Ask anyone – I am a calm person, adverse to drama.  We all agree that hysteria in the face of danger is counter-productive.  Yet … when I look around and see folks seemingly oblivious and ambivalent to serious threats, even I concede that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction into a kind of passive miasma.

When Al Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri vows to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden “blood for blood” in another day like 9/11  -  I believe him.  When Brig Gen Reza Naghdi of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says that “the filthy Americans and Zionists should not think that … they can divert our nation from its path of Jihad” … and threatens to kill American military generals  -  I believe him.  Back in 1999, when Saddam Hussein said “Oh sons of Arabs and the Arab Gulf, rebel against the foreigner … take revenge for your dignity, holy places, security, interests and exalted values.”  -  I believed him.  When the Covenant of Hamas states “ranks will  close,  fighters  joining  other  fighters,  and  masses  everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to  the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: ‘Hail to  Jihad!’”  – I believe that is their intention.

Why wouldn’t I?

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The other day I was glancing through Inspire magazine, a product of the Al Qaeda public relations machine.  It’s a slick, professional publication directed at – one assumes – an audience of would-be-terrorists, and is full of interesting articles on how to make a bomb or conduct surveillance.

Even before the advent of WikiLeaks, the non-terrorist public has enjoyed a fair amount of access to information that in governmental circles is considered classified.  With the internet, it’s relatively easy to learn about the vulnerabilities of security technology, the configuration of IEDs and how much explosives it takes to bring down a plane.  And now terrorists in the know are sharing this kind of information directly with the public.

What I find disturbing (more…)

At a dinner party l gave last night, just as dessert was being served, someone posed the following question: as a society, what would be more devastating to us, blowing up an Airbus 380 midair over a densely populated city or, a presidential assassination?  Yes, this is a depressing choice but after a brief, stunned silence, there was much animated talk around the table.  The questioner emphasized that we weren’t talking about any particular president; partisanship had no place in this theoretical scenario.

One guest pointed out that the president represents an entire nation and as a figure head, political leader and chief administrator, his death would be devastating.  Everyone knows who the president is but (more…)

Bin Laden’s capture and death was of course headline news.  With his passing, a historic page has turned, no doubt.  He was the face of the enemy, an able figure head.  Right now intelligence analysts are sifting through the cache of data he left behind to uncover the next plot, reveal conspirators or find clues as to the workings of the Al Qaida network.

But as important a role as Bin Laden had played over the past decade(s), there are others able and willing to take over leadership in that terrorist community.  What’s more, plenty of seeds have already been sowed and have grown into an army of trained and motivated terrorists strewn across the globe.  One might dispute the figures.  But even if one singular cell or a lone wolf amongst the thousands of recruits who passed through Bin Laden’s training camps succeeds in pulling off one attack, it can be said that Osama is still winning albeit from the grave.  Even absent a successful attack, the fact that we are obliged to remain vigilant, spending our money and resources to fight the War on Terror, means the terrorists have in a sense already won.

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There is a marked difference between threat-based profiling and risk-based profiling.  Indeed, risk-based (unlike threat-based) profiling can beget racial profiling.  With risk based, we identify the potential or likelihood for threat given what we know from past occurrences, statistical data.  Perhaps the data show that there is a higher risk of violent crime at the hands of people who are less educated and poor, than people who are educated and wealthy.  The problem with this approach is that the group whose profile is ‘uneducated and poor’ includes members who are not inclined towards violence.  It also excludes those people who are educated and wealthy but are in fact capable of violent crime.  A couple of statistical bad apples and the next thing you know, you’re having to deal with an entire cart. (more…)

Here is yet another acronym but one that is very close to my heart: MWD.

Metropolitan Water District?  Molecular Weight Distribution? Good guesses but no, in this case it’s MWD for Military Working Dog.  The very evolution of the canine as man’s best friend revolves around the species’ usefulness in human security.  Dogs have been used for protection and in war for thousands of years.

In one of the biggest news stories of the decade

– the killing of Osama bin Laden -  an MWD (code name Cairo) was part of the Seal Six team that entered the compound where bin Laden was hiding.  Popular MWD breeds include Sheperds, Labs and Belgian Malinois of which Cairo was one. These dogs are valuable and beloved for so many reasons:  speed, strength, agility and their phenomenal ability to track scent and detect explosives.  Dollar for dollar, nothing beats a bomb sniffing MWD.  Indeed, as their effectiveness in the field has proven itself, the number of active duty bomb sniffing dogs in use in the U.S. military has doubled since 9/11.  Lackland Air Force Base houses the 341st Training Squadron that trains military working dogs used in patrol, drug and explosive detection, and specialized mission functions.

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It is a daunting task for homeland security officers to gather, analyze and act on intelligence – the world is a big place.  It’s logical to assume that more information and more people helping, improves the chances of finding and stopping a terror plot in its tracks.  Each data point is a clue in a puzzle that may not yet have been created.  But there are those who worry that the increased collection of personal data will result in threats to civil liberty.  Too much personal data in the wrong hands can lead to abuse, they say.  Where is the balance?

Link here to an interesting article on the subject from the Miami Herald.

The leader of the Palestinian militant Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, condemned the killing of Bin Laden, saying that the U.S. operation marked “the continuation of the American oppression and shedding of blood of Muslims and Arabs.”  Ismail al-Ashqar, a Hamas lawmaker, described the operation as a reflection of “state terrorism that America carries out against Muslims.”

There are Muslims and then, there are Muslim terrorists.  Making the distinction between an ethnic or religious group and those who kill in the name of their religion is important for moral, political and other reasons.  In his televised announcement of the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, President Obama stated that “the United States is not – and never will be – at war with Islam … Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, Al-Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”

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The amygdala, or as some prefer to call it: the A-Spot, are two almond shaped bunches of brain cells at the heart of security threat assessment.  Security threat assessment?!?  How so?

The amygdala, part of our limbic system, plays a role in the processing and recall of emotional reactions.  It sends impulses that activate the sympathetic nervous system.  It’s the amygdala that relays stimuli that in a fight and flight response, push an adrenaline rush.  It’s why our pupils dilate, heart rate quickens, we fidget and start to sweat when we perceive danger or threat.

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Some subjects do lend themselves to a classroom setting: philosophy, statistics and literature to name a few.  I can learn what I need to about Immanuel Kant, calculating a standard deviation and the collected work of Tolstoy without leaving my seat.  But other subjects cannot be learned nearly as well without application and practice:  things like brain surgery, rifle assembly and knitting come to mind.  Wait, let me add another: developing an effective and efficient, threat-based Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Security.

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