The U.S. has been struggling since 9/11 to develop an effective anti-terrorism policy.  One issue that has hindered success on this front to date is the reluctance to fully accept that a good, threat-oriented security policy is driven by destructive intent – not by searching for the destructive means.

While there are many examples of why intent is critical to the security policy formula, let’s begin by considering 9/11 for just a moment.  What destructive means were the terrorists carrying?  Essentially they had no destructive means other than box cutters and fully fueled airplanes.  They were armed only with their malicious intent and the skill to fly jets into buildings.  Indeed, no incriminating evidence would have been found on the terrorists until the moment they (more…)

Not everyone applauded the targeted assassination of Anwar al Walaki last weekend in northern Yemen.  There was outrage, in some quarters, about the fact that U.S. forces had killed a U.S. citizen no less, without due process.   But I see citizenship as more than a document stating one’s place of birth, or other official facts.  Citizenship is an affiliation with a society whose goals and fate you share.  Given that Al Walaki’s proclaimed goal was to kill Americans and infidels wherever on the planet they might be found, and that he stirred many to action via his writings and speeches, how relevant is his having been born in Las Cruces, NM?  He was basically an English-speaking Osama bin Laden. (more…)

Here’s another reason (aside from its being unethical, discriminatory or illegal) not to use racial profiling:  it’s harder to do right than other kinds of profiling.  On its face, it may seem simple, but it’s really not that easy to do – well.  Racial profiling requires sensitivity to often subtle characteristics.

I was raised mainly in the U.S., lived in many different corners of the country and have experienced it from border to border.  Given this experience, if I pay close attention to a fellow American’s accent, I can often detect the state from which they hail.  Show me a local restaurant menu and I can identify the culinary region if reflects.   Drop me in a shopping mall, and given the type of shops, manner in which shoppers are dressed, and more, I probably could at least detect whether I was on the West or East coast, in the Midwest or on the Gulf.

Subtle differences not only in appearance but in l (more…)

I go to a local Meetup for French conversation about once a month, just to keep my language skills well oiled.  What’s a Meetup, you ask?   For those of you unfamiliar with the organization, it’s a mechanism for bringing together people with common interests:  car repair, history buffs, hikers, politicos, almost anything.  There may be other such social organizations; I mention this one only because it’s the one I know about.

Recently I learned that the Meetup organization had its inception in the wake of 9/11.  In the days and weeks following the initial attack, the co-founder and CEO Scott Heiferman began meeting neighbors and members of his community whom he had previously avoided.   Suddenly, people were getting together to talk and share information, help one another and just reach out.  He and other founders decided to launch a new business whose mission was essentially, the growing of communities.  Ten years later, ten million people are Meeting Up across the U.S.

This happened in uber urban New York City but I think to a degree with the rise of media and internet usage, more people are (more…)

An alarm system is installed at our house and plenty of large, colorful signs stick up through the bushes in the front and back yards alerting the world that we are protected.  I realize that it’s nearly impossible to calculate whether or not a particular security effort results in the elimination of a given threat.  I’d like to think that the alarm, cameras and lights help.  But really, who knows?

At the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, much is being written about homeland security and some writers are asking whether the billions of dollars spent over the past decade to counter terrorism has been money well spent.

It’s a good question.  Federal governments, corporate security departments and private citizens alike do well to (more…)

More often than not, security systems miss the mark when they skip a vital step in developing their security standards and procedures.  They do not first clearly define the threat.  But only once you understand the threat, can you understand what is suspicious and then have a road map for procedures.

Take random checks as an example.  Think about how ambiguous it is when an officer is asked to “randomly” check a given number of people or objects.  Given the open-ended nature of that directive, the officer chooses what to check motivated by what amounts to whim: perhaps the officer has a non-confrontational personality and will avoid anything or anyone that appears troublesome.  What and whom he chooses to check could likewise be motivated by subconscious sexism, racism or some other psychological mindset.  With humans, there is no such thing as random.  A random check procedure can translate to a real vulnerability for a security system because it allows an officer to make screening decisions based on his own inclinations.

What’s more, a random check procedure is passive.  It requires no (more…)

It has been dubbed The Arab Spring.  When I’m feeling idealistic and poetic I too feel excitement at the prospect of regime changes that could result in a more democratic and less immoral political backdrop in areas of the Middle East.  But when a wary mood comes over me, I’m prone to see events in a less optimistic light.

Social ills and poverty, illiteracy, crumbling infrastructure and political discontent are often the seeds of revolution.  None of these problems is easily mended in today’s global economy.  Even when motivated by a desire for democracy, well-intentioned uprisings against autocratic authorities have not always worked out, especially where the West is concerned. The Iranian Revolution succeeded in bringing down the Shah but brought in its wake a fundamentalist (more…)

Memorial events are being prepared as the 10^th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11 approaches.  This anniversary is on the mind not only of survivors of the heinous attack but also on the mind of the perpetrators.  The man who stepped into Bin Laden’s shoes, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a (yet confirmed) video this week calling on his followers to attack the U.S., any way they can.

In the 12-minute video, Zawahiri is dressed in white, his automatic weapon leaning against his side, urging “Muslim brothers everywhere” to pursue America.  “America today is (more…)

Last week, the DHS issued a bulletin to local law enforcement about potential terrorist threats on U.S. utility facilities.  I guess it’s a good idea to remind the public that such attacks are within the realm of possibility.  But with or without specific, credible intelligence about an imminent attack, given the momentous repercussions of a successful terrorist attack on for example, a nuclear site, isn’t it best to assume the worst?  All the time?  I don’t see this particularly juicy threat rising and then ebbing, I see it as a constant.

Sharif Mobley was employed between 2002-08 as a maintenance worker at five different nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.  He moved to Yemen in 2008.  In 2010, he was arrested by counter-terrorism agents for alleged ties to Al Qaida and Al Shabab and subsequently killed a guard while trying to escape detention.

His employment at sensitive infrastructure facilities is (more…)

Why is “profiling” a dirty word?  Mind you, not racial profiling, just … profiling.

Do you start to twitch reading that:

“Jane was often chosen for market surveys, as she met the client’s consumer profile perfectly.”

“Our dating service will find your love match by profiling the preferences you have indicated.”

“Did you see last night’s episode of Criminal Minds on Channel 2? Those FBI profilers are amazing.”

“The Chameleon company was profiled in Security Daily magazine this last month.”

A lot of confusion and emotion swirls around the subject of profiling that leads both to its misuse, and to misunderstanding.  The ACLU and other political groups are often in the news, up in arms about the (latest) incident of racial profiling.  I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, sure it does.  But racial profiling is not security profiling.  If you are looking for a terrorist, use racial profiling and you’ve making a mistake by ignoring whole segments of the population.  By looking only at young men of Middle Eastern descent, for example, you miss a giant segment of the population, one of whom may be a terrorist or a mule for a terrorist.

(more…)