Author's Posts

“They could strike the United States. That grim assessment is the first time the FBI director or any other senior law enforcement or intelligence official has stated on the record that the Al Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab is no longer content to strike within the East African nation of Somalia.

During a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, FBI Director Robert Mueller was asked if members of al-Shabaab, which translates as ‘mujahideen youth,’ would send American recruits back to the U.S. to launch attacks.

‘I would think that we have seen some information that the leaders would like to undertake operations outside of Somalia,’ Mueller told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.”

(FBI Director: Al Qaeda-Linked Somali Group Could Attack U.S. – Political News – FOXNews.com)

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“A Texas man was arrested this week on federal charges stemming from an arson at a construction site that may have ties to eco-terrorism, according to a criminal complaint.

Former California resident Stephen James Murphy was taken into custody at his home in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday, said FBI Los Angeles director Keith Bolcar in a release about the arrest.

Murphy was named in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles charging him with the 2006 attempted arson of unfinished townhouses in Pasadena, Calif., according to Bolcar.”

(Texas Man in Custody on Federal Arson Charges With Possible Eco-Terrorism Link – Local News | News Articles | National News | US News – FOXNews.com)

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Last year … I was working as a decorator in Jhelum city [in Pakistan]. But I was unhappy with the meager amount that I would make.… My friend Muzaffar suggested that for better money we should get into robbery and dacoity [armed robbery]. I … went to Rawalpindi with Muzaffar and took a room on rent.

We … knocked on the door. A man opened it and asked me what had I come for. I told him we had come for jihad, so he let us in.… Abu Maaviya was our trainer and trained me for three months in operating rocket launchers, grenades, AK-47s, and other sophisticated weapons.… Of the 15 of us, 2 had run away, while 6 were sent to Kashmir. So 7 of us were left, to which 3 other boys were added, making us 10 in all—five pairs … sent to Mumbai.

In C.S.T. [Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus], Abu Ismail and I started firing at the public there with our AK-47 rifles. Ismail was throwing grenades also.… [Later, on the street,] I was surrounded by police. One snatched my gun. The others started punching me on my abdomen.… I then lost consciousness and woke up only in the hospital. —From the confession made in court in Mumbai (Bombay) on July 20, 2009, by Ajmal Kasab, 21, the only survivor of the 10 gunmen who carried out the terrorist attack on the city on November 26, 2008.

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“In the eight years after September 11, and especially during the Bush administration’s first term, Americans became all to accustomed to a diet of orange alerts, sensational terror arrests, and breathless press conferences announcing the thwarting of yet another serious plot. But months and years down the line, it often emerged that such plots may not have represented such grave threats after all: terrorism suspects were charged with less serious offenses or released altogether; plotters turned out to have little or no capacity to launch attacks; and, often, when juries did convict, it emerged that entire conspiracies were reliant on the helping hand of undercover law-enforcement agents.”

(Al Qaeda Recruits a Growing Number of Americans | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com)

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The year was 1863; December 13th, the setting is Fredericksburg, Virginia. The bloodiest ground in North America is where one of the most valuable lessons on cover and concealment was learned. There, the union, preparing to cross the Rappahannock River. This was a planned attack on the city where 75,000 confederate soldiers sat on a line of hills to the left in particular, an area known as Marye’s Heights.

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I am proud to announce I will be traveling to Anchorage in early October to present The Boyd Cycle Threat Assessment and Management Workshop to the Alaska State Police.

It is an honor for me to be bringing the theories of the late COL John Boyd to law enforcement officers and security officers  throughout this country, so than can apply better strategies and tactics on the streets. The Boyd Cycle is about creating and nurturing awareness and decision making under pressure so cops, protection professionals are more adaptable in the field.

Principles of Boyd Cycle (threat assessment and decision making concept) are put to work in this workshop, which teaches risk and threat assessment and provides students with the means to project probable effects and outcome of unchecked risks. Learn how to use Observation and Orientation, Decision and Action (the OODA Phases of the Boyd Cycle) to minimize risk and enhance ability to assess threats effectively, enhancing professionalism and safety in your specific environment.

Bringing this material to Alaska State Police and the Challenges they face I am looking forward to.

“Decisions without actions are pointless. Actions without decisions are reckless.” ~COL John Boyd

Stay Oriented!

Fred

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I will be at UMASS Memorial Hospital presenting the Boyd Cycle Threat Assessment and Management Workshop to law enforcement and security Staff.  Last years workshop Strategy and Tactics for Handling Dynamic Encounters was successful.

The staff at UMASS Memorial are outstanding and love to learn-unlearn and relearn to prepare themselves for both conventional and unconventional problems and threats they face when it comes to conflict and violence. Its a honor for me to be invited back out there again this year to take last years program to the next level.

Once completed and critiques of the program are received i will do a complete after action review.

Stay Oriented!

Fred 

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“The New York Police Department has removed a senior official from one of its two sometimes competing antiterrorism units, after it played a role in disrupting a sensitive federal terrorism investigation, current and former police officials said on Wednesday. He was replaced by a top official from the other unit.”

(New York Police Official in Terror Case Is Replaced – NYTimes.com)

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Radical leaders and their followers were dismissed for years as small bands of crazies unworthy of serious study or scholarship. Most of these groups belonged to the non-state actor class and were viewed as largely inconsequential until radical, Islamic fundamentalists seized power in Iran and the micro became macro with global implications. They quickly set up shop by dispatching operatives in Lebanon. The “Party of God” engineered their Hezbollah homicide bombings in Beirut which claimed the lives of 220 U.S. marines and 21 other members of a multinational force. Indoctrination for the purpose of producing radicalized agents now made strategic sense. Al Qaeda, Palestinian networks, the Tamil Tigers and several other groups, secular and religious, realized that they could create lethal minds and wage war against the state and the trend continues. Mexican cartels are utilizing the benefits of radicalized faith in their war with the state and each other. They are seeking to implement ritualized devotion to a Higher Power and create social cohesion within their networks. Currently Santa Muerte is the deity of choice for most cartels, but La Familia Michoacana is turning to the Bible and cleverly preaching a different Gospel to further its strategic and political aims. Continue Reading

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