Since 9/11, the role of law enforcement has shifted with ever larger numbers of officers now working in counter terrorism.  Over 1,000 NYPD officers are engaged in CT; and 700 officers of the LAPD work directly in CT.  The effort includes community outreach to (for example) Muslim populations to develop positive ties and establish communication and trust.  The CT effort also involves the gathering, analysis and dissemination of intelligence.  CT HUMINT is an efficient and effective addition to the job description of law enforcement officers who are already working on the streets and intimately familiar with their communities.  Homeland Security is a national effort made better (more…)

Can a security organization work well without the aid of external intelligence?  The answer is a resounding yes.  Often security agencies are dependent on government agencies for information.  The TSA looks to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center to provide the No Fly, Terrorist Watch and Selectee lists, for example. Government-supplied intelligence might concern a possible attack, identify a particular person of interest or a terrorist means of attack.  Intel broadcast may be general, or more specific.  But whether it concerns the identity of a potential adversary, suspicion indicators or is related to their methods of operation, it is although welcome, by its nature – limited.

A security system which relies solely on this kind of intel is vulnerable.  Likewise, a system which relies solely on intelligence it derives on its own (more…)

The longest international border in the world (4,000 miles) is getting safer.  As part of a $30 million project the Operational Integration Centre opened officially this month at Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan.  Information flows into the center from 22 high tech cameras mounted on 11 surveillance towers located along the U.S. side of the St Clair River.  From the high tech control room, officers can monitor video feeds from those cameras as well as from Coast Guard helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.  Boats moving along the waterways are tracked by radar.

This configuration gives operators the flexibility to take a closer look at activity they identify (via radar, for example) as suspicious.

Historically, the Canada-United States border has been proudly porous, with residents on either side feeling more like neighbors than disparate foreign nationals.  But the advent of terrorism combined with Canada’s open and liberal immigration policies has resulted in a wide variety of terrorists currently operating in Canada, a jumping point into the U.S. which is the primary target of their efforts.

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Last week a French chartered German cargo ship sailing under Liberian flag was intercepted carrying 50 tons of weapons.  The weapons cache included: 2,500 (120mm and 60mm) mortar shells, 75,000 bullets, 2 radar systems with hydraulic mounting cranes, 2 launchers, and six C-704 anti ship missiles which carry 130 kg warheads to a range of 35 km.  The arms were concealed behind sacks of lentils and cotton and distributed throughout 36 containers on the ship.  Instruction materials printed in Farsi (the language of Iran) were found with the cache very likely destined for Hamas in Gaza, courtesy of Iran, one of that terrorist organization’s prime benefactors.  The journey began in Syria with a stop in Turkey on its way to its destination in Alexandria, Egypt.  The smuggling tunnels connecting Egypt to Gaza are routinely used to move arms shipments to Hamas.

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Sometimes it seems the distinction between counter terrorism versus counter insurgency gets blurred.   After all, if the war on terror is global, what’s the difference if it’s being fought over here, or over there?  Indeed, the main issue distinguishing these efforts is where the enemy is operating.  In terrorism, they are working within your environment.  With insurgents, you are fighting them in theirs. 

Timelines for withdrawal aside, the Petraeus COIN doctrine spells out neatly the strategies to win a battle that go well beyond firepower to political, diplomatic, psychological, economic and social concerns.  A war of hearts, minds and pockets.  Alas, with few exceptions, most counter insurgencies fail.  Absent brutal broad strokes that decimate a population beyond the insurgents themselves (the U.S. versus native Americans, or vs. the Philippines at the turn of the 20^th c), insurgency is a real challenge to counter.  How many such campaigns can you count that have succeeded?

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Nadia and Paul Rockwood were arrested by the FBI and last week pleaded guilty to charges of domestic terrorism which involved plotting the assassination of more than a dozen targets. The targets were people whom Paul, a convert to Islam and a follower of Anwar al-Awlaki, had identified as having desecrated Islam. It was to be his violent contribution to the Jihadi war against America.

This is a disconcerting story.  One wonders gee, which of my neighbors or colleagues is other than what they seem?  Heaven forbid we start spying on our neighbors and in any event, as the Rockwood case illustrates, it would not have helped.  According to friends and neighbors, nothing in their demeanor or conversation would have given them away.

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Mosab Hassan Yousef is once again in the news.  We last heard of him at the launch of his book Son of Hamas , detailing his experiences as a Palestinian spy working for Israel’s Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).  Lately, he had been busy fighting a deportation attempt by the U.S. government on the basis that Mr. Yousef consorted with terrorists.  Since then he has been granted asylum.  Aside from the deportation attempt, the story of Mr. Yousef raises questions that have not been asked by the media covering the case.  What really caused him to flip? (more…)

Chameleon Associates provided the US Army 5/2 Stryker Brigade with Predictive Profiling and Field Intelligence Training as part of their Language Enabled Soldier Program. Parts of the training were conducted in Arabic.  The training provided soldiers with tools to identify suspicion indicators in high risk environments. Here is the case study for the LES program which includes Predictive Profiling training as presented by Col. Tunnell, Commander of the 5/2 Stryker Brigade:

http://www.chameleonassociates.com/Predictive_Profiling_LES_US_Army.pdf

Predictive Profiling becomes especially important to a soldier working in an environment that is not familiar to him. Predictive Profiling is much easier when one knows the norms in his surroundings, but when facing am unfamiliar culture, language and environment Profiling becomes a lot harder. This is exactly the situation a soldier facesbeing deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq. Predictive Profiling is as much a counter insurgency tool as it is counterterrorist or security methofology.

It was announced today that the TSA will be using new intelligence-based screening guidelines that should cause fewer problems for some foreign travelers who were previously put under extra scrutiny simply because of the countries from which they came.

Residents from 14 specific countries had been subject to more intensive screening procedures since the U.S. introduced new rules in the wake of the failed Christmas Day bombing attack. That meant that all travelers from Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen were singled out for extra attention — including full-body pat-downs by TSA personnel

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New media reports from the UK talk about new intelligence from the MI5 about Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives. The reports also say that similar surgery has been performed on male suicide bombers. In their cases, the explosives are inserted in the appendix area or in a buttock. Both are parts of the body that diabetics use to inject themselves with their prescribed drugs.

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