

Randy didn’t know Matt, Johnny, and I were getting similar information from the group of cops in the schoolhouse at that same moment, and we didn’t know what he was finding out from the old man. As much as Matt and I tried to pin down details of the POWs’ location using maps and detailed questioning, the Iraqi cops couldn’t identify the building where the POWs were being held. It seemed like they couldn’t understand how a map worked. It also seemed like they wanted to be compensated for their information, and they were dribbling out details. But as frustrating as it was to not be able to identify their exact location, we had enough to be highly confident the POWs were actually in Samarra. In fact, we were sure of it. We used all the questioning techniques we knew to ensure that the cops were telling the truth, as far as they knew it.

With the information about the ambulance, Randy had a detail that

10 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

strongly indicated the old man’s story about knowing where the POWs were located was true, so he began looking around for the rest of the team to track down one of the linguists, Ra’ad or Johnny. Of course, we were all busy in one capacity or another and were nowhere in the immediate area. He didn’t want to leave the old man, he was afraid the guy would leave and take the POWs location with him. Randy was exhausted. We all were, but Randy had driven all the way from Kuwait, through the fight to the Azamiyah Palace, and continued to be a leader and worker on the team. He was alone with the old man, and realized there was only one way to get the detailed information needed to track down the POWs. Randy told the old man to wait, hoping desperately he would, and ran to his truck to locate Nate’s Garmin GPS. He immediately turned it on so it would begin tracking satellites and ran back to the old man. He explained he wanted the elder to drive to go to the location where the POWs were being held and simply push the button on the GPS. It was a basic model GPS, with only a few buttons. They went over the steps multiple times to ensure that he would not touch anything else that could delete the coordinates once they were obtained.

After several repetitions of the process, Randy was reasonably confident the old man knew what to do.

Though he was a little nervous about handing out Nate’s GPS to a completely unvetted source without permission, Randy had enough information to feel it was a risk worth taking. He was willing to roll the dice, and hoped the old man didn’t just throw away Nate’s GPS. Leaders take risks, and Randy was a good leader. As the old man left, Randy told him that if he wanted our help he would have to bring along his nephew who was

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The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 11

guarding the POWs. Randy handed the old man the GPS, and he promised he would be back in thirty minutes. As the elder left, Randy started the timer on his watch, hoping he hadn’t just been conned out of a GPS. By this time Ra’ad was done translating for LtCol Clardy, evidently more issues had arisen after the sheiks had left. Randy found his linguist and together they waited for the old man to return. And after about twenty minutes, he did. The same old car, and now in the passenger seat a younger man looking skeptical and a bit scared. He was heavy set, with dark olive skin, and in his early 40s. He had a thick, dark, characteristically Iraqi mustache, the kind that always makes Westerners laugh a little bit. Those kinds of ‘staches haven’t been worn in the Western world since the 1800’s. He was wearing a simple white shirt and blue trousers, Western clothes in contrast to his uncle’s traditional Arabic robe.

Randy proceeded to ask the nephew the same questions he’d asked the old man, while making sure the tribal leader didn’t interrupt or add any commentary.

Their stories matched, but far more importantly, there was a ten-digit grid coordinate on the GPS. For the first time since their captivity, the U.S. military had solid intelligence on the POWs’ location.

Seven lost Americans were found.

The rescue was still far from certain.

The grid coordinate was in the middle of Samarra, a city we had been told was expressly off-limits. Randy began to run through a mental checklist of all the information LtCol Clardy would need to authorize putting Marines at risk, to quite literally go out on a limb based on intelligence derived from a human source we had no way of fully vetting. Randy’s gut and his intelligence experience told him the old man and his nephew were legitimate, but at this point he still didn’t

know Matt and I had corroborating information from separate sources, so, as tired as he was, he methodically worked through the information we needed to affect a rescue.

Even though Randy had the coordinates of the building, he still needed a location description and threat information. There was no way LtCol Clardy could send his Marines wandering around Samarra with no idea of what they were facing or what building they were looking for. And time was becoming a factor: the battalion was supposed to leave for Tikrit in an hour. The main force had already moved into attack positions near the city a few hours north and 3rd LAR was supposed to advance to support the offensive.

The old man wanted to negotiate two things before he would provide the rest of the critical information needed to locate the building holding the POWs. He wanted a guarantee on the safety of the guards, who we suspected were probably members of his tribe. Randy told him that if the guards were in civilian clothes, unarmed, and had treated the POWs according to the Geneva Convention, they would not be harmed. Second, the old man wanted us to assist him in removing from power the sheiks who had arrived earlier. He said it was because they were supporters of Saddam, but in reality they were probably just his personal rivals. Randy explained that U.S. forces would take action on any information that could be verified as presenting a threat to us, but we would not arrest or attack civilians who were not fighting us. He then asked for permission to take care of the problem himself. Randy just smiled at him and applauded his courage.

There was a glint in the old man’s eyes, he understood. He again seemed formidable despite his small stature and worn frame.

Randy told him that the Marines would

12 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

be leaving the area soon and there would be no one to act as sheriff for quite a while. We knew what would happen when we left, but it wasn’t a problem we could solve. In the wake of the chaos created by the invasion and Saddam’s fall, old scores would be settled.

The old man and his nephew assisted in drawing a sketch and map to the location of the POWs. Evidently they understood maps much better than the cops Matt and I were trying to work with. The old man informed Randy the POWs were in a brownish colored house, number 13. The main difficulty in the debrief centered around one landmark.

The old man described it as a large tower he called a “spirally.” He said it in English with a thick Arabic accent, “spy-rhaleee,” and he said it in Arabic, but Ra’ad did not know the Iraqi dialect word the old man used. With careful questioning, Randy eventually concluded the old man must be talking about a large electrical transformer tower. But it took time, and time was not on our side. As the deadline for 3rd LAR’s movement approached, LtCol Clardy was increasingly being put into a position of having to sacrifice a chance to rescue the POWs due to the operational demands of the larger scheme of maneuver.

The route the old man described was relatively simple, it went straight over the bridge and into the city for about a kilometer, then making a right turn at the “spirally.” After the right turn it was about two blocks and then a U-turn and then another right turn after a block. The U-turn was due to a median in the road. There would be an ambulance in the driveway of the building holding the POWs. Threats were the next priority. Randy questioned the old man regarding the Iraqi military presence, even though they’d likely fled already. More importantly, Randy asked about the

Saddam Fedayeen presence, as the Fedayeen had been much more of a problem than any of the Iraqi military elements. The old man explained that everyone in town was to afraid to fight in the area we were going but that other areas of the city could be dangerous.

This meant that the old man’s tribe controlled that area of Samarra and would provide safe passage, but other parts of the city were probably in the hands of Saddam loyalists and if the 3rd LAR Marines went anywhere else they would most likely be attacked.

Randy had the information we needed.

He shook the old man’s hand and again promised the tribesmen guarding the POWs would be safe as long as they offered no resistance. As the old man and his nephew drove away, Randy was aware time had now become a critical factor. He ran back to the HET with Ra’ad chubbily running in tow, a cigarette hanging from the Kuwaiti’s mouth.

When Randy got back to the truck, he looked urgently for Nate. Up until this point he hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone else what he was working on, because the rest of the team had been fully occupied. Nate, Jason, and Ra’ad had been dealing with tribal elders while Matt, Johnny, and I had been dealing with the cops. Randy needed to tell someone the information he had acquired and the plan he had set in motion.

Randy found Nate just as our lieutenant was walking to the HET 3 truck, talking to 3rd LAR’s senior intelligence officer. Nate was explaining how Matt, Johnny, and I were in the middle of debriefing local cops who were claiming there were seven American prisoners in the city and that Chemical Ali was hiding in Samarra. When Randy heard the rundown of the information Matt and I were getting, his confidence in the accuracy of the information he

had obtained from the old man became complete. This was corroboration.

Standing alongside the HET 3 truck, Randy laid out everything he had learned, as well as the minor detail of having loaned out Nate’s personal GPS to get it done. Nate didn’t flinch at Randy’s initiative, he trusted his Marine. Nate needed to gauge Randy’s confidence in the source, he needed to know Randy’s gut instinct was saying. Randy’s response was clear and confident that he believed the old man and 3rd LAR needed to move on the house immediately to recover the POWs. That confident response was all Nate needed to hear.

The concern now was how to convince LtCol Clardy a rescue mission was possible. The 3rd LAR battalion commander had never worked with a Human Intelligence team before and he had no reason to trust Nate, a young 1st Lieutenant. A rescue would mean sending Marines into an Iraqi holy city, an area higher headquarters had designated as off-limits. Success, of course, would justify the risk. But if there were no POWs, if HET 3’s intelligence was wrong, and if Marines died on the mission, LtCol Clardy’s career would probably be over.

Nate was about to ask a senior Marine Corps officer to risk his career on the intelligence HET 3 Marines had collected.

Without hesitation, Nate picked up the radio handset in the HET 3 truck and called for 3rd LAR’s battalion headquarters, callsign “Wolfpack.”

“Wolfpack, this is Jesuit Three Actual.”

“Jesuit Three Actual, send your traffic.”

“Wolfpack, I need Wolfpack Six’s location immediately, over.”

“Sir, we’re not sure where he is, we’ll send a runner.”

Nate cursed under his breath, but there wasn’t anything he could do. “Roger that, Wolfpack, Jesuit Three Actual out.”

Waiting isn’t easy when you’re mentally

and physically exhausted and lives are in jeopardy. The minutes ticked by, and the waiting was done in tired silence. The POWs’ lives were on the line. Nate is a pretty patient man, but it didn’t take long before he was once again on the radio, calling battalion headquarters.

“Wolfpack, this is Jesuit Three Actual, over.”

“Go ahead, Jesuit Three.”

“Wolfpack, this is a fucking priority, where the fuck is goddam Wolfpack Six??”

We gave each other sidelong looks, eyebrows raised. Nate was cussing? Shit was getting intense.

“Sir, we’ve sent a runner, we’re looking for him and…”

“Break break,” Nate interrupted battalion’s transmission, “Marine, then you need to send another fucking runner. And another one. Keep sending your fucking runners until you find the fucking BC. I don’t give a good goddam if you use every fucking Marine in headquarters. Find. The. Fucking. BC. Am I understood?”

As Nate let off a little steam on the radio operator, Randy leaned back against the truck and Ra’ad lit up another shitty Iraqi cigarette. The Kuwaiti seemed to like them for some reason. Nate started to lean on the radio operator a bit harder, who was an unfortunate target of opportunity.

Waiting isn’t easy when you’re mentally and physically exhausted and lives are in jeopardy.

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 13

Just as it started to get really heated, LtCol Clardy walked up from behind, listening intently to Nate going off with a bit of a smirk on his face. Randy could have warned Nate with a nudge, but he thought it was more entertaining to watch it all play out. Small moments of pleasure should be taken when they present themselves, even if it’s at your commanding officer’s expense. Especially if it’s at your commanding officer’s expense.

LtCol Clardy interrupted Nate and said, “Lieutenant, can you please stop berating my Lance Corporal? What do you need?”

The radio handset dropped to Nate’s side. He swiveled and fired a glare at Randy, then turned to LtCol Clardy. Nate briefly glanced back at Randy, mouthing, “You bastard!” Randy’s only response was a tired grin, just a twitch of the corner of his mouth.

Nate explained how the intelligence the cops had provided had just been corroborated by Randy’s source. LtCol Clardy listened to everything the team had learned from our Iraqi sources in the preceding two hours. He said he would talk to 1st Marine Division headquarters and make a decision on whether or not to send a platoon into Samarra to recover the POWs. LtCol Clardy also brought in Captain Miller, the commanding officer of Delta Company, 3rd LAR, who would be responsible for conducting the rescue if the mission was authorized.

LtCol Clardy walked to his command vehicle and got on the radio. We knew that the Special Forces teams in Baghdad would be the best option to go after the POWs. They had trained for hostage rescue missions for years. They were specialized shooters who knew exactly how to conduct this kind of operation.

But they were hours away, and 3rd LAR would not be able to wait, it had to move to support the attack on Tikrit.

The sources, the cops, and the old man would probably be gone, and the Special Forces team would have to go in blind.

By then, the POWs could be moved again, or simply killed. LtCol Clardy knew that he had only a narrow window to make a decision.

He was only gone a few minutes, and when he returned he declared he had not been able to communicate with Division headquarters. In the absence of guidance from higher headquarters, LtCol Clardy gave the order to act on HET 3’s information.

“We’re Marines, gents, kicking down doors is our job. One more firefight, if it happens, in the middle of this whole war is worth the opportunity to save captive Americans.”

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The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 15

POWs comforted by Marine rescuers.

Smoke billowed. Locals had set fire to a mural of Saddam in the nearby traffic circle and it swirled above the Marines as they prepared for the rescue mission.

Captain Miller called over 3rd Platoon and Randy briefed the situation, the route, and the likely threat. Ra’ad loaded into the back of the lead LAV and Randy climbed on top to make sure he had a view and was able to communicate with the driver.

He was in an incredibly exposed position, but it was his job to navigate the platoon to the building holding the POWs. The driver didn’t have the GPS with the grid

coordinate, nor the sketch. Randy had obtained the directions first hand, and felt he was responsible for the mission.

It was his information that was now responsible for putting at risk an entire platoon of Marines.

Randy, Ra’ad, and the platoon of 3rd LAR Marines crossed the bridge in two LAVs and made a right turn at the first electrical transformer tower. But it didn’t feel right to Randy. The area around the tower did not match the description the old man had provided. Randy decided to turn around, and directed the driver to

16 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

make the next left turn.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a lone Iraqi soldier with an RPG on his shoulder popped up, ready to take a shot at the platoon. But the LAV gunners in their turrets spotted him immediately, and swiveled their massive weapons to take aim on him. The Iraqi soldier changed his mind about confronting the Marines, and ran. Still, it was a strong reminder the platoon was by itself beyond friendly lines.

Randy guided the two-vehicle convoy back to the main road and put the sketch away. When the source had provided the

directions they had seemed simple, but now, in the city itself, they didn’t make sense. So he set the GPS to guide to the location the source had marked. He was worried. He was trying to guide a handful of Marines through enemy territory, far beyond any quick reinforcements from the other side of the river if they ran into any sizable Iraqi force. All based on directions that now seemed unreliable.

But he trusted the grid coordinate, and he trusted his source. He stared at the arrow on the face of the GPS screen and they began to close in on the marked location, the GPS indicated it was about one kilometer away.

And then, Randy saw the landmark the source had described. It was definitely a “spirally,” but it wasn’t an electrical tower. It was the real Malwiya minaret, fifty-two meters high, standing in the middle of the city. It twisted into the sky, a mud-brick spire. Spirally. He looked for the right turn, and saw it.

The area matched exactly the old man’s description. The LAVs were already in the median, so instead of having to make a U-turn they simply made a direct left turn onto the street where the source claimed the POWs were being held, the high-clearance LAVs bumping over the concrete curbs.

The platoon dismounted the LAVs and began to scan the buildings lining the street for any sign of the POWs. Ra’ad and Randy headed further down the street from where the LAVs were now parked, following the GPS arrow which said they were within 80 meters, then 30 meters, then 20 meters, and then inexplicably back to 80 meters.

The platoon had now been in Samarra, alone, for at least ten minutes and Randy knew that the Iraqi soldier who had run away might have simply retreated to go get reinforcements. The Marines couldn’t afford to spend an excessive amount of

time in the city. Randy heard the Marines yelling from behind, back at the LAVs, and realized he and Ra’ad were no longer really part of 3rd Platoon and that they were beginning to load back up into the vehicles. But Randy felt that he could not go back. He had to find the POWs and he was sure he was close. So he kept moving, praying that the GPS would give him the magic answer. Ra’ad following behind, putting his trust in Randy. The 3rd Platoon Marines again hollered for Randy, “Staff Sergeant! Come back!” He stopped, unsure of what to do but not ready to give up.

At just that moment a sweet sound rang out down the street, sweet as hearing fresh Guinness pour from the tap. Randy heard one of the LAV drivers shout “I see one! I see one!” From his vantage point on foot, Randy couldn’t and neither could anyone else, but that driver’s conviction he had seen one of the POWs was what they needed to keep moving forward. Only about half of the platoon had been loaded back up into the LAVs, so they all began to move at a slow roll or quick trot toward Randy’s end of the street and around the block to the front of the house the LAV driver had pointed to. Ra’ad and Randy were ahead of the platoon at first, but quickly fell behind as Randy stayed with the Kuwaiti linguist who was struggling to keep up.

Ra’ad had definitely lost some weight since he joined us, but he was still an out of shape chain smoker. Randy struggled with wanting to sprint ahead with 3rd Platoon and go after the POWs. It wasn’t far, after all, just around the block, and Ra’ad would certainly catch up. But the portly linguist was Randy’s to care for and if he didn’t protect him, no one would, so Randy stayed with Ra’ad, pulling him along as fast as possible.

Randy and Ra’ad came around the corner just as the Marines formed up

in a stack outside the gate of the house spotted by the LAV driver, ready to breach. Through the crack of the gate we could see an ambulance sitting in the driveway with an Army shirt that said “YOUNG” on the back, hanging off the side mirror.

“This is it,” Randy thought to himself, “We are fucking going to rescue our people.” The 3rd Platoon Marines breached the gate first and then the house, quickly locating the POWs inside the main room.

The old man had been true to his word. The guards were unarmed when the Marines came into the house. They were lying on the floor along with the POWs, creating confusion regarding who was a guard and who was a POW, since the American prisoners all wore striped pajamas and flip-flops, and were as skinny as Iraqis from their captivity. The Marines quickly resolved the situation and separated the Iraqis from the Americans.

The guards were put into the kitchen and the POWs were ushered outside and placed near the ambulance, with the 3rd Platoon Marines standing close watch.

Randy felt pulled in ten directions from the moment the LAV driver spotted the POW. Events had unfolded secondto-second, with no time to absorb what happening. He was still shocked the whole plan was working, and he couldn’t stop staring at the rescued POWs sitting next to the ambulance. Then a strident voice, one that only a Gunnery Sergeant of Marines can have, cut through the fog.

The Gunny needed a decision as to what should be done with the Iraqi guards still in the kitchen. Randy began walking toward the house. One of the POWs, Apache pilot CWO Dave Williams, jumped up and ran to Randy.

“Sergeant! Please, don’t arrest the guards. They were good, they helped us.”

He explained that the guards had

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 17

Rescued POWs pose with Marines.

treated the POWs well. He even said the guards had given them hamburgers and fries the night before. Dave didn’t know about Randy’s deal with the old man.

He was just trying to help the few Iraqis that had treated them gently during their captivity. Dave was the one the LAV driver saw. Dave had made a run for the roof when he heard the LAVs and was able to shout and wave before being pulled down by one of the guards, who said he did it to protect Dave.

The Gunny pushed Randy to make a decision. Staying in one place in the middle of unfriendly territory was extremely dangerous and they had been in the city for at least twenty minutes at this point. Randy decided to let the guards just stay in the house, instead of trying to turn them over to the old man at some future point, which might or might not happen. The decision made, one of the guards asked if they could

go get weapons to protect themselves.

Randy told him to get their guns and do what was needed to protect themselves, but to wait until the Marines had left the area. Otherwise, there was a very good chance the Marines would see them as a threat.

The guard grabbed Randy in a hug, thanked him, and kissed him on each cheek.

As Randy left the house, the POWs were already being loaded up in the LAVs, but making space for the injured POWs who couldn’t be crammed in like the Marines meant that not everyone could ride in the vehicles.

After the POWs were safely inside, Randy, Ra’ad, and 3rd Platoon Marines climbed onto the two LAVs and hung on as best they could. The ride back to the main body of Marines was short, but it something unforgettable. The LAVs raced back to 3rd LAR and the

city flew by, the exhaust from the LAVs filling the Marines’ nostrils.

Nate was with the rest of HET 3, monitoring the radio and the progress of the mission. When 3rd Platoon started rolling back from the rescue site, they called in, “Seven nightingales inbound.”

Nate didn’t believe it at first, it was too good to be true. He asked for confirmation.

Again, the 3rd Platoon radioman said, “That is affirmative, seven nightingales inbound.” “Nightingale” is the military codeword for an American Prisoner of War. Nate was shaking a bit as he put down the radio handset. The mission had succeeded.

Nate was standing near the bridge waiting for their return. He was the first person Randy saw as they drove up and he gave HET 3’s team leader a thumbsup. All the Marines were grinning as

the crossed the bridge back into friendly lines, crowded on top of the LAVs with precious cargo tucked inside.

I am sure every Marine there was as overwhelmed with the moment as Randy.

I was. Randy had started his stopwatch when he gave away Nate’s GPS to the old man to obtain the POWs grid coordinates. He glanced down when he saw his smiling face at the foot of the bridge. It had been 2 hours 10 minutes and 13 seconds, the best/worst hours of his life. Of all of our lives.

•

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Mr. McCollough (www. warmemoirsiraq.com) served in the Marine Corps from 1996 to 2005. While in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, he served as a part of 1st CI/HUMINT Company, 1st Intelligence Battalion. He has written articles for TIME magazine’s Battleland online, as well as RangerUp.com.

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Case Study:

PUTIN’S RING OF STEEL: HOW THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION CONSTRUCTED THE MOST EXTENSIVE AND CONTROVERSIAL SECURITY SYSTEM IN OLYMPIC HISTORY1 This article is an excerpt from the new book Soft Target Hardening: Protecting People from Attack (Dr. Jennifer Hesterman, CRC, 2014).

20 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

Fragment of the panorama of the Olympic Park. In the center of winter sports palace “Iceberg”. Photo by: Ivanaivanova

By Eileen Jorns

In a January 2014 interview, President Vladimir Putin asserted that, “[i]f we allow ourselves to be weak, feel weak, let our fear to be seen, by doing that we’ll assist those terrorists in achieving their goals.”2

T

he 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia was historic because, for the first time, the global discussion was more focused on the escalating potential of terrorist activity against unprotected “soft” targets and the requisite security for the Games’ venues

rather than on the athletic competitions.

With serious threats of terrorist attacks shrouding the Games, the Russian Olympic Committee generated the most sophisticated and extensive security regime in history. From deploying thousands of troops, to positioning

hundreds of anti-aircraft missiles and implementing a pervasive surveillance system, the security at the Sochi Olympic Games was unprecedented in depth and extent. However, despite these defensive measures and Russian assurances, the world nervously speculated as to whether

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 21

Panorama of construction of Olympic 2014 facilities in the Imereti lowland in the Adler district of the city of Sochi. Photo by: Sergei Kazantsev

the Games in Sochi would be safe.

Agitated by statements from terrorist leaders that they were explicitly targeting the Olympics, and suicide bombings occurring only months before the Games, world leaders, Russian citizenry, Olympic athletes, and international tourists feared that the advisories, precautions, and implemented security could not protect against potential terrorist attacks. Yet, despite the numerous threats and all of the concerns, the 2014 Winter Olympic

Games in Sochi was not attacked.

President Putin accomplished his goal of protecting the Games, maintaining his reputation, and promoting Russia as a powerful and impenetrable global entity.

But, what was the ultimate price for Russia’s Olympic success?

THE VENUE The warmest place in Russia, and a common vacation spot for natives during the long winter, Sochi was a seemingly

22 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

strange location to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. However, Sochi is a favorite locale of President Putin, who owns a personal retreat in the resort city.

Throughout the history of the former Soviet Union, Sochi offered peace and quiet to many of the politically elite, including Joseph Stalin, whose former dacha (vacation home) can still be visited by tourists today. Despite the weather and the Soviet legacy in Sochi, the most surprising aspect of Sochi’s

selection was its close proximity to the volatile region of the northern Caucuses.

Situated in the southwestern-most corner of Russia, nestled near the Black Sea, Sochi is separated only by the Caucasus Mountains from a hotbed of Islamic militant groups – deeply embedded, actively engaged in terror attacks and passionately intent on attacking Putin’s Russia. Sochi is just 300 miles from Chechnya and only 185 miles from Kabardino-Balkaria, site of more than 69

attacks in 2013. Unquestionably, the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics was located on the edge of a war zone.

The long and historic conflict in the northern Caucuses dates back to 1817, when Russian forces invaded the Persiancontrolled region and sparked a war with the local tribes. After nearly 50 years of fighting and more than 290,000 deaths, Russia captured the opposition leader and annexed the Caucasus. Relations were further antagonized during Joseph Stalin’s

reign of the Soviet Union. Relying on accusations of collaboration with Nazi Germany, Joseph Stalin deported the entire Chechen population and majority of the Ingush population to Siberia and Central Asia. The historical and cultural clash between Russian and the northern Caucasus culminated in the First and Second Chechen War during the 1990s, which took over 150,000 lives. Today, almost 200 years after the first spark of violence in 1817, relations between the

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 23

The session of the Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sport, Excellence in Sports, and the Preparation and Execution of the 2014 XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi. Photo by: Presidential Press and Information Office

Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

Photo by: premier.gov.ru

24 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

Kremlin and the northern Caucuses continue to be strained and the region remains volatile.

The violence and cultural tension associated with the northern Caucuses is predominantly embedded in the Republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia. The North Caucasus Federal District, with a population of approximately ten million, is the smallest of Russia’s eight federal districts.

However, it is the most diverse district, with approximately forty ethnic groups, and the only district in which ethnic Russians are actually in the minority.

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Unlike the rest of the Russian Federation, Sunni Islam is the dominant religion in the North Caucasus, with most practicing Sufism, or mystical Islam. In 2005, a group of Sunni Islam extremists in this region ignited an uprising against the Russian Federation in an effort to spurn Russian rule and establish an independent Islamic state.

The Islamist insurgency’s umbrella group, known as the Caucasus Emirate or Imarat Kavkaz, imposes its religious tenets through various acts of terrorism, including suicide bombings and army ambushes. Its mission to establish an Islamic Caliphate is led by Chechen warlord, Doku Umarov, whose first attack was the 2010 suicide bombing in the Moscow metro, killing 39 people. He also claimed responsibility for the 2011 suicide attack at Russia’s Domodedovo International Airport that killed 35.

Numerous other terrorist acts against soft targets have recently been perpetrated throughout Russia under the Caucasus Emirate banner. In October, 2013, a female suicide bomber from Dagestan killed 6 people and injured over 30 others on a passenger bus in the Russian city of Volgograd. Two months later, another Dagestani female terrorist attacked the same city, killing sixteen people at a local train station.

The Volgograd terrorist attacks, which occurred a mere six weeks before the 2014 Winter Olympics, caused global concern and speculation about Russia’s ability to stem the increasing threats of similar attacks to soft targets surrounding the Olympic Games. These concerns were not unfounded. In July, 2013, Umarov summoned his Islamist followers to make the Sochi 2014 Olympics a target of extremist activity, claiming that these “Satanic Games” were being held on the “bones of our ancestors,” alluding to the fact that Sochi was

the last stand for Muslims who were slaughtered and buried there during the Russian-Circassian war that ended in 1864.3 Some historians agreed, stating that Russia’s hosting the Olympic Games at Sochi was akin to Germany hosting games at Auschwitz.4 So Putin’s choice of Sochi was not only based on personal preference, but incited the Chechens and brought forth memories of genocide that wiped out a generation of Russian Muslims. Media outlets around the world discussed the blatant threats of terror and ruminated over whether Russian security at the Winter Olympics would be sufficient to protect the city, the citizens, the coaches and athletes, and the tourists.

The issue of security soon dominated worldwide media discussions regarding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

THE PLAN In response to the blatant terrorist threats and the increasingly negative media coverage of Russia’s security, the Sochi Olympic Committee and President Putin implemented a public relations scheme to generate a positive perception of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The chief Sochi organizer, Dmitry Chernyshenko, confidently proclaimed that Sochi was the “most secure venue on the planet.”5 President Putin adamantly affirmed that the Sochi Games would showcase the greatness of the Russian Federation and guaranteed that, “Our job, needless to say, the job of the Olympics host, is to ensure security of the participants in the Olympics and visitors to this festival of sports and we will do whatever it takes.”6 To the Russian President and the Russian Federation, the Games were indicative of much more than just the ability to host a sporting event. More than thirty years after Moscow hosted the controversial 1980 Olympic Games, the 2014 Winter

26 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

Olympics in Sochi were intended as an exposition of Russia’s greatness. President Putin articulated the significance of the Sochi games stating that, “following the collapse of the USSR, following hard and, let’s put it bluntly, blood-soaked developments in the Caucasus, the overall state society was depressing and pessimistic. We need to cheer up, we need to understand and feel that we are capable of pulling off major, large-scale projects and do so on schedule and with good quality.”7 As a result of the significance that he placed on the Olympic Games, the sporting event soon earned the moniker of “Putin’s Games.” Achieving Putin’s goal and protecting his reputation came at a price tag of $50 billion, more than what was spent on all previous winter games combined. The exorbitant cost overrun of the Sochi Games is widely attributed to Russia’s continued political corruption and construction-industry fraud, and one construction worker openly complained about the $50 million bribe paid to a Kremlin official to secure work at Sochi.

Kremlin officials described the impenetrable fortress of security around the Games as Putin’s “Ring of Steel.” The architect of the “ring of steel” was the appointed Chairman of Security for the Sochi Games, Oleg Syromolotov. Syromolotov serves as the Deputy Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) with particular expertise in counterintelligence. Central to the security laydown was the most extensive, sophisticated, and controversial surveillance systems in operation.8 The 2014 Olympics became a monumental experiment for comprehensive and invasive surveillance, making Sochi the most heavily-policed environment in history.9 At the core of the operation was a sophisticated technical platform, the System of Operative-Investigative

Olympic Park. February 7, 2014. Photo by: Ivanaivanova Measures (SORM), which, by all accounts, it makes NSA’s controversial PRISM system look elementary. First developed in the 1980s by the Soviet KGB, SORM is a nationwide electronic interception and monitoring program that authorizes numerous Russian agencies to legally intercept all electronic transmissions. The latest version, SORM3, has been described as, “a giant vacuum cleaner which scoops all electronic communication from all users all the time.”10 Designed to search meta-data and

content, SORM-3 intercepts, collects, examines, and stores all information and communications (e.g., emails, social networks, phone calls) from electronic devices, storing them for future use. The breadth of FSB’s authority and SORM3’s technical ability to gather and analyze information by reading and listening to electronic communications far surpasses the capabilities of the National Security Agency’s PRISM system, which Edward Snowden exposed in 2013. Sochi Olympic officials worked diligently to

ensure that all Internet Service Providers (ISP) installed the SORM-3 devices on their networks to provide the FSB unrestricted surveillance capability of tourists, coaches, athletes, and journalists.

The Olympic Committee justified this unbridled surveillance as necessary to protect against terrorism. Furthermore, ISPs that did not have the system installed were fined by the FSB. In furtherance of the government’s anti-terrorism security scheme, Russia’s leading telecom operator, Rostelecom,

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 27

promised to provide the fastest Wi-Fi in Olympic history by launching an extensive 4G LTE network throughout Sochi, which was offered for free to all visitors to the Games. However, with this free, rapid Wi-Fi access, all Sochi internet users were subject to Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) which allowed ISP providers and other intermediaries to collect and analyze the Internet communications of millions of users simultaneously.” Rostelecom required the installation of Deep Packet to facilitate the FSB’s ability to monitor and filter all communication traffic.

The Olympic Committee’s conventional security was also extensive.

More than 40,000 police were on duty throughout the Games guarding the Olympic city. Two sonar systems were purchased to protect against sea-launched terror attacks and to repel a possible air attack, there were anti-ballistic missile batteries around the city. Finally, with more than 4,000 surveillance cameras and closed-circuit television (CCTV) technology installed, Sochi became one of the most watched cities in the world. With cameras watching at every corner and missile defense units visible to the public, many argued that the spirit of the Sochi Games was shrouded in a blanket of extensive and intimidating security measures.11 At first, the Sochi security officials were reserved and uncooperative, not only about sharing details regarding the scope and magnitude of the implemented security, but also about sharing the duty of security enforcement. Over time, the relationship between the FBI and the Russian FSB improved, and a month before the Games, FBI Director Comey, announced he would send about a dozen U.S. Federal agents to the Sochi Games,

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and even more agents to Moscow. This announcement came amidst the growing concern of terrorist attacks on “soft” targets and questions about the security of the U.S. team and others. Cognizant of the increasing terrorism threats against soft targets, a top U.S. counterterrorism official warned a Senate Panel prior to the Games that terrorists may strike targets on the outskirts of Sochi.12 Much to the world’s relief, the two weeks of Olympic competition were carried out successfully and without any reported breach of security. The monetary cost to protect the games was high, but the real cost for the unparalleled security at Sochi was felt at the personal level. In and around the Sochi Olympic venues, athletes and coaches, journalists, and tourists were subjected to intrusive electronic surveillance and burdensome physical security measures. In addition to posting photos of the poor sanitary and safety conditions at Sochi via the Twitter account @SochiProblems, tourists also complained (and offered proof ) that their hotel rooms and bathrooms were bugged. In angry response to questions posed by reporters regarding poor facility conditions such as the lack of hot water, Russian Deputy Prime

Minister Dmitry Kozak may have slipped regarding surveillance, stating: “We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day.”13 The price of admission to participate in, to spectate, or to report on an Olympic event was the complete surrender of one’s privacy.

Russia believes that the cost for creating an adequate defense for “soft” targets against terrorist attacks is the complete relinquishment of personal space and private information. Perhaps for those who attended the Olympic Games in Sochi, that price was not too high.

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ms. Jorns lived in Russia, working at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in the months leading up to the 2014 Olympic Games. This article is an excerpt from the new book: Soft Target Hardening: Protecting People from Attack (Dr. Jennifer Hesterman, CRC, 2014).

ENDNOTES Eileen Jorns, “Putin’s Ring of Steel: How the Russian Federation Constructed the Most Extensive and Controversial Security System in 1

Olympic History,” (2014).

2 Kirit Radia, “Putin: ‘Can’t Feel Weak’ in the Face of Terror Threats to Sochi Olympics,” ABC News and World Report.

3 “Islamist Umarov Vows ‘Maximum Force’ to Stop Sochi Games,” Moscow Times, July 3, 2013.

4 Gena Somra and Ivan Watson, “Circassians: Sochi Olympians ‘Are Skiing on the Bones of Our Ancestors’,” CNN. 5 Stephen Wilson, “Sochi Chief: City Is World’s ‘Most Secure Venue’,” AP. 6 Radia, “Putin: ‘Can’t Feel Weak’ in the Face of Terror Threats to Sochi Olympics.”

7 Ibid.

8 Owen Matthews, “Russia Tests “Total Surveillance” at the Sochi Olympics,” Newsweek February 12, 2014.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 J. Bender, “Security Measures That Will Put a “Ring of Steel” around the Sochi Olympics,” January 31, 2014.

12 Aamer Madhani, “U.S. Worried About Attacks on Soft Targets near Sochi,” USA Today, January 29, 2014.

13 Vasudevan Sridharan, “Sochi Winter Olympics 2014: Hotel Rooms and Bathrooms ‘Bugged’,” International Business Times, February 8, 2014.

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By Al J. Venter

EBOLA AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

The Ebola virus disease (or Ebola hemorrhagic fever) has become a horrific reality in many African states: deaths are currently running well into four figures, with health workers the worst hit. By the time this publication goes to press, it is anticipated that Ebola disasters will have been reported in Europe.

It is now in mainland America.

I

t was Dr. James A.F. Compton, who wrote a primer on chemical and biological weapons some years ago, who made one of the most prescient comments in the modern age about biological weapons.1 Penned at a time when the biowarfare concept was all but put on the backburner by the major

Western powers—the United States included—he warned: “These weapons work!” Speaking specifically about biological arsenals, he went on to declare, “They are undergoing revolutionary developments which make them practical and very lethal participants in those human affairs which are ultimately

Transmission Electron Micrograph of the Ebola Virus. Photo by: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

32 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

A technician sets up an assay for Ebola within a containment laboratory.

Samples are handled in negative-pressure biological safety cabinets to provide an additional layer of protection. Photo by: Dr. Randal J. Schoepp

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 33

This 1976 photograph shows two nurses standing in front of Ebola case #3, who was treated, and later died at Ngaliema Hospital, in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a severe, often-fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees) that has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976.

Photo by: CDC/Dr. Lyle Conrad

34 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

resolved with blood and iron… be ignorant and be damned, and condemn your children as well.”

In a curious linked development, several years ago I spent time with Dr. Margaret Isaacson, a South African/ Israeli tropical medicine specialist of international renown. Before moving on to the World Health Organization, Dr. Isaacson was linked to Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and we would often see her going about her business in CNN and BBC news reports that emerged from Africa each time there was an outbreak.

While tending to the sick and dying during the Ebola outbreak in the Congo in 1976, she recalls disembarking from a flight at Yambuku to find a group of North Koreans already there.2 They were “tourists,” they told her, though it was clear by their actions that most were scientists. It didn’t take her long to discover that almost all their work was centered on the spread of the hemorrhagic fever virus.

Being a circumspect individual, Margaret would say little more on the subject. But she did confide that she talked to intelligence personnel on both sides of the Atlantic, and undoubtedly in Israel. In answer to my question as to whether the North Koreans were involved in a biological warfare program— in which Ebola might one day be deployed—her answer was succinct: “Use your imagination, Al.” Not long afterwards, while I was working with Dr. Jonathan Tucker on a report on chemical and biological warfare for London’s Jane’s Information Group, several Soviet biowarfare links emerged. Jonathan, who has since passed away, was then Director of the Chemical and Biological Warfare

This photograph showed an aerial view of a cotton factory located in Nzara, Sudan where the earliest cases in the 1976 Sudan Ebola outbreak had worked. Dr. Joe McCormick and Dr. Roy Baron, along with a number of other investigators, went through this factory looking for the source of the virus, however, none was found. From these early cases of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, the virus started to spread from the factory through the town of Nzara, and then went east to the town of Maridi, where the virus killed many staff members of the local hospital, as well as numerous patients. Photo by: Joel G. Breman, M.D., D.T.P.H.

Nonproliferation Project at California’s Monterey Institute of International Studies, and he had one of the most interesting stories of all.3 Intelligence sources in Washington chanced on a report of the death of a Soviet scientist in what is today the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology “Vektor” Center in Koltsovo, then, with Zagorsk and Irkutsk, at the heart of Moscow’s biowarfare program.

According to Dr. Kanatjan Alibekov (today Ken Alibek), a Soviet defector we scribes all got to know quite well

while doing our research, there was an accident in one of Moscow’s biowarfare labs in 1988. Nikolai Ustinov, a scientist working on the “Vektor” program, pricked his finger while handling a vial containing the Ebola virus. He was immediately placed in isolation and became the focus of a series of studies that went on until he died: the most complete dossier on an Ebola death at the time. Ustinov was allowed visits by his wife, but insulated sheets of glass separated them. They would talk to each other through microphones and each

time she left, they would put their palms together on the glass. The last time they saw each other he was already bleeding both internally and externally, his condition so bad that he left the imprint of his palm, in blood, on the glass.4 It is interesting that although Russia, together with 170 states, is a signatory to the Biological Weapons Convention (which prohibits the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons) hemorrhagic fever research continued in all three centers after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 35

Banner reads “Ebola is real: Let’s stop the sprea[d] of Ebola”. This banner was displayed on the vehicle of the zonal head for the Kings Gray community near ELWA hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. Photo by: CDC Global

Ebola is more lethal, with a death rate topping 90 percent in some areas and 60 percent in others.5

And with aggressive former KGB Lt Col. Vladimir Putin at Moscow’s helm, there is a good probability that that research continues today.

What then is the Ebola “terror” all about? There has been a great deal of

36 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

June 2014 —This is the hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, West Africa, where Ebola virus samples are tested to see if someone has the virus or not.

Photo by: Leasmhar

research on the subject, and as far as is known, primates are the cause of most outbreaks, though the scientific community is not completely certain about the Marburg virus disease, because that first occurred in the town of Marburg in Germany.

The two fevers have a number of common denominators, though. Ebola is more lethal, with a death rate topping 90 percent in some areas and 60 percent in others.5 Its’ effects are truly horrific, as one report stated, “with people writhing

in agonizing pain, vomiting blood, passing bloody urine and diarrhea, bleeding from the nose, ears and mouth and shedding bloody tears.” Also, recent research has shown that the virus is constantly mutating, creating new and,

in the long term, possibly even deadlier strains. In a nutshell, while there are a few new drugs that tend to help in some cases, they have failed in others, making this potentially the deadliest international health hazard of the past century.

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 37

Water containers treated with chlorine outside the Government of Liberia's new National Ebola Command Center. The emergency operations center now hosts Ministry of Health teams alongside international partners, supporting faster planning and easier connections for the multifaceted epidemic response. Photo by: CDC Global

38 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

Symptoms start two (some studies say five) days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pain and headaches.

Infections stem from the exchange of bodily fluids, though it is still not clear whether you can get it from mosquitoes that might have taken blood from somebody who already has it.

Before he died, Jonathan Tucker made another comment that has been often quoted in recent years. He declared that while the 20th century was the age of the atom, the 21st century will be the age of the gene.6 His phraseology is explicit: “Not only will molecular bio-technology transform agriculture, energy production, health care, and microelectronics, it will ultimately pose significant military and strategic challenges.” Dr. Tucker went on to say that although recombinant DNA technology offered great benefits to humankind, it also had a dark side: “The genetic engineering of microbial pathogens, toxins, and even natural brain chemicals to create more deadly, persistent and insidious weapons of terror and war.”

His comments had a direct bearing on developments in the United States relating to the spread of anthrax, which demonstrated that no country is immune from attack by biological weapons. We know, too, that the use of anthrax on the American East Coast in the last quarter of 2001 proved that germs are extraordinarily difficult to deploy as weapons. For a start, it is not easy to become infected by anthrax simply by handling the spore in powder form, such as that disseminated to members of the U.S. Congress by envelope, unless you have a cut and it

enters your body subcutaneously.

A comprehensive study on the spread of bioterrorism and biocrimes was released in Washington, D.C. little more than a year ago. Written by Dr. W. Seth Carus, then a visiting fellow at the National Defense University’s Center for Counterproliferation

Research and today one of America’s leading pundits on biological warfare.

In 1997, Carus published a paper that remains seminal to the subject, titled The Threat of Bioterrorism.

In his latest dissertation, Dr. Carus warned that the international community faced a much greater threat today than

For the first time in West Africa, a case of Ebola was confirmed on 21 March, three weeks after the first alert of a possible viral haemorrhagic fever emerged from Guinea’s Forest region. Animals such as fruit bats, rodents and monkeys, abundant in the adjacent jungle, are believed to have served as a ‘reservoir’ for the virus. However, once it passed from an infected animal to a human-being, the virus is now ready for human-to-human transmission. Photo by: EC/ECHO

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 39

Biometrics for Government and Law Enforcement returns for its 9th consecutive year as the only biometrics event to exclusively cater to the needs of federal government and local law enforcement. Join hundreds of biometric professionals (both industry and end users) to preview the future of biometric initiatives and technology, first hand from those leading the direction of our upcoming efforts.

Featured Speakers:

presents . . .

• Leslie Hope, Biometrics Chief, DHS/UCIS

was previously acknowledged. He noted a greater availability of sophisticated, technical expertise to terrorist groups (including former out-of-work Russian scientists). In some instances, he maintained, these elements had the backing of rogue governments. Carus stressed that it was vital that the West take this threat seriously and that “It would be a grave mistake not to do so.”

The American perception of the threat, suggested Carus, had been slow, but it was moving ahead and is reflected in the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici legislation passed on Capitol Hill. This provides training to 120 U.S. cities in chemical and biological incident response. The media is rarely invited to these sessions, which are closed to the public.

Unfortunately, he added, “The threat of bioterrorism generally, remains poorly understood except by those associated with the disciplines involved. Although there have been some excellent theoretical explorations of the subject, there has been little empirical research into the illicit use of biological agents.” In his publication, Dr. Carus cited more than 110 alleged cases involving biological agents in the past century. These ranged from the work of Japan’s notorious Unit 731, which conducted a succession of germ warfare experiments that lasted years on Chinese and Allied prisoners-of-war in Manchuria in the 1930s, to the more recent public attacks launched by Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo.

This privately funded Japanese organization also experimented with anthrax, botulinum toxin (botox), Q fever, as well as Ebola virus.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that their scientists went to Africa to acquire

• James Loudermilk, Senior Level Technologist, DOJ the virus.

From personal research in • Chris Melton, Biometrics Training Lead, U.S. Army Johannesburg, it was discovered that

January 26-28, 2015 | Washington DC • Paul Assistant Chief,agents Biometrics, Office of Border Patrol Enforcement Systems thereGood, were Aum Shinrikyo in • Jeremy Slavish, Director of Biometrics/Identification, Michigan State Police Kikwit (present-day Congo, then Zaire) Biometrics for Government and Law Enforcement returns for its 9th consecutive year as the only biometrics event to exclusively cater to the needs of federal government and local law enforcement. Join hundreds of biometric professionals (both industry and end users) to preview the future of biometric initiatives and technology, first hand from those leading the direction of our upcoming efforts.

www.BiometricsEvent.com when that outbreak was at its worst.

Featured Speakers: In his original treatise, Dr. Carus made Biometrics for Government and Law Enforcement returns for its the following points with regard to the Reducing error margins in facial scans and fingerprint scans 9th consecutive year as the only threat of bioterrorism: biometrics event to exclusively cater Topics will include: Improving identification rates of latent and forensic scans to the needs of federal government While some terrorist groups had Securing biometrics tools from cyber attacks and evasive tactics and local law enforcement. explored biological weapons as a potential Mobilizing biometrics scanning mediums tool, only a handful had attempted to Join hundreds of biometric Establishing national data standards and formats for professionals (both industry and end actually acquire agents, and even fewer For more information, including improved interoperability users) to preview the future of full speakers and sessions, visit: tried to use them. biometric initiatives and technology, Providing core training and implementation initiatives www . B i o mfrom e t r i c sthose E v e n t .leading com first hand the strong reason to worry that for There handsison operators direction of our upcoming efforts. bioterrorism could become a much New for 2015: greater threat. An increasing number of foreign and domestic groups are working NGI & Technical Training Day and brand new tracked sessions on future towards adopting the tactic of inflicting requirements, science & technology mass casualties to achieve ideological, and field operations. vengeful or “religious” goals, which are often hard to define or understand. In Circle 115 on Reader Service Card this regard, biological weapons are ideal for the purpose. Moreover, terrorist groups could employ such agents to incapacitate rather than kill, and are useful for the purposes of extortion.

December 15-18, 2014 | Hilton Downtown Tampa www.SpecialOperationsSummit.com The greater availability of expertise and resources at their command could Now in it’s 7th iteration, Special Operations Summit 2014 overcome past technological barriers to will focus on: effectively disperse biological agents, • Strengthen Global Summit •is Procurement Special Operations designed to(PROC) provide SOF Network • Military Construction especially if the perpetrators were to gain a holistic overview of special operations advance(MILCON) • Preserve thethe Force/ December 15-18, 2014changes | Hilton Downtown ments given recent in Command andTampa access to a state-sponsored biological • PEO Projects Families upcoming elections. Join more than 250 fellow www.SpecialOperationsSummit.com • Jointfrom Operations Special Operations professionals over Exercises 80 • Responsive Resourcing warfare program.

• Force Readiness different organizations to discuss and identify • Operation and Now in it’s 7th iteration, • 2015 Roadmap In the U.S., there is a growing concern opportunities to strengthen local, regional, and Maintenance (O&M) • Developing Regional Operations Summit 2014 global trust Special through interagency and partner that terrorists will use this medium.

• Research, Development, Partnerships cooperation. will focus on: Test and Evaluation • SOCOM Command Change (RDT&E) Already, law enforcement agents have New for 2014: • Strengthen Global • Procurement (PROC) reportedly arrested individuals associated SOF MILITARY Network AND GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL • Military CAN ATTEND FOR JUST $75! Construction • TSOC Panel Discussions and briefings from (MILCON) with white supremacist and militia Visit www.SpecialOperationsSummit.com for more information.

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• Joint Operations Exercises SOFResourcing Network • Responsive Al-Qaeda is also known to be interested • Exhibit Hall representing critical • capabilities Force Readiness • Operation to and the SOF mission • 2015 Roadmap in mastering these disciplines.7 Maintenance (O&M) Representation to increase • International • Developing Regional cross discussion participation Which brings us back to Ebola’s spread, • Research, Development, Partnerships • IDGA to donate to the Special Operations Test and Evaluation a serious matter, since each week there are • SOCOM Command Change (RDT&E)Warrior Foundation with every registration fresh reports of outbreaks in Africa and

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• Leslie Hope, Biometrics Chief, DHS/UCIS

• James Loudermilk, Senior Level Technologist, DOJ • Chris Melton, Biometrics Training Lead, U.S. Army

• Paul Good, Assistant Chief, Biometrics, Office of Border Patrol Enforcement Systems • Jeremy Slavish, Director of Biometrics/Identification, Michigan State Police

• Reducing error margins in facial scans and fingerprint scans • Improving identification rates of latent and forensic scans

• Securing biometrics tools from cyber attacks and evasive tactics • Mobilizing biometrics scanning mediums

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40 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

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The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 41

September 2, 2014 — A 39-year-old woman, the first participant enrolled in VRC 207, receives a dose of the investigational NIAID/GSK Ebola vaccine at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. Photo by: NIAID

Ebola screening of a passenger who arrived from Sierra Leone at Chicago's O'Hare airport Photo by: Melissa Maraj of U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Officially, at the time of writing, there have been more than a thousand deaths reported.

the Middle East. Officially, at the time of writing, there have been more than a thousand deaths reported. In truth, those refer only to cases that governments are aware of. They do not include infections

42 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

in the often-remote interiors of countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Congo, Nigeria, and a couple of dozen others.

A Red Cross team that had been working in villages in Sierra Leone’s Kailahun district last August, spoke of finding Ebola deaths in just about every village they visited, and that in an area not much bigger than Metropolitan New York City (300 square miles).

There are scores more such districts that nobody has been anywhere near, which also applies to surrounding countries like Liberia, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and others.

Put another way, it only takes one Ebola-contaminated passenger flying from Sierra Leone to Nigeria to infect a vast city like Lagos, with its 25 million people, the majority living in cramped, unsanitary, and overcrowded conditions.

That has already happened, with the disease now having leap-frogged into the oil-rich Niger Delta. And while there are those who maintain that what happens health-wise in Africa is of little concern elsewhere, they have not factored in the reality of Nigeria supplying America with almost a quarter of its crude oil imports.

Potential consequences are enormous.

The first to flee further outbreaks of Ebola in the Nigerian, Angolan, or any other African oilfields would be American and European contract workers who keep these strategic facilities functioning. There is simply no question that the majority would beat a quick retreat home if the disease became widespread. And since several countries are still working on a cure—never mind prophylactic measures, such as those sometimes in place for Malaria—the ability to stop its spread is unknown.

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of filamentous Ebola virus particles (red) attached and budding from a chronically infected VERO E6 cell (blue) (25,000x magnification). Photo by: NIAID

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 43

New and improved

U.S. Marines and Sailors with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Africa arrive in Monrovia, Liberia to support Operation United Assistance, Oct. 9, 2014. Operation United Assistance is part of a comprehensive U.S. Government effort, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development, to respond to and contain the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa as quickly as possible.

Photo by: Lance Cpl. Andre Dakis/SPMAGTF Crisis Response

If this trend continues, the accessibility of African oil supplies could soon become history and axiomatically, the oil price could spiral.

One glimmer of hope with regard to the use of biological weapons being difficult to disseminate came from the World Health Organization in its 1970 report titled Health Aspects of Chemical and Biological Weapons.

It stated: “Although biological agents themselves are easy to produce, complex production and delivery systems are needed if even minimal reliance is to be placed on the outcome of an attack, except perhaps where the intention is simply to produce social disruption by a limited sabotage affect (e.g., the introduction of smallpox).”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Venter is the author of more than 50 books and is also producer and director of TV and films. His most notable effort was a onehour documentary on the war in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion at the behest of the CIA. His latest book Mercenaries is linked to a six part series of the same name for Discovery Channel and he recently published Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa.

ENDNOTES James A.F. Compton; Military Chemical and Biological Agents : Telford Press, NJ, 1987 2 According to Dr. Isaacson, there were Soviet scientists at a 1973 Congolese outbreak of hemorrhagic fever (Personal interview) 3 Personal visit with Dr. Tucker at the Monterey Institute as well as e-mail correspondence 2001/03 4 Personal communications, phone and e-mail with Dr. Alibek over several years while researching for Britain’s Jane’s Information Group 5 Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta Georgia, August 2014 6 Dr. Jonathan Tucker; Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons (BCSIA Studies in International Security), Belfer Center Studies in International Security, MIT Press, 2000 7 Personal interview with Dr. Seth Carus in Washington at the National Defense University’s Center for Counterproliferation Research.

1

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46 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 Circle 155 on Reader Service Card

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The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 47

BOOK REVIEW

Jihadism and Terrorism Volume I Edited By Rudiger Lohlker

Reviewed by: Chris Graham

hy have we seen communist revolutionaries supporting jihadists? Why do we see cooperation between socialist activists and Islamists? An obvious answer would be that these groups see each other as weapons that can be wielded against societies that believe in individual liberty, and individual property rights.

While this answer may be a partial explanation, the world is a complex place and there is always a collision of interests that determine events. Manfred Sing’s “From Maoism to Jihadism”, a noteworthy chapter in Jihadism and Terrorism Volume 1 (Logos Verlag, 2013), successfully explains several of the lesser known aspects of the historical interplay between communist revolutionaries and jihadists.

Sing shares the writing and ideas of some of the most historically influential Maoist guerrillas that transformed into jihadists. “Abu Hasan” al-Bahays and “Hamadi” al-Tamimi’s book Asʾila hawl al-islām wa-l-mārkisīya min warāʾalqudbān is one of the author’s primary sources. These men were leaders of the Islamic Jihad Brigades before being assassinated in Cyprus in 1988.

Sing states, “China was the most consistent big power supporter of the Palestinian guerrilla organizations, arming them, criticizing them, seeking to unify them and…providing…material support.” The author also observes, “The adoption of jihadism among Palestinian fighters happened simultaneously by the Lebanon-Fatah-line and the Egypt-Gaza-

many of the powerbrokers that are our adversaries recognize all of the disciplines of unrestricted warfare, to include: subterfuge, and sponsored activism to be tools to exert their will.

Sing finds that, “Jihadist ideology emerged from, but does not merely represent a mixture of Islam, nationalism, and Marxism. The result was neither an Islamized Maoism nor a Maoist Islam, but a reframing of the Maoist plea of People’s war in an intransigent way. In a time of crisis and defeat, the actors insisted on the priority of armed struggle and turned it into an article of faith.”

There is no question that the People’s Republic of China has sponsored some of the revolutionaries that have transformed into jihadists. It is unclear to what degree China influences each of today’s terrorists, but socialist activists and Islamists appear to demonstrate both passive and active cooperation.1 “From Maoism to Jihadism” provides readers valuable clues to unravel the patchwork of internal and external adversaries that challenge liberty and the rule of law.

1 http://www.investigativeproject. org/3312/is-the-occupy-wall-streetmovement-occupied accessed 12-10-11

W

line, represented by its main figures Fathī Shiqāqī and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿAwda. In Lebanon, it was mostly Fatah officers, often of Maoist or Marxist background, who reintroduced the idea of jihad to the political and military scene.”

He adds, “the Maoists early on were sympathetic to the revolution in Iran and recognized the benefits of using Islam as a tool for mass mobilization.” Sing concludes, “Their main goal was to unite the ‘masses’ according to the Chinese and Vietnamese model of a People’s war…” Sing also observed that some communist revolutionaries “first came to the conclusion that Islam was a factor for mass mobilization and then individually adopted Islam”.

The author notes that Palestinian fighters, when not achieving operational success, contemplated a peace settlement with Israel, but “Observers attributed it to Chinese influence that the Palestinian National Charter from 1968 was revised a year later, stating that ‘the armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.”

Sing quotes one influential islamist as writing, “according to Mao Zedong ‘armed struggle is neither the only, nor the sufficient precondition to achieve a revolution.” To another he attributes, “…military, economical and political power was not enough and therefore…[we] concentrated on the cultural-civilizational attack.” And herein we see the commonality between communist revolutionary warfare and jihad. While many Westerners only recognize an armed attack as warfare,

48 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Graham is the former commander of a military anti-terrorism unit, the editor of The Counter Terrorist magazine and author of the highly acclaimed new novel Election: Dezinformatsiya and The Great Game (www.chrisgrahamauthor.com).

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The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 49

By Walter Purdy

ISIS WARLORD BAGHDADI: PROTÉGÉ OF AL-QAEDA CHIEF ZARQAWI

The evolution of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, can be traced to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shared similar experiences, ideology, strained relationships with Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a hatred of the Shia.

I

brahim ibn Awwad ibn Ibrahim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Badri alSamarrai was born in Samarra, Iraq in 1971. His family hails from the Al-Bu’ Badri clan from Samarra, Iraq, just north of Baghdad. He attended the Islamic University’s Adhamiya campus in Baghdad, earning a doctorate degree in Islamic Studies. The Adhamiya neighborhood, best known for the Abu Hanifa Mosque and the Islamic

50 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

Sunset in Syria. Photo by: Bangin

University, supported a number of militant cells during the time U.S. military forces occupied Baghdad. A number of these cells were very active targeting U.S. forces in firefights and IED attacks, and it would have been very hard for someone to attend the University and not know what was occurring or support them. What role Abu Bakr played during this period of time remains to be revealed.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, self-proclaimed Caliph of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, delivering sermon in Mosul.

Photo by: al-Furqān Media

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 51

Strikes in Syria and Iraq, Sept. 23, 2014. ISIL Finance Center in ar-Raqqah, Syria. Photo by: DoD graphic, LTG W.C. Mayville

A still photo made from an armament delivery recording of the air strike on the building housing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and others on June 7, 2006. Photo by: Department of Defense

THE JIHADI KUNYA

Picture of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shortly after his death. Photo by: U.S. Army

Both men took jihadi kunyas that foreshadowed their futures. More often than not, jihadis take a kunya (nom de guerre) as a way of disguising their true identity. The jihadi kunya will usually be followed by a nisba, indicating their region or town of origin.1 Ahmed Fadil Nazzal al-Khalayleh was born in Zarqa, Jordan in 1966. Ahmed Fadil Nazzal al-Khalayleh chose the kunya Abu Musab

52 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

al-Zarqawi. In choosing this kunya, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi was paying homage to the seventh-century Islamic warrior and his hometown. Abu Musab in Islamic history was known for his bravery, stood for the concept of self-sacrifice, and would later become the so-called “patron saint for suicide bombers.”2 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi chose a kunya that would resound with all Muslims.

Historically, Abu Bakr was the Prophet

Mohammad’s closest companion and the first Caliph.3 On June 29, 2014, ISIS declared Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “the caliph” and “leader for Muslims everywhere.”4 Thus, the kunyas of each of these jihadis tells us something about their intentions and hopes. While most Arabs use the first name of their eldest son, these jihadists wanted their kunyas to communicate something more than just that they were fathers.

EARLY DAYS IN AFGHANISTAN Once Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was released from prison in Jordan, he realized

that he was under the constant watch of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate.5 In 1999, Zarqawi returned to Peshawar and then entered Afghanistan to meet with al-Qaeda’s leadership in Kandahar. Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri thought that Zarqawi was a “in disagreement with certain aspects of Al-Qa’ida’s ideology and practices.”6 At the insistence of Saif al-Adel, al-Qaeda provided seed money and Saif al-Adel became Zarqawi’s point of contact. Zarqawi would operate a training camp near Herat, Afghanistan on the Iranian border for Jordanians, Syrians, Palestinians, and Iraqis. Right from the start, Zarqawi’s relationship

with Ayman al-Zawahiri was strained.

Zawahiri thought that the Jordanian was uncontrollable and didn’t fit with al-Qaeda. Zarqawi launched a number of operations against the Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan and trained a core cadre of jihadists during this time. When America invaded Afghanistan, Zarqawi fled to Iraq via Iran.

PRISON: RADICALIZATION AND CONNECTIONS Both men spent time in prison. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was sentenced to fifteen years and sent to the high security prison Suwaqah, in the Jordanian desert.7

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 53

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on U.S. policy towards Iraq and Syria and the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant at the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington D.C. September 18, 2014.

Photo by: Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz During his prison time, Zarqawi became a pupil of Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, his intellectual mentor. Time in prison was not wasted on Zarqawi, who became a prison leader and increased his religious knowledge and his physical strength.

Zarqawi’s prison education prepared

him for his future role. The Jordanian government provided the prison environment for Zarqawi’s development.

Maqdisi stated that the Jordanian government “does not suspect that prison makes our fight stronger.”8 But soon Zarqawi eclipsed his mentor and was

released as part of a general amnesty upon the death of the Jordanian King Hussein.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi also spent time in prison. After his capture in Iraq, he was sent to Camp Bucca, near the Kuwaiti border. Camp Bucca, named for a former New York Firefighter who lost his life

on September 11, 2001, once was home to the current leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. While not identified as an extremist and segregated from the prison population during his time at Camp Bucca, this environment added to the radicalization of Abu Bakr. He not only gained a better jihadi education in prison but, he too was released with numerous contacts of other like-minded prisoners.

ISIS today owes its establishment to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi formed the Jama‘at al-Tawhid wa-al-Jihad (Organization/Group of Monotheism and Jihad). Zarqawi, and this terror group, first came to the world’s attention when he beheaded Nicholas Berg on May 11, 2004. Berg, the first in a series of many individuals to be kidnapped, became a media prop for this terrorist group.

Instead of reading a communication they used this American as a way to ensure that their message was communicated globally by beheading him on video.

Zarqawi dressed his first beheading victim in an orange jumpsuit with five men all wearing black with their faces covered in the background. The number of copycat kidnappings and beheadings skyrocketed.

ISIS would replicate this same type

An F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron 31, and an F/A-18F Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron 213, prepare to launch from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush to conduct strike missions against ISIS targets.

Photo by: Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Robert Burck

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By communicating in English, the killer of these three victims is able to reach out into a media market and ensure that inattentive Westerners are at least momentarily captivated.

of horrific attack taking a page from Zarqawi’s playbook when they beheaded James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and David Haines. By videotaping the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker, ISIS ensured that the world’s news media would make them appear to be the most violent terrorist group operating in Syria or Iraq. These types of videos, while graphic and horrific, aid in the recruiting and raise the level of fear associated with a terrorist group.

By communicating in English, the killer of these three victims is able to reach out into a media market and ensure that inattentive Westerners are at least momentarily captivated. The level of violence shown by ISIS is nothing new.

Both Zarqawi and ISIS used similar actions to strengthen themselves and control territory they captured.

In 2004, Zarqawi formed Tanzim Qa’idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, better known as al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers or al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Zarqawi had pledged bayat (oath of loyalty) to al-Qaeda. Zarqawi’s goals for this group were quite clear: the removal of the interim Iraqi government, the establishment of an Islamic state in Iraq,

and the defeat of the United States.

Zarqawi was able to quickly assassinate the Iraqi Governing Council President Izzadin Saleem on May 17, 2004, as his convoy waited to enter the Green Zone. But that did not lead to the establishment of an Islamic state in Iraq.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by U.S. forces in Baqubah. Abu Bakr has accomplished what Zarqawi never could.

He has seized a huge portion of Iraq and announced the Islamic State. But just like Zarqawi, he also has had friction with al-Qaeda and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

On July 9, 2005, Ayman al-Zawahiri sent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a critical letter in which he softly praised and then scolded Zarqawi for some of his actions in Iraq. Al-Qaeda’s number two at that time stated, “I want you to explain to me your situation in a little detail”9 and then offered a number of suggestions for his battlefield commander to follow. Zarqawi was targeting the Shia population in Iraq relentlessly leading up to this period of time. Zawahiri tried to get Zarqawi to take certain actions and stated that, “The mujahed movement must avoid any action that the masses do not understand or approve, if there

is no contravention of shariah in such avoidance, and as long as there are other options.”10 Zawahiri chastised Zarqawi, asking him, “Why are you killing ordinary Shia and then making it public with announcements?” Things have not gotten any better for the leader of ISIS. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda today, also do not see eye to eye.

Al-Qaeda’s organization in Syria, the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, asked Ayman al-Zawahiri to mediate the dispute that they were having with ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Zawahiri sent two low level envoys who were rebuffed by Abu Bakr. Zawahiri then asked Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen, to mediate this dispute. Wahishi had to inform the Emir of al-Qaeda that he had failed in this endeavor. Finally, Zawahiri sent a veteran jihadi to Syria to be al-Qaeda’s chief envoy and solve this

problem. Abu Khalid al-Suri (Mohamed Bahaiah), a veteran jihadi who had been with al-Qaeda since the early 1990s, was killed by a suicide bomber at his base near Aleppo. There has been much speculation that ISIS sent this final answer to Zawahiri to demonstrate who was senior to who. In the middle of February, al-Qaeda disavowed ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In the first time al-Qaeda has taken this path, it stated: “ISIS is not a branch of the al-Qaeda group… does not have an organizational relationship with it and [al-Qaeda] is not the group responsible for their actions.”11 It remains to be seen if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has learned the lessons that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi never did. Will he end up like Zarqawi, hunted from the ground and air? The United States coalition is now striking ISIS, and if competent ground forces are deployed in Iraq Baghdadi may be squeezed into a

corner. Will he be able to seek sanctuary in Syria or the Iraqi territory he now controls? The lessons for the United States are many. It has been suggested that Winston Churchill once said that “Americans will always do the right thing once they have exhausted all the alternatives.” When the U.S. government withdrew its military forces from Iraq in December 2011, it was clearly only a matter of time before someone stepped up and filled the void. Abu Bakr alBaghdadi did just that. He is smarter than Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Sooner or later he may be captured or killed, but a question remains. Has the United States learned to understand the ideology that fuels these jihadist groups, and can we develop a strategy to target not only the terrorist group and its leaders but the ideology that fuels this fire?

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Purdy is the President of the Terrorism Research Center, Inc., a Virginia-based company that provides training and research on terrorism, counterinsurgency and homeland security issues. He spent time in the Middle East researching Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s rise and fall and authored Abu Musab al Zarqawi: From Zarqa to the Land of the Two Rivers.

ENDNOTES Terrorism Research Center, “Arabic Names and Nomenclature,” Burke: TRC Training and Special Projects Report, 2012, p.3.

2 Darwish, Adel, “Abu Musab al Zarqawi: Al-Qaida Leader in Iraq Who Propagated His Message by Beheading Hostages on Video.” The Independent, June 9, 2006. Web. September 29, 2014. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ obituaries/abu-musab-alzarqawi-481622. html 1

56 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

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The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 57

MACTAC MULTIPLE-ASSAULT COUNTER TERRORISM ACTION CAPABILITY

Islamic Information and Services Network of Australia, “The First Caliph, Abu Bakr (632-634 A.C). IISNA, Web. October 1, 2014. http://www.iisna.com/ articles/biographies/the-first-caliphabu-bakr-632-634-ac/ 4 Staff Writer, ISIS Jihadists Declare Islamic Caliphate, Al Arabiya News, June 29, 2014. Web. September 28, 2014. http://english.alarabiya.net/ en/News/2014/06/29/ISIS-jihadistsdeclare-caliphate-.html 5 Purdy, Walter, “Abu Musab al Zarqawi: From Zarqa to the Land of the Two Rivers.” November 10, 2004, p 17.

6 Brown, Vahid, “A Profile of Saif Al-Adel.” Combating Terrorism Center at West Point , January 1, 2008, Web. September 28, 2014. https:// www.ctc.usma.edu/v2/wp-content/ uploads/2011/06/Saif.pdf 3

Brisard, Jean-Charles. Zarqawi: The New Face of Al Qaeda. New York: Other Press, 2005, p. 43.

8 Ibid., p.44.

9 Al-Zawahiri, Ayman, “Zawahiri Letter to Zarqawi” (English Translation), July 9, 2005. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, Web. October 1, 2014. https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/ zawahiris-letter-to-zarqawi-englishtranslation-2 10 Ibid.

11 Sly, Liz “Al-Qaeda Disavows Any Ties with Radical Islamist ISIS Group in Syria, Iraq.” February 3, 2014. The Washington Post.

Web. October 1, 2014. http:// www.washingtonpost.com/world/ middle_east/al-qaeda-disavows-anyties-with-radical-islamist-isis-group-insyria-iraq/2014/02/03/2c9afc3a-8cef11e3-98ab-fe5228217bd1_story.html 7

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by Joseph J. Kolb

THE WAVE OF ILLEGAL ALIEN CHILDREN AND MS-13 RECRUITMENT 60 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

The implications of the flood of more than 66,127 unaccompanied children recorded by the U.S. Border Patrol by the end of August 2014,1 and counting, entering the United States over the past year from the Central American nations of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, presented the country with what President Barack Obama proclaimed in June as an “urgent humanitarian situation,�2 prompting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish an interagency Uniformed Coordination Group that included federal, state, and local entities.3

C

onsequently, neither the Department of Homeland Security, municipal law enforcement, social, or educational institutions throughout the country were (or are) prepared to expeditiously and humanely manage this crisis.

What has escaped all but a few conversations are the short and long term implications of this flood of children haphazardly being placed in detention or residential settings, or released to family

members, and how it can precipitate a fertile recruiting opportunity for gangs such as MS (Mara Salvatrucha)-13 and the 18th Street Gang, who already have assimilation within this diaspora, putting not only domestic but regional security in question.

Since 2009, the numbers of unaccompanied alien children up to 17 years old, as they are designated by Customs and Border Protection under the aegis of the Department of Homeland

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 61

Young gang recruits sign (Guatemala, 2005). Photo by: United States Agency for International Development

Security, has grown exponentially, with children from Honduras representing the largest diaspora, followed by Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.1 In 2009, the U.S. Border Patrol recorded apprehending 968 Honduran children, compared to the August 31 figure of 17,975. In the same time period, the rate of Guatemalan children jumped from 1,115 in 2009 to 16,528 in 2014, followed by El Salvador with 1,221 apprehended children in 2009 and 15,800 also in the current year of 2014.1 The U.S. Border Patrol sector hardest hit by this flood of children was the Rio Grande Valley Sector,1 a wide swathe of southeast Texas encompassing 320 river

miles, 250 coastal miles, and 19 counties, equating to over 17,000 square miles.4 It is this eastern route along the Gulf of Mexico that is the most logical, especially for Honduran migrants with the journey starting in Tenosique in Tabasco State on the 1,500 mile journey to the U.S. border.5 It is also among the most dangerous, with an untold number dying before they even make it to the U.S. side.

In 2010, at the beginning of a major surge in Central American migration north, 72 migrants were massacred by Los Zetas on a ranch outside the town of San Fernando, Tamualipas State.6 Once the migrants have crossed into the U.S., their fate is no less tenuous.

62 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

The Rio Grande Valley Sector has seen a marked increase in U.S. Border Patrolreported deaths, while the Tucson Sector is seeing its fatalities drop.7 In 2010, the Rio Grande Valley Sector reported 29 deaths. That number has increased to a remarkable 156 by the end of FY 2013.

In contrast, Tucson Sector reported 251 deaths in 2010 and 194 in 2013.

FEMA was tasked with finding emergency housing for these children in a quantity that exceeded the capabilities of existing Health and Human Services, which is responsible for alien children facilities around the country. By the middle of the summer, the Department of Health and Human Services said

children had been placed in every state where there was believed to be a parent, relative, or family friend able and willing to take them in while they are in the deportation process. Some estimates suggest that these children will not even have a first hearing for more than a year, possibly a year and a half. At that point the likelihood of them even appearing before the judge is remote.

The states with the largest numbers of children reportedly placed were, Texas: 4,280; New York: 3,347; Florida: 3,181; California: 3,150; and, Virginia: 2,234.8 Incidentally, these are already hotbeds of MS-13 activity.

While the current humanitarian crisis is daunting, it is not the first large influx of Central Americans into the U.S. During the 13-year civil war in El Salvador that ran between 19791992, approximately 334,000 reported entering the U.S. between 1985 and 1990, compared to a reported 45,000 between 1970 and 1974,9 bringing the current crisis on par with this last flood of people fleeing Central America. Out of this migration came the creation of MS13 on the streets of Los Angeles. With many of the founding members devoid of U.S. citizenship, they were deported back to El Salvador, where the climate of virtual lawlessness allowed the group to flourish and evolve into the violent transnational criminal organization it is today. MS-13 elements returned to El Salvador and Honduras and actively pursued new members, whether through intimidation, protection, or an option for self-preservation against the other gangs roaming the country, especially the streets of Chaelecon, the most dangerous of barrios in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, which is now considered by some the deadliest city in the world.10 Currently, there is a litany of reasons given for the surge of migration this year.

The U.S. government has inexplicably advertised benefits available for illegal aliens in the USA.11 Also, according to the United Nations Global Study on Homicide 2013, which reflects 2012 murders, Honduras topped the list as the country with the highest murder rate in the world with 90.4 victims per 100,000 inhabitants. El Salvador was fourth with 41.2 murders per 100,000, behind Venezuela, 53.7, and Belize, 44.7. Guatemala ranked fifth with 39.8 per 100,000.12 A 2009 military coup in Honduras left the country in a greater state of instability, with gangs such as MS-13 filling the void or replacing law enforcement services.13 Additional reasons cited for the mass exodus of children from Central America are family reunification, poverty and fear of violence from local criminal organizations.13 The focused demographic of children represented in the explosion of immigration rather than all ages and recent persistent rumors of pending immigration amnesty suggest additional possible motivations for families sending children illegally to the United States.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikoske made a naively optimistic statement about efforts being made by the U.S State Department and the White House to reach out to the feeder Central American nations to address the reasons why their citizens are fleeing. “They hope to address the conditions in Central America that are spurring the migration and ways that we can together assure faster, secure repatriation of these children and families,� Kerlikowske said.1 The likelihood of any immediate remedies is remote because the U.S. government has been well aware of these conditions since the civil war raged more than 25 years ago.

With this said, the question can’t

18th Street gang graffiti.

Photo by: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

be ignored whether history will repeat itself with the risk factor of gang and transnational criminal organization affiliation of even a small percentage of these children, which would be a boon to MS-13 operations; the necessary ingredients exist. These children undoubtedly have, and will have for some time, language barriers. Despite the good intentions of even the most sincere family member or friend, domestic instability will exist. There will very likely be a lack of supervision, since whoever is tasked with supervising the children will likely need to work. There will be the social alienation of being immersed in a new society and culture and the concurrent

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 63

An MS-13 suspect bearing gang tattoos. Photo by: FBI.

Member of MS-13 gang.

Photo by: Federal Bureau of Investigation

needs of group unity, cultural or ethnic association, protection, and the already inherent exposure to violence and criminal activity they were confronted with in their home countries.

“The recent surge certainly has a potential to increase MS-13’s ability to recruit and or exploit, through human trafficking, extortions, and other crimes, the individuals migrating to the United States,” said Robert Bornstein, Unit Chief Safe Streets and Gang Unit Criminal Investigative Division, FBI.14 Despite a series of MS-13 raids and subsequent arrests, the gang has moved towards more suburban and rural areas, presenting a challenge to local law enforcement agencies. “The migration of MS-13 members and other Hispanic street gang members, such as 18th Street, from Southern California to other regions of this country has led to

64 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

a rapid proliferation of these gangs in many smaller, suburban, and rural areas not accustomed to gang activity and related crimes,” Chris Swecker, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division for the FBI told the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere House International Relations Committee in 2005. “Additionally, the deportation of MS-13 and 18th Street gang members from the United States to their countries of origin is partially responsible for the growth of those gangs in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, although the precise of this responsibility is unknown.”15 Swecker went on to say, and there is little evidence that indicates circumstances have changed for MS-13 over the past nine years, that based upon the National Gang Threat Assessment conducted by the National Alliance of Gang Investigators Association, MS-13 members and associates now have a presence in more than 31 states and the District of Columbia. MS-13 has a significant presence in Northern Virginia, New York, California, Texas, as well as in places as disparate and widespread as Oregon City, Oregon, and Omaha, Nebraska.14 When we see the overlap of states where children have recently been placed by DHS— California, Texas, and Virginia—the risk for recruiting increases exponentially.

With a conservative projected influx of 90,000 unaccompanied Central American children into the U.S. by the end of FY2014, it would be hard to imagine MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang wouldn’t be actively recruiting, let alone not already incorporated into the current diaspora.

After the large-scale deportations of MS-13 back to El Salvador and Honduras began in the early 1990s , the gangs took advantage of the opportunity

to explore new opportunities there and recruit among the disenfranchised youth.

By 2005, gangs in El Salvador swelled to 10,000 “hard core” members and 20,000 “associates.” In Honduras, the picture was even more disturbing, with an estimated gang population of 40,000.16 It didn’t take long for MS-13 to establish a foothold in Mexico that eventually extended from the southern state of Chiapas along the eastern coast to Tamaulipas, and develop relations with Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations. As recently as May 2014, three MS-13 members were sent from Los Angeles to the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area to exact revenge for the Sinaloa MDTO for 30 pounds of stolen methamphetamine.17 But it is the geographic infiltration into Mexico that makes MS-13 a logical cohort for Los Zetas. A 2012 report indicated a budding partnership between MS-13 and Los Zetas in Guatemala, where the paramilitary MDTO has trained MS-13 members in small unit tactics and equipment with MS-13 providing intelligence and contract crimes.18 If there is any question whether MS13 has infiltrated new blood during this youth surge across the southwest border, a comment made to a journalist from www.Townhall.com by a U.S. Border Patrol agent is indicative of the virulent threats being posed under the guise of humanitarianism. “We have six minors in Nogales who have admitted to killing and doing grievous bodily injuries. One admitted to killing as young as eight years old,” said the agent, who requested anonymity.19 Despite the youth’s admission, the agent said he is waiting to be placed.

While the majority of children might be here to be reunited with family or escape violence, the threat cannot be ignored that MS-13 will likely flourish

in this era of illegal Central American immigrants. Law enforcement agents in the majority of cities where MS-13 has a foothold already know they are there however the question comes into play whether there are existing resources to mitigate or thwart recruiting efforts as well as the concurrent crime that will be likely. Schools and social services will be doing all they can do just to accommodate the new arrivals. As far north as Long Island, where more than 2,200 school-aged children were placed over the summer, school districts scrambled to develop educational accommodations and the money to pay for it. One of the most daunting issues, besides money, is English instruction. The cost to educate these new arrivals is expected to tip the scales at $761.4 million.20 One Long Island administrator did recognize the plethora of issues these children are facing. “The challenge is not only dealing with the academics but also the socio-economic piece,” said Terri Brady-Mendez, program director for ESL Bilingual Programs at Eastern Suffolk BOCES. “These kids are bringing an enormous amount of experience that probably won’t help them in their concentration.

I am sure that we will need some sort of support network set up, including bilingual councilors and other staff.”20 Pursuant to the historical data from 20 years ago and the proliferation of MS-13 as one of the most violent TCOs in the world, it is urgent that federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel, citizens, and all governmental institutions begin to recognize the threat of MS-13 recruiting efforts and create an environment for any of these children not returned to their home nations that might keep them from falling under the influence of these violent groups.

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Kolb is the founder of the Border Security Studies program at Western New Mexico University, where he teaches Border Security, Homeland Security, Transnational Criminal Organizations, and Trends in Terrorism. He is also a research associate professor at the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico.

ENDNOTES Accessed from, http://www.cbp. gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-borderunaccompanied-child migrants 2 Presidential Memorandum — Response to the Influx of Unaccompanied Alien Children Across the Southwest Border, June 2, 2014. Accessed from, http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepress-office/2014/06/02/presidentialmemorandum-response-influxunaccompanied-alien-children-acr 3 Preston, Julia, New U.S. Effort to Aid Unaccompanied Child Migrants, accessed from, http://www.nytimes. com/2014/06/03/us/politics/new-useffort-to-aid-unaccompanied-childmigrants.html 4 Accessed from, http://www.cbp.gov/ border-security/along-us-borders/borderpatrol-sectors/rio-grande-valley-sectortexas 5 Corchado, Alfredo, Central American migrants face grueling journey north.

Accessed from, http://res.dallasnews.com/ interactives/migrantroute/.

6 Zetas Massacre 72 Illegal Immigrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas. Accessed from, http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/08/ zetas-massacre-72-illegal-immigrants-in. html.

7 Accessed from, http://www.cbp.gov/ sites/default/files/documents/U.S.%20 Border%20Patrol%20Fiscal%20Year%20 Statistics%20SWB%20Sector%20 1

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 65

Deaths%20FY1998%20-%20FY2013. pdf 8 Slattery, Graham, Migrant children: All 50 states are housing them, but not to the same degree. Accessed from, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USAUpdate/2014/0725/Migrant-childrenAll-50-states-are-housing-them-but-notto-the-same-degree-video. June 25, 2014.

9 Gammage, Sarah, El Salvador: Despite End to Civil War, Emigration Continues. Accessed from http://www. migrationpolicy.org/article/el-salvadordespite-end-civil-war-emigrationcontinues/, July 26, 2007.

10 Wilkinson,Tracy, The Honduras neighborhood of Chamelecon is a network of gang turfs where residents’ survival depends on playing by gang rules. Accessed from htt[://www.latimes. com/world/la-fg-cl-honduras-violence20131216-dto-html. Sept. 18, 2014.

11http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2315115/Shocking-USgovernment-leaflet-tells-Mexicanimmigrants-collect-food-stamp-benefitsadmitting-theyre-country-illegally.html 12 United Nations Global Study on Homicide 2013. Accessed from, http:// www.unodc.org/gsh/ 13 Diana Villiers Negroponte, The Surge in Unaccompanied Children from Central America: A Humanitarian Crisis at Our Border. Accessed from http:// www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/ posts/2014/07/02-unaccompaniedchildren-central-america-negroponte, July 2, 2014.

14 Robert Bornstein, Unite Chief, Safe Streets and Gang Unit Criminal Investigative Division, FBI. Internet interview with author.

15 Accessed from, www.fbi.gov. Chris Swecker, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division Federal Bureau of Investigation Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere House

International Relations Committee Washington, DC, April 20, 2005.

16 Arana, Ana, How the street gangs took Central America, Foreign Affairs, May/ June 2005.

17 Mexican cartel allegedly hired MS13 to carry out torture operation in Minnesota. Accessed from, http://latino. foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/05/06/ mexican-cartel-allegedly-hired-ms-13-tocarry-out-torture-operation-in/. May 7, 2014.

18 Zetas and MS-13 join forces in Guatemala. Accessed from http://latino. foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/04/07/

66 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

zetas-and-ms-13-join-forces-in-guatemala/.

April 7, 2012.

19 Pavelich, Kate, Illegal unaccompanied minors being held for placement in U.S. admit to engaging in torture and murder. Accessed from, http://townhall. com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/07/08/ exclusive-unaccompanied-minors-admitto-being-ms13-gang-members-engagingin-torture-and-murder-n1859822. July 8, 2014.

20 Ramos, Victor Manuel, LI schools face influx of unaccompanied immigrant children, Long Island Newsday, Sept. 7, 2014.

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70 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

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The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 71

TRAINING REVIEW

Pat McNamara’s TAPS Course

By Chris Graham

P

Pat McNamara. All photos courtesy of www.tmacs.com.

at McNamara is a former sergeant major who spent the majority of his career in the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. While serving as his unit’s marksmanship NCO, he founded a shooting club in North Carolina with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations in order to promote shooting skills competition within the army. His combined perspective on operational shooting and sport shooting is uncommon and his Tactical Application of Practical Shooting (TAPS) course came highly recommended.

On a hot Florida day, we began the twoday event with a safety brief and our first lecture: a discussion of the importance of combining leadership, shooting, thinking and action. Pat explained that his training would come in short blocks interspersed between shooting drills and would not be

“spoon fed”. Shooters were encouraged to absorb information provided and apply it without becoming dependent upon an outsider. He explained some of the subtle nuances that separate his training methodology with what many are currently doing and encouraged shooters to see themselves as top level athletes with all of the attention to detail and commitment that comes with executing complex skills at that level.

After the first period of instruction was complete, we zeroed rifle iron sites and optics for a 50 yard / 200 yard zero.

I brought my Primary Weapons Systems 7.62x39mm 7.5" Diablo to give it a workout, but every other shooter present had a standard length 5.56 rifle with a couple different models of electric optics most prevalent. I hadn’t anticipated range limits on caliber and I was eventually

72 The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015

forced to shift to 5.56 when we shot steel. I owe a debt of gratitude to Erik for helping solve my ammo compatibility problem (I had green tip 5.56 that wasn’t authorized for the steel available either).

We practiced precise accuracy at 50 yards on small paper targets from standing, kneeling, sitting and prone positions. We practiced recording our ‘calls’ of our shots and tested the amount of parallax evident on our ‘parallax-free’ optics. We shot five rounds on four small paper targets from the four positions mentioned with a 60 second time limit, and scored targets.

After lunch we transitioned to pistol training (everyone shooting Glocks) and fired single slow-fire shots from the ready attempting to make a single bullet hole in a cardboard IPSC target at seven yards.

We then did this from the holster, and executed the same drill strong-hand-only.

We fired two rounds from the holster with a 5 second par time, accepting A zone hits only, at 7, 10, and 15 yards and strong-hand-only. We conducted a 2.5 second 15 yard drill in which each shooter chose the target that would challenge them (e.g. Head, A zone, B zone, etc.). We did similar untimed drills strong-hand-only, and weak-hand-only.

We shot a drill called “pick your poison” in which each shooter identified before firing the maximum points they could achieve and shot the ‘National Invitational Johnny Ringo Championship Challenge’ to determine the class high-shooter. The last drill we did was a couple runs of the ‘el Presidente’ scoring A zone hits only.

Shooters competed for speed and had to reflect upon debrief that we were not accomplishing our mission and violated the purpose of the training drill. We were

instructed to guarantee A zone hits and only accelerate in the next iteration as we could individually still guarantee A zone hits. Most of us failed to grasp the nuances of the priority of execution requirements given and raced each other occasionally throwing a round out of A. The second day unfolded similarly to the first. Drills were broken up with short informational lectures and we began working pistol at the 50 yard line.

We practiced Strong-hand-only and weak-hand-only. We went to the 7 yard line and practiced transition drills that consisted of firing a 3 round mag from the rifle, combat reloading, firing three rounds from the rifle, transitioning and firing one round from the pistol. While on the surface this sounds like a simple transition drill, it demonstrates Pat’s training perspective well when you look at the complexities involved for having a shooter fire multiple shots, execute a rifle combat reload, shoot, followed by a pistol transition with different round counts all to the A zone. A deceptively simple drill ends up providing something for the conscious mind to process while the shooter is forced to do as much at the unconscious level as his skill will permit.

We fired drills from barricades and on steel. We fired rifles from the strong side and weak side. We conducted an ‘International Invitational Mega Championship’ to determine high-shooter and spent the remainder of the day firing iterations of four pistol stations. The ‘Turn and Burn’ had shooters sprint 20 yards to a first firing position at 20 yards, second at 15, third at 10, turn back to the 15 and finish back at the 20. ‘Blaze X’ had five cones arranged in an X with the center at 15 yards. The shooter fired one round from center then one round from any other cone, then one from center, etc. until firing a hit from all cones. Right side cones were right hand only, left side cones were left hand only. ‘The Grinder’

had three targets in a row at five yards apart, three cones in a row in front of the targets at ten yards out, three cones in a row behind that at 15 yards and one cone centered behind that. The shooter began at the lone cone and advanced to the six.

He had to shoot each target three times, but could only shoot twice from any cone.

The fourth station was the ‘Grid of Fire’.

It had six cones in pairs approximately at the 20, 15, and 10 yard lines forming a large rectangle. The shooter moved once forward, then once across until at the end then reversed firing one round at each cone. We executed this modified as well, alternating right and left hand only shooting. Each station was timed and shot on steel. Consistent with everything discussed throughout the course, there was a most efficient way to solve each problem and shooters struggled to solve problems on multiple levels simultaneously.

Pat went to lengths to explain that training can be “outcome based” or “performance based”. The minimum passing score for your agency firearms qualification course of fire may be an example of outcome focus. Executing a drill without being focused on a score or time, but rather focusing clearly on executing specific elements of a skill as efficiently as possible, and letting the result be the result would be an example of performance focus.

As much time as I spend immersed in agency training and working with organizations nearly consumed by outcome focus, I often felt like a kid coloring outside the lines of a coloring book conducting Pat’s training drills.

What I expected to be the most important factor was often not correct, and I struggled to consciously break the habit of simply anticipating the pattern of how organizational training is typically conducted. TAPS is unique in that it provides challenges for nearly every level of shooter. A safe shooter

that can execute immediate action and efficient reloads on their own initiative will be given plenty of challenges to encourage growth, and an experienced shooter that can efficiently “run a gun” at the unconscious competence level will also be given sufficient decision making and prioritization tasks that he will be forced to stretch as well. I highly recommend Pat McNamara’s TAPS training for both shooters and instructors regardless of mission. www.tmacs.com

•

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mr. Graham is the former commander of a military anti-terrorism unit, the editor of The Counter Terrorist magazine and author of the highly acclaimed new novel Election: Dezinformatsiya and The Great Game (www.chrisgrahamauthor.com).

The Counter Terrorist ~ December 2014/January 2015 73

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