In retaliation for the murder of the 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympic games, the IDF planned to assassinate those PLO leaders responsible.  Ehud Barak was then a commander of a Sayeret Matkal, special ops Israeli commando unit.

The targets were the Operations Leader of Black September, the Operations Chief of the PLO and its Spokesman, all living in west Beirut at the time.  The commandos departed Haifa port in a missile boat up the Mediterranean coast towards Lebanon, and continued in zodiac speedboats towards the shore, rowing the last few hundred yards in silence.  At the beach, Mossad agents waited with three cars to transport them.  Dressed as tourists, hippies and women, one group of commandos forced entry via explosives into the targets’ apartments, while another backup team held Lebanese police and PLO reinforcements (more…)

This week we have a riddle for you.   Comments are welcome, as always. For answer, link here.

Cross dressing has captured our cultural imagination since the advent of high heels.  Countless plays and films depict stories of people dressing for the other side.  Necessity in the form of a child custody dispute and the pursuit of a paying job put Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, respectively, in drag.  Throughout history there have been accounts of women dressed as men (Jeanne d’arc) and likewise men dressed as women (Charles d’Eon) either by preference or as a political strategic ploy.

Disguise is often part and parcel of effective intelligence and war craft.  This was certainly true on a Spring day in the early 70s, when elite commando units penetrated an enemy’s capitol city on a mission to assassinate leaders of two notorious terrorist groups, in the middle of the night, in their homes.

To better simulate civilians, two of the shortest soldiers dressed as women: in wig, dress, fake breasts and heels.  One blond and one brunette.  The mission (more…)

This week’s Chameleon Riddle asks: what is being defined below? Answer will be posted next week.  Comments are welcome, as always.

I am a method of situational threat assessment designed to predict and categorize the potential for inappropriate, harmful, criminal and/or terrorist behavior that leads to the deployment of procedures and actions necessary to confirm, reduce and/or eliminate such threats.  (According to Security Girl), I am the best practicable methodology for terrorist threat mitigation.  And the only method that adheres to legal, commercial and civil liberty concerns while still offering an effective security solution.

I aim to categorize threat based on the predicted methods of operation that would be used by a given aggressor to attack a given protected environment.

A person holding a box cutter on a train going 100 miles per hour presents a threat in the form of hijacking a train while in transit.  However, holding a box cutter in the middle of a train station is not threatening from the point of view of a mass-casualty terrorist attack.

Whether it involves people or objects, every situation is evaluated according to time, location, and the possible threatening scenarios associated with the specific protected environment.

What am I? <<Link to answer

The answer to last week’s riddle is Patrick Arguello. Our clever raffle winner is Dan H.  He wins a free individual license for Predictive Profiling Online.  Nice work, Dan!

Patrick Arguello – more completely known as Patricio José Argüello Ryan – joined Leila Khaled in an attempt to hijack an El Al flight out of Amsterdam on September 6, 1970.  Traveling on false Honduran passports, they boarded disguised as a married couple.  His cover was Dr. Enrico Diaz.  Thirty minutes into the flight, Patrick threw a grenade down the aisle which failed to explode.  He then pulled out his pistol.  In the ensuing mêlée, he fired 3 to 5 shots which wounded a steward.  The pilot put the Boeing 707 into a nose dive, throwing everyone including the would-be hijackers off balance.  Passengers subdued Khaled and Arguello who was at some point shot by El Al security officers on the plane which made an emergency landing at Heathrow.  Arguello was dead on arrival at a London hospital.

This week’s Chameleon Riddle asks you to name the terrorist described in a resume that highlights his academic and professional career.  Click on resume icon below to see hints.  Answer will be posted next week.  Comments are welcome, as always.

The answer to last week’s riddle is The Samson Option. Our clever raffle winner is Molly W.  She wins a free individual license for Predictive Profiling Online.  Way to go, Molly!  Here is what she knew to solve it:

The bible story goes that God gave Samson superhuman powers.  Samson ruled as the 15^th Judge of Israel, from 1069 to 1049 BCE (Judges 13:1-16:31.) He was betrayed by Delilah who was recruited by the Philistines to help capture him.   Hair cut, powers gone, he was imprisoned in Gaza.  Eventually, his powers were secretly restored and he managed to bring down the temple where he was held, killing himself and the enemies surrounding him.

The Samson Option is the name of Israel’s alleged (secret) deterrence strategy of nuclear retaliation as a last resort against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence.  Its nuclear potential is rumored to be on par with the United Kingdom plus France.  Israel is the lone democracy in the Middle East.

This week’s riddle should be a real blast.  Good luck (you may well need it)!

I am named for a legendary figure.   Some see me as apocalyptic.   In any event, I am shrouded in secrecy.  In fact, those who named me do not even acknowledge my existence.  My namesake’s beloved was recruited as an intelligence source by the enemy.  That might render me suicidal in Gaza; God knows, it’s happened before.  I am considered by some a disaster of biblical proportions.  Allegedly, the power at my disposal is equal to that of the Union Jack and l’Hexagone combined.  I guard a democracy and act out of self preservation.

What am I?