Counter-Terrorism Training

No one’s ever accused me of being politically correct, so I won’t try to alter that reputation this late in the game.  As a counter-terrorism consultant I often find myself studying what terrorists are up to rather that how they are gaining access to their targets.  I thought in this blog we might talk about the immigration piece of the puzzle.

Even though the research and open source intelligence I have gathered over the past several years would indicate the majority of terrorists who were caught committing or attempting acts of terror thus far have entered the United States legally, I can’t help but wonder how many are coming in illegally via our porous borders.  And then I think, once inside the United States, what might they be planning.

Research (and common sense) would indicate that before 9-11, terrorists were coming and going at will through our immigration system, many documented as students, temporary work visas, etc.  After 9-11, when our eyes were partially opened to the problem, we began the process of limiting access for people via use of “no fly lists, terror lists, FBI watch lists, country lists, etc.”  What we fail to remember, however, is our terrorist enemies are patient, very patient.  In fact, it is common for a radical terrorist to train for a specialty, move to the target country, assimilate into the community for many years before his/her services are requested.  This display of patience comes from the religious roots of many students in terror organized sponsored and funded schools (madrassah) in the mid-east, Asia and Africa that emphasize the study of hand-picked, word-for-word passages from the Qur’an.  The term “radical Islamic terrorist” in my mind comes from a person who uses this hand picking and choosing of words and phrases from the Qur’an to follow, then does so to death, no matter what.  The problem comes in when there are literally hundreds of these terror sponsored schools that are filling young impressionable minds with this religious hate who later in life may have an opportunity to relocate to the United States to fulfill a destiny. 

Fast forward to today and the U.S./Mexico border and focus on stubborn facts.  Courtesy of ABC 15 News,  “Pinal County, Arizona  - In April,  in a special cell block deep inside the Pinal County Jail, nearly 400 inmates sat awaiting trial or extradition after being detained trying to cross the Arizona border from Mexico.  Only about half of them were actually from Mexico.

The cell block, owned by Pinal County, but contracted with the Department of Homeland Security, is a way station in the immigration process, where inmates are held after they are detained by the Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  But it’s where the inmates are from that causes concern for some critics and lawmakers.”

On that one day in April, according to records obtained by ABC 15, Homeland Security officials were holding inmates from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Sudan. “They’re coming from all over,” Arizona Senator Jon Kyl said. “And one wonders whether some of them are coming in here to commit acts of terror.”

Kyl has been tracking the problem since 2002, not long after the September 11 attacks. Since that time, according to an investigation by the House Committee on Homeland Security, intelligence officials have determined members of the terror group Hezbollah have already infiltrated the U.S. by crossing at the southern border.

                                                (Hezbollah Flag)

ICE officials told congressional investigators, undocumented immigrants were smuggled from the mid-east to staging areas in Central and South America, before being smuggled into the U.S.  The report says officials are also concerned about Venezuela emerging as a terrorist “hub,” with the government there issuing travel documents that can be used to obtain a U.S. visa. 

A recent report from Fox News detailed regular commercial airline flights from Iran to Syria to Venezuela.  These flights are taking place several times per week and there are no passenger lists known to exist outside of Iran and Venezuela.   It is believed these flights are supporting the development of nuclear technology between the two nations.  Sounds similar to a little problem we had in the 1960’s with Cuba does it not.

Border patrol agents have also recovered military-style patches on clothing near the U.S./Mexico border. One patch contains the word “martyr” in Arabic. Another depicts a plane appearing to fly into sky scrapers.  A third patch not shown here contained the letters “DAIWA” which DHS officials cleverly stated in their report stood for the name of a fishing products company.  What they did not spell out in the report is the Arabic term pronounced DIAWA, but spelled DA’WA means “The call to convert to Islam”.  Again, facts are stubborn things, but I do not understand why they would want to hide such important information from local officials who would ultimately read these reports.

            (Uniform patches found in US desert)

U.S. intelligence officials have known for the better part of a decade about terror groups’ willingness to smuggle people across the southern border, yet little has been done to substantially increase border security.  My question is: What are we waiting for?

We recently had U.S. law enforcement officials threatened by Mexican drug gangs telling them to not interfere with their trafficking efforts or they will become targets.  Are we going to allow a “target” to be taken before we act in a serious manner?  I hope not, but if so, the blood will be on this administration’s hands as the requests to seal the border once and for all have been trumpeted loud and clear from the American voting public.

Officials also note the nightmarish scenario involved with returning detainees to their home countries. The Mexican government won’t accept a border crosser if they aren’t from Mexico, and many countries lack any diplomatic mechanism for repatriating a detainee.

“There’s a procedure which takes place, where, in effect, if we can’t send them back, they’re let go,” Senator Kyl said. “Obviously that creates an illegal immigration problem, but it could… create a problem of terrorism as well.”

Then this practice begs the question: Why would you let go into the U.S. open population a person from a country of terror sympathizers that went to the trouble of going to Mexico to cross our porous border.  I doubt this person is doing so to seek work “that Americans will not do”.  The time to bring our immigration system up to date is now.   I say, CHANGE THE SYSTEM and do it NOW! 

My plan is simple:

1. Drop the politics – just get the job done!
2. Give the border jurisdictions real interoperable communications so they can talk to one another down there.
3. Give CBP and ICE virtual fence technologies such as ground sensors, cameras, interoperable communication gear, etc so we can get serious about catching illegal border crossers.
4. Relocate CBP officers to the immediate border areas in micro substations along the border and link the virtual technologies together.  They cannot do us a lot of good in an office, 80 miles north of the border.
5. Complete the fence already!  Statistics show and immediate halt to border crossings in newly fenced areas.
6. Stop the insanity of “catch and release”.  Implement 1^st offense jail time to discourage re-entry.  When we catch OTMs from possible terrorist nations we need to have a different way to treat them according to what is best for national security.

So, let’s go Washington, listen to your boss (concerned U.S. citizens) and SECURE THE BORDER before we have to live through another 9-11. 

Silence is NOT an option!

Your comments are welcome.

What would happen in your jurisdiction if…  

Ask any meteorologist, seismologist or terrorism expert, and they’ll say it’s not a question of if, but when. Some of the disasters that have either already happened or are expected to occur at some point in the near future are: a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits Los Angeles, an F5 tornado crushes a small town in North Dakota, a category 5 hurricane flattens and floods the gulf coast, a terrorist attack cripples New York, a 200 year flood hits Nashville, and an oil spill of disastrous proportions in the Gulf of Mexico.

• Are you prepared?
• Have you trained and drilled for such an event most likely to occur in your area?
• Would your responders know what to do, where & when to report to if normal communications lines were down, out or over-loaded?
• Once they report, would your communication system immediately meld with others in the area? (Chances are your dispatchers would be playing manual relay with over-taxed land lines and cell lines if they were lucky while working a chaotic event.)
• Do you have technical personnel capable of patching radio systems together from multiple agencies and if so where are they, and will they even come in during such an emergency?
• Would you know who had to be evacuated, how many and where to get the evacuation resources from before it was too late?
• Would you like the capability of patching first responder communications with utilities, EMS, Air EVAC, bus drivers, tow companies, energy companies, food & water resources and others during an incident with full control of the patching?
• Would your incident commanders like to see real time resource mapping of the incident as it unfolds?
• Would your incident commanders like to have all required NIMS forms auto-populated as the incident played out and ready for after-action reporting?

The greatest challenge during times of crisis is the need to establish emergency communication rapidly and to effectively manage the entire incident. The key is to get the important information into the hands of the right people in a timely and seamless manner.

GEOCRIS InterOps4 is unmatched in the interoperable communications and emergency management industry by achieving automated rapid responder notification, complete local resource database, on-scene or remote operational capabilities, and true interoperability between any audio devices.

It seems each state has gone a separate path for addressing the problem of interoperability. Each having formed a multitude of committees, subcommittees, agencies, working groups and operational forums with the end result being an alphabet soup of acronyms to open the discussion of this complex problem. The tens of billions of dollars being spent to solve this problem actually is not solving the problem. Jurisdictions have committed to a wide variety of radio systems with endless capabilities, unfortunately most lacking compatibility with neighboring jurisdictions. So the question remains, how do we talk to one another in a timely, seamless manner?

Consider a platform that takes one radio from each cooperative jurisdiction or entity, integrate them into a rack and finally hard patch them together and control them instantly from any on-site or remote dispatch or command location. The controller being able to patch radios, cell phones, land lines, UHF, VHF, 800 MHZ, 900 MHZ, and all others with the drag of a mouse, then un-patch them when done just as quickly. As people need to communicate, the dispatcher can make it happen instantly. All this can be accomplished while sensitive radio keys are held securely within the agency’s dispatch center under mutual aid agreements.

Couple this with instant and complete local resources at command fingertips, real time event mapping, NIMS auto-populating forms, and after-action event playback and you will have a system that allows the command staff to work smarter during cataclysmic events. InterOps4 saves lives, time and money – period.

My ending thoughts:

- Keep the solution simple for the end user.

- Make the solution affordable.

- Keep the radios and equipment you have and are planning to buy.

- Anything with an audio signal can be patched together.

- Make interoperability so simple and useful jurisdictions will use it on a regular basis.

- Immediate and dynamic informational flow to the responders who need it!

Future posts will focus on specific events and welcome comments and experiences from first responders who worked the events. We are all in this together, your comments are encouraged and welcomed.

STAY SAFE!

The Katrina Example

As evidenced in the response to the Katrina disaster, several public and private relief agencies responded with equipment, resources and personnel only to find that there was minimal communications interoperability among the responders. The central command post’s inability to provide interoperable communications and management interconnectivity significantly hindered the relief effort.

The GEOCRIS Way

The GEOCRIS sales consultant team provides Clients with a software solution that allows all existing communications devices (VHF/UHF/800Mhz/Phones/etc.) to be interconnected so that all responders, regardless of their equipment, can communicate with each other through a central communications center. GEOCRIS interoperability software solution also provides Clients with the tools to manage their day-to-day dispatch center operations as well as to respond to emergencies, disasters and large scale incidents. The software provides full communications interoperability and management of personnel, equipment and resources regardless of the size and extent of the exigency. Our solution allows emergency response plans to be incorporated into the automated system and to be used for training of personnel and evaluation of the plan’s effectiveness. The GEOCRIS sales consultant team can also provide mobile communications platforms for on-site emergency management.

A Sales Force Delivering Solutions

The GEOCRIS sales consultant team is well versed in communications interoperability technology to ensure that our clients are provided with “state of the art” solutions. Every Client is valuable to our team of sales consultants and is given individual attention and provided with recommendations and solutions that are developed and tailored to meet specific needs.