This guy was just captured by authorities and he is a big fish. El Gordo is one of the two top leaders of the Gulf Cartel! But what I was intrigued with, and got a chuckle from, was his ‘every day carry’ below. lol
Two hand grenades, one AR-15/M-4, three magazines, six phones, a wad of cash, a gold chain, and wait for it……a tablet (iPad maybe?). Now that is a multi-tasker! –Matt
In a recent interview, Lockheed’s chief executive, Robert Stevens, said defense contractors were assessing the costs and the risks of keeping personnel in Afghanistan as the uniformed military presence shrinks.
“If there’s an expectation that says companies are going to be there, then we’re going to ask, are we going to get enough security?” he said. “Who’s going to support this, from where? What would the logistics footprint look like, what would the personnel requirement look like, what would the security environment look like? Those are all reasonable questions.”
This is a conversation I have been contemplating for awhile now, and I have been trying to figure out the best way to approach this problem. Bottom line is that the discussion on insider attacks or green on blue attacks on contractors is not happening out there. We are absolutely being left out of the conversation in regards to these incidents, and yet contractors are a vital to the training and logistics initiatives all throughout Afghanistan.
It is also well known that training of Afghan police/military is a major element of the exit strategy from Afghanistan. Contractors are right there in the action with their military counterparts, and they are also being killed and wounded by insiders–like the military. I have blogged about our strategic value to the war effort before, and it is amazing to me how little is being said about this industry’s contribution…and sacrifice.
Most of all, what are the directives to companies on how best to deal with this problem? Are all of the companies on the same sheet of music when it comes to countering this problem, or are they all doing their own thing? What is the best way of countering this?…. So that is what I would like to talk about in this post.
First of all, let’s discuss some of the statistics or lack there of. Meaning, no one is tracking contractor deaths specifically and I am only able to draw from assembled military related statistics. The Long War Journal has done a good job of this.
Most of the insider attacks are happening in the south, with the Helmand Province being the top spot. Most of the attacks had to be stopped by killing the individual(s). Here is a break down of how many folks have been killed or wounded due to insider attacks since January 1, 2008.
Numbers of Coalition troops and affiliates killed and wounded by green-on-blue attacks:
The total number of Coalition casualties from green-on-blue attacks for the period Jan. 1, 2008 to the present is 109. The total number of Coalition wounded is 89.
Green-on-blue casualties per year, and percentage of Coalition deaths caused by such attacks:
2012 – 45 – 14%
2011 – 31 – 6%
2010 – 21 – 3%
2009 – 10 – 2%
2008 – 2 – less than 1%
Green-on-blue wounded per year:
2012 – 45
2011 – 23
2010 – 7
2009 – 11
2008 – 3
As you can see, this is a trend that is increasing, but we are also training a bunch of police and military. So with that increase in personnel being trained comes an increase of trainers and their exposure to this sea of questionable folks.
The other thing to look at is who are these guys? Well, according to the latest reportage, General Allen has given a quick look at the ratio.
Previously, NATO military officials had said that only about 10 percent of the insider attacks could be attributed to Taliban infiltration or impersonation of Afghan security units. But on Thursday, General Allen said that in addition to that infiltration figure, another roughly 15 percent of the attacks could be caused by Taliban coercion of soldiers or police officers, either directly or through family members.
Because most of the attackers had been killed or had escaped, and not captured alive for interrogation, it was difficult to provide firm statistics, he said. He also noted that more Afghans than Western troops had been killed by such insider attacks.
Man, those are some pretty sobering statistics, and I shudder to think how many of these deaths and injuries were contractors? I would think that contractor statistics tend to match military statistics, because we are doing the same job and working in the same environment. But I can’t say for sure, and it is only assumed. I have covered contractor deaths resulting from insider attacks before–in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Ok, so now that is covered, what is the military doing to counter this? Time magazine wrote a great article that listed what we are doing based on a briefing that Secretary of Defense Panetta and General Dempsey put out last month. Here they are.
– “First, to increase the intelligence presence, so that we can try to get better information with regards to these kinds of potential attacks.
– “Also, to increase counterintelligence, to have people trained in counterintelligence to be part of these units so that they can, as well, identify those threats.
– “We have a thorough vetting process. It’s an eight-step process. We’re doing forensics on the particular instances that occur in order to make sure, you know, how that process.
— that vetting process operated and what we can do to improve it.
– “Implementing a notification process, so that when we get information we can alert people to the threats.
– “Training requirements — we’re not only implementing training requirements with regards to our forces, but the Afghans are doing the same to try to identify these people.
– “We have a guardian angel program which involves identifying one individual who stands to the side so that he can watch people’s backs and hopefully identify people that would be involved in those attacks.”
I also understand that pamphlets are being handed out to military personnel at the various FOBs and outposts in regards to countering this stuff. If you are a contractor in these areas, try to grab one of these to figure out your strategy for dealing with this threat. Especially if you are looking for ideas of souping up your own SOP’s and policies. Or if you are just looking for personal strategies on how to counter this stuff because your company has not given sufficient guidance.
Now to comment on some of these ideas and initiatives, and how this applies to contractors. My view is to find what works and copy it. To learn from others whom have dealt with this in the past, and in other parts of the world and in other wars, and borrow some brilliance as they say. Analyze and synthesize.
First is the personal strategy. Petition your company to allow you to be armed and carry loaded on FOBs and outposts, and seriously consider using a retention holster. I use the Safariland ALS, just so I can have some form of retention for my pistol. An insider attack can be as simple as someone taking your pistol or rifle and using it against you and your group. Something to think about there, and it looks like the military is finally waking up to the idea of making sure everyone on FOBs and outposts that have weapons, carry them loaded. Contractors who have weapons issued, should be allowed to do so as well.
Wearing body armor is a no brainer when it comes to training or working around questionable type folks. Having some medical items on you as well as a flashlight is crucial to survival as well. Insider attacks could happen night or day, or the attacker might go into a bunker or dark hiding place in order to escape when being hunted. A flashlight is a life saving tool if you want to search for persons and destroy them in that kind of situation.
Positioning yourself in your environment for optimum survival is a good one. Kind of think of yourself as the ‘principal’, and you are a close protection officer for your person. Where would you position yourself for the highest chance of survival in any given situation and position? What is your escape route and what would you do if an insider attacked, happened right then and there, day or night? Constantly ask this question wherever you are at, and apply some OODA.
Another solution is to use a similar guardian angel program for contractors. Some guys I have talked with actually set up a guard with a machine gun to overlook the training of folks. It sends a pretty loud message and keeps everyone ‘civil’ at ranges. But it can also create mistrust and division–which is not good for that essential unit cohesion that we all need in the war in order to operate as a unified team. Yet again, security for training needs to be evaluated and it must be determined what is best for that specific contract and set of circumstances.
The final one is intelligence. Or better yet, know yourself and know your enemy (Sun Tzu). You must have someone on the ‘inside’ to find these insiders and to determine the general mood and demeanor of those you are training and working with. This insider can also be used to fine tune your management and trainers working with these guys to ensure they are not making folks angry enough to go on a shooting spree.
Why is this important? Well remember that post I did about how damaging bad bosses really are? Well if you have a trainer(s) that are abusing Afghan trainees, or running their programs poorly, or doing something to aggravate these guys, then that is something you can find with an insider. Especially from a cultural point of view, because a trainer might be doing something incredibly offensive and not even know it. An insider within the trainee group could help fine tune the contract. I liken these insiders as more ‘mystery shoppers’ than moles, and companies can use these guys to optimize the contract/mission, evaluate the management, and find the bad apples.
But of course this is a fine line to walk, and companies should not abuse this concept of operation. They should also work hard to ensure that whom they put into that role is briefed on how to do this properly. The end goal is you want to see your company and client in their most natural states and get a true feel for what is happening so that solutions are ‘real solutions’ to ‘real problems’. Or companies can throw darts at the solution board and use hope as a means for success or for finding these insiders.
Well, that is about all I have on this. This will at least get the conversation going and get everyone talking within their organizations on how best to counter this threat. –Matt
Hoping to foil infiltrators, Afghans will spy on recruits
August 21, 2012
Afghan officials say they have launched an expanded effort to spy on their own police and army recruits, an acknowledgment that previous measures designed to reduce insurgent infiltration in the country’s security services have failed.
The steps come amid a spate of “insider’’ attacks that have shaken the US-Afghan military partnership during a stage of the war that hinges on close partnership between the two forces.
Nine US troops have been killed by their Afghan counterparts in the past 12 days, and 40 coalition service members have died in insider attacks so far this year.
President Obama, in his most extensive comments to date on the issue, said Monday that his administration is ‘‘deeply concerned about this, from top to bottom.’’
The Afghan measures include the deployment of dozens of undercover intelligence officers to Afghan security units nationwide, increased surveillance of phone calls between Afghan troops and their families, and a ban on cellphone use among new recruits to give them fewer opportunities to contact the insurgency, Afghan officials say.
The initiatives appear aimed at addressing US criticism that the Afghan security forces are not doing enough to ferret out insurgents within their ranks. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Martin Dempsey, was in Kabul on Monday for consultations on the matter, and Obama said he would soon be ‘‘reaching out’’ to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
Finally, a discussion about contractor safety in Afghanistan. Although I have yet to hear any talk about it in the contracting community, as to these specific measures. A big hat tip to Nathan Hodge for writing this and getting it out there. –Matt
U.S. Boosts Security For Afghan Contractors
By Nathan Hodge
August 29th, 2012
The U.S. military has added previously undisclosed security measures for contractors in Afghanistan, amid a wave of insider attacks by Afghan soldiers and police and the continuing withdrawal of coalition troops.
Separately, the top U.S. general’s plane was hit by insurgent fire early Tuesday as it sat on a runway at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. Indirect rounds fired shortly after midnight damaged the C-17 transport plane of Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and another helicopter, according to the U.S.-led coalition.
The general and his entourage weren’t on the plane at the time and weren’t injured, the coalition said, adding the entourage took another military aircraft to leave Afghanistan. The attack came just months after an Afghan civilian tried to drive a stolen vehicle into the U.S. defense secretary’s plane during a similar visit.
In scheduled meetings with U.S. commanders in Afghanistan and Afghan military officials, Gen. Dempsey had focused on the rise in attacks on U.S. military forces by Afghan police and army personnel.
The U.S.-led coalition has also ordered tighter “force protection” measures for contract personnel who are involved in military training, according to Royal Canadian Air Force Maj. Steve Neta, a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization training mission in Afghanistan.
A NATO document viewed by The Wall Street Journal outlines a number of extra precautions for contractors, including requiring personnel to travel in more heavily armored convoys with military-compatible communications, GPS trackers and specific weaponry.
Maj. Neta said the coalition, as a matter of policy, doesn’t discuss specific protection measures.
“We did make revisions to a policy relating to our contractors, although this wasn’t precipitated by any one event,” he said. “Force protection is a fundamental element to our operations here and we feel that our personnel understand that measures are implemented in the interest of providing as safe an environment as possible.”
The increased security for contractors was put in place in recent months alongside efforts to increase security for coalition troops. Contractors and coalition troops alike have been increasingly targeted recently by uniformed Afghan soldiers and policemen, in so called “green-on-blue” attacks. Over the past two weeks, at least 10 U.S. troops have been killed in attacks by Afghan troops on their international colleagues.
Interesting job, although I have no clue what it pays? But from the job details, this is an armed position and English is the primary language they are looking for.
I am not the POC or recruiter for this job and follow the highlighted links below if you want to apply. You can also visit the UN Careers website from time to time to see if any other security jobs pop up. Good luck. –Matt
Job Title: SENIOR SECURITY OFFICER (MULTIPLE), FS3
Department/ Office: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Duty Station: KIGALI
Posting Period: 30 August 2012-29 September 2012
Job Opening number: 12-SEC-ICTR-24734-R-KIGALI (R)
United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity
Org. Setting and Reporting
Theses positions are located at ICTR Kigali within the Security and Safety Section. Under the overall command of the Chief of Unit. The Security Officer is required to perform armed security functions and reports directly to the Security Lieutenant or supervising officer.
Responsibilities
In the absence of the immediate supervisor, will perform any or all of the below duties. In the presence of the immediate supervisor, may assist. Otherwise, performs duties of a regular security officer. The incumbent shall provide armed security services at assigned ICTR sites, for the protection of authorized persons and property. The incumbent shall:
– Inspects officers assigned to his/her squad, prior to the assumption of post in the absence of the Team Leader;
– Assigns officers to posts and patrols throughout the assigned site and makes frequent inspections to ensure that orders, rules and regulations are complied with
– On-the-job trains and instructs security officers, informing them of any changes in procedures and situations.
– Compiles pertinent data for reports on security matters and initially reports cases of injury, accidents, thefts, losses and damages.
This is cool and I wanted to do a post about this new evolution in feral hog eradication. Jager Pro is a veteran owned and operated hunting service that specializes in the eradication of feral pigs.
They are also very good at what they do. From using thermal optics on AR 10 type rifles and hunting these animals at night, to using high tech trapping methods like the MINE trapping system. Because it is a private business, they must find ways of making eradication profitable in order to sustain that business. So they do guided hunts and they sell traps like the MINE system.
What is unique about this system is that it gives trappers all over the country a better tool in the game of capturing these pigs. With the MINE system, you can actually observe and control a trap from thousands of miles away, all with a smart phone. The trap sends a text message via a ‘cellular control box’, when the trap detects movement. Then the trapper can turn on their camera and see how many pigs are actually in the trap. That is a crucial element of this system.
Current traps have very crude trigger mechanisms used to close the trap doors. This results in only capturing a few pigs, which usually are the young and dumb pigs, and this contributes to the avoidance education of the adult hogs. Pigs use point men as well, and the videos below show how they operate in order to survive. lol
Research has shown that inefficient trapping methods, such as small traps that catch only one or two hogs, lead to avoidance education of adult hogs and continued expansion of the unwanted population.
Below I have posted one of these videos that Jager Pro hads put up about what they are doing. Most of all, it goes into the mental process and intense research that Jager Pro goes through when approaching this problem. They are analyzing and synthesizing–or building snowmobiles.
Of course the method works, and it is being spread to other regions of the country because of it’s effectiveness.
A trapping program designed to concentrate, gradually acclimate – and eventually capture and kill – entire “sounder” social groups of hogs has proven successful and is now in use in 11 states, he told farmers and landowners during a presentation at Millhaven Plantation in Screven County.
Think of this angle as well. Meat processing sites demand that the wild pigs they get should be alive, and thus pay more for living animals. If a trapper can capture an entire sounder group alive, that is money in his pocket. So this little technological advancement on a basic trap, has the potential to dramatically change the business of trapping–making it more profitable.
This is a great example of the power of Offense Industry as it applies to culling animals. Jager Pro is innovating and continuously improving upon what they do, and I believe they have introduced a disruptive technology for use against these animals. –Matt
JAGER PRO M.I.N.E.™ Trapping System
(Manually Initiated Nuisance Elimination)JAGER PRO conducted three years of research and filmed 500+ hours of video to test multiple trapping methods since traps have emerged in a variety of gate designs, materials, sizes and shapes. Our goals were to document pig behavior and also quantify the capture success of each method tested. Results of our research can be viewed on video. Each month we release a new five-minute trapping video of lessons learned via our newsletter and YouTube Channel. Viewers can understand the most effective trapping methods by watching feral hogs react to various trap gates and enclosures.
Our trapping standard is 100% capture of the entire sounder group. There have been few published studies to determine the most efficient or the most cost effective trap design needed to accomplish this task in order to successfully reduce agricultural and environmental damage of wild hogs. Our definition of efficient is to spend the least amount of time, labor and fuel to accomplish 100% capture. Our definition of cost effective is to spend the least amount of money to accomplish these same results.
The most efficient design in our research was a large corral trap (35’ diameter) using six 16-56™ trap panels, an automatic feeder and an eight feet wide M.I.N.E.™ gate closed by a remote control device. This method of trapping allowed us to capture entire sounder groups with the push of a button while onsite or viewing cellular pictures or live video from another location. Timers were set to broadcast feed every day at the exact same time. Cameras captured live video footage of hogs entering the trap enclosure until the entire sounder was conditioned to use the feeder as a daily food source. A human made an educated decision to close the gate using this method. This approach was our most efficient trapping method and demonstrated whole sounder removal in less than eight days every time. This method was also more expensive to operate because it required the use of a cellular camera for remote “text” pictures or a cell modem for IP streaming live video. These technologies are currently available through JAGER PRO™ sales
The most cost effective design in our research utilized the same large corral trap (35’ diameter) explained above using six 16-56™ trap panels, an automatic feeder and an eight feet wide M.I.N.E.™ gate but was closed by an electronic trip wire. This method of trapping still required us to condition the hogs to trust the enclosure as a food source but used less expensive game cameras to capture video footage of hogs entering the trap area. This required trappers to visit the trap site every few days to observe video on the camera’s SD cards. Electronic trip wires were then set at the back of the trap so hogs would trigger the gate closed while feeding which demonstrated an overall 87% success rate. This method was the most cost effective but required much more time, labor and fuel to operate while producing lesser results.
RESEARCH CONCLUSION-
Video intelligence is preferred over single pictures to receive the most complete feedback. Camera must be positioned opposite the trap gate to properly view hogs still outside the enclosure. Trap gate must be a minimum of eight feet wide with no visible frame to step over. Narrow gate thresholds and frames on the ground will prevent a trap-shy adult from entering a trap. Late winter months (December-March) provides the optimum trapping opportunity when hogs were searching for new food sources after the fall mast crops of acorns and hickory nuts are eaten. Round traps provide the largest trap area for materials used and there are no corners for the animals to pile up and jump out. Trapping is a very effective control method for removing large numbers of feral hogs if the task is performed correctly.
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