| From The Editor September 18, 2006 |
Crimson JihadTWO HOURS BEFORE the former Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, arrived at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government to deliver a lecture on ethics, the scene outside was relatively calm. There were only a handful of protestors, some of whom were holding signs.
One exclaimed that "Inviting Mohammad Khatami to Lecture on Ethics is Like Inviting Jeffery Dahmer to Lecture on Cooking." Another read, "Hey Harvard, this is what freedom of speech looks like," above the Muhammad caricature which had set off the cartoon riots earlier this year (you can see some excellent photos of the protestors, courtesy of Publius Pundit, here). Gary Jackson |
| QUOTE OF THE WEEK |
| All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Sir Winston Churchill |
| PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES, EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS |
According to a report released September 8 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Saddam Hussein "was resistant to cooperating with al Qaeda or any other
Islamist groups." It's an odd claim. Saddam Hussein's regime has a long and well-documented history of cooperating with Islamists, including al Qaeda and its affiliates. |
| BREAKING NEWS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
U.S. Can't Protect All Targets, Chertoff SaysCongress and the American public must accept that the government cannot protect every possible target against attack if it wants to avoid fulfilling Al Qaeda's goal of bankrupting the nation, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate committee Tuesday. Osama bin Laden, Mr. Chertoff said, has made it clear that scaring the United States into an unsustainable spending spree is one of his aims. In a 2004 video, Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader, spoke of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy."Full Story House passes bill for border fenceThe House yesterday easily passed a bill calling for construction of lengthy sections of double- layered fences along the U.S. border with Mexico, sending the legislation to the Senate, which appears to be inclined to approve it and other security measures. The House's 283-138 vote in favor of the measure demonstrated that though Congress remains deadlocked over what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States and on whether to establish a guest worker program, there is bipartisan support for significantly toughening border security.Full Story Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobsNonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday. The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne. "If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."Full Story Despite millions spent, Boston is vulnerableUnder the brilliance of a late-summer sun, through a prism now tinted by terror, there is a fragile beauty about Boston seen from the air. In every direction, the vista -- the sprawling harbor, the storied skyline -- is colored by the shadow of vulnerability: a cluster of petroleum tanks here, a terminal stacked with cargo containers there, a T train disappearing into a distant tunnel, the untraceable zigzag of ships and pleasure craft. This is what Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta would have seen that crystalline morning five years ago if he had glanced down at the city he used as a staging area for the worst act of terrorism in American history.Full Story NYPD Built Bomb for Terror StudyIt was known as Operation Kaboom: Police investigators posed as apple growers and secretly built a 2,400-pound truck bomb to determine how easy it would be for homegrown terrorists to launch an attack with homemade explosives. Then, they partially detonated it. The 2004 experiment, revealed by city officials Tuesday, was part of a New York Police Department program to monitor suspicious sales of ammonium nitrate and other common chemicals sold by suppliers in the New York City area.Full Story |
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| SECURITY FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Top NYPD Terrorism Official To Criticize Security Grant SystemAt a Senate committee hearing tomorrow, the New York City Police Department's top terrorism official will label the federal government's system of giving out homeland security grants "incomprehensible, incoherent, and an embarrassment," according to his prepared statement released last night. Because the NYPD devotes much of its resources to daily counterterrorism and intelligence operations, the system of allocating grants - which favors technology and equipment proposals and not operations or intelligence gathering - leaves New York with less than it needs, Deputy Commissioner of Counterterrorism Richard Falkenrath will tell the committee.Full Story In a 9/11 heartbeatHow can anyone argue that the world did not change on September 11? This week, the fifth anniversary, reflections suggest that the world has changed in many ways. Watching the memorial services and listening again to recordings of the distress calls from that fateful day makes you think again about the enemy we face. Mostly, perhaps, the horrific events of that day have forced us to think about what kind of world we want to live in, and what we will do to defend our way of life in a liberal democracy. An article in Foreign Policy magazine, "The Day Nothing Much Changed" by managing editor William Dobson argues sophistically that the world did not change on September 11, that in fact it changed 15 years ago with the end of the Cold War. That made the United States the sole remaining superpower, and, at the same time, this kind of power made the United States a target to a degree it had never been before, not only for anti-Americanism but for terrorism as well.Full Story Congress Passes Major Security MeasuresCongress is scrambling to pass long-delayed domestic and border security bills, as Republicans and the Democrats try to control the issues ahead of the midterm elections - and to blame each other for blocking progress. The most far-reaching action on Thursday was in the Senate, which voted, 98 to 0, to approve a six-year port security package costing more than $5 billion that includes deadlines to install radiation detectors at the largest ports and encourages shippers and ports worldwide to improve guarding containers against stowaway weapons.Full Story English Woods a Suspected Cover for TerrorJake, an arthritic Labrador retriever, slept beneath an ancient oak tree in a warm September breeze. Ponies roamed untethered, children kicked pine cones along gravel forest paths, and Edith Jones stood outside her camper wondering how such a tranquil spot had become, according to police, a training ground for terrorists. Yassin Mutegombwa, 22, a London resident whose family is from Uganda, was charged in court Tuesday with receiving training for terrorism on British soil, the first person to be charged under a law enacted this year. According to a statement from Scotland Yard, he received weapons training in two rural English locations, including "at a woodland area" near Jones's campsite outside this village in southwestern England in late April and early June.Full Story Africa key to Pentagon counterterrorism strategyNearly five years after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Africa has emerged as a leading front in a U.S. military campaign to deny al Qaeda a new safe haven in the continent's vast, hard-to-govern regions. Small groups of special forces, known as A-teams and often numbering less than a dozen soldiers, have begun traversing the hinterlands of more than a dozen countries in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and Sahara regions. Pentagon officials say the main aim is to help African governments from Sudan to Senegal and Nigeria train and equip local troops to combat Islamist militants in swathes of open country, already known as havens for smugglers and bandits.Full Story |
| TRAINING FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Mirror Image Training: Training to Combat TerrorismMirror Image is a tactical and strategic training course developed and owned by the Terrorism Research Center. TRC instructors have trained hundreds of military personnel that are subsequently deployed to active combat operations, as well as large numbers of first responders, law enforcement, and security professionals. Mirror Image is an intensive one-week classroom and field-training program, designed to realistically simulate terrorist recruiting, training techniques, and operational tactics. During the course, participants will receive insight into the mindset and rationale of the terrorist through hands-on experience with the methods and means terrorist employ, education about terrorist ideologies and the cultural dimensions that influence their decision making process. Military, law enforcement, intelligence, and security professionals will, in turn, be able to see themselves as the terrorists see them and understand the weaknesses in their own environment that the terrorists will seek to exploit, and which all too often they miss. Armed with these insights participants will leave the course better able to anticipate, prevent and respond to multiple terrorist threats. November 12-17, 2006: Blackwater Training Center, Moyock, NC A detailed brochure may be downloaded at: www.terrorism.com A Registration Form/Information may be downloaded at: www.terrorism.com Questions on TRC training, please contact Betty O'Hearns-Hines, Training Coordinator for the Terrorism Research Center. Email: betty@terrorism.com Phone: (727)360-4302 voice or (727)409-1754 |
| FRANKS REVIEW |
Service Equipment ReviewRAM Guns .43 Caliber Paintball Training WeaponsAn essential characteristic of any paintball or other force-on-force training tool should be that it functions as closely as possible to the actual weapon it mimics. Mechanical operation; recoil; reloading; weight... If these can be made close or identical to the real firearm then the value of using the paintball / FoF weapon for training is increased. Opposite that is the use of paintball weapons that in no way mimic the actual weapons to be used beyond the fact that they fire a projectile. I was contacted some months ago by Ram Guns and asked if I'd be willing to evaluate their products. Of course. It's what I do. I received two rifles and two pistols for evaluation. I opened one of the pistol boxes first and found myself looking at a Glock Model 17 with a blue slide and orange barrel tip. Externally, as best I can measure, it is identical to an actual Glock 17 with the exception of the base of the grip where the CO2 and paintball magazine stick out. This does not affect holstering, drawing or handling and isn't really noticed at all (unless you shoot "cup in saucer" grip). The two rifles I received are of the AR15 / M4 design and are equally good "copies" of the actual firearms in appearance, size and function.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/evals/gun/ramguns.htm Recreational Equipment ReviewDan Brown's "Digital Fortress"The first work from Dan Brown that I ever read was "The DaVinci Code" and we all know what kind of storm that stirred in the reading community - not to mention the religious communities. After that I read "Angels & Demons" and wasn't really impressed. Obviously he had written it before "The DaVinci Code" and it just wasn't as good. Now I've read "Digital Fortress" while waiting for his next work to be released. While certainly not on par with "The DaVinci Code", "Digital Fortress" did prove to be an entertaining read. Robert Langdon is NOT a main character - or even existent in the book. The entire plot of the book covers less than 24 hours of time but is action packed and full of plot twists. Who can you trust? In the world that exists in the ultra-secret cryptography section of the National Security Agency (otherwise known as NSA or "No Such Agency") this story takes the reader on an interesting if sometimes difficult to keep track of ride. Who is the good guy? I know that... at least three different times in the book. Who is the bad guy? Which one? I know that too... and then found out I'm wrong... no right... no wrong... The only thing I was sure of through the entire book is that the one couple who are main characters are being carefully manipulated out of their romantic weekend getaway.
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The Blackwater Tactical Weekly is a free weekly e-publication. The BTW provides readers valuable information from diverse sources regarding tactical and strategic security issues. Editor-in-Chief – Gary Jackson (btw@blackwaterusa.com) Questions regarding Security Consulting or Training
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