Feral Jundi

Saturday, October 24, 2009

India: Security Summit in Mumbai, and Private Security Increases

Filed under: India — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 11:21 AM

Other companies have also launched security services. The Indian building firm DLF has formed TerraForce, its own security outfit, trained by the Israeli army and the US marines, to patrol its properties. Infosys, the IT giant, and the country’s largest private-sector firm, Reliance Industries, have both been allotted permanent protection from India’s state Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), whose officers, unlike those in private security firms, are permitted to carry firearms.

Hiring private security is arguably necessary, given the evident failings of the Indian state security forces during the attacks. The police were armed with nothing but bamboo “lathis” or sticks when they had to face the militants. Members of the elite National Security Guard (NSG) took eight hours to travel from their base in the state of Haryana to the hotels, and then it took two more days to defeat the 10 gunmen. 

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   Well there’s your problem India.  You don’t bring bamboo “lathis” to a gun fight. lol All kidding aside, it will be interesting to see what comes out of the meeting of the minds during this security summit. I certainly hope Incident Command is at least given a mention during this summit, because if they have any hope of defeating an attack like this, it will come from unity of effort and a fast and efficient means of getting everyone on the same sheet of music in the beginning stages of an attack.  The private guards like Terraforce, or the police units, military units and fire units all should have radios that can be programmed or are set up already to communicate with one another.  An Incident Commander on scene, needs to take the reins of the situation, and bring to bear the necessary resources to deal with the developing situation.  And when seconds and minutes count, all the little details of command and control need to be hashed out, well before another Mumbai attack.  That is how you prepare for this.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to get everyone under the same umbrella of Incident Command, in order for this system to properly work.  Your first responders are the ones that will be able to confront and defeat the attack before it gets worse. And if they are organized and know what to do in order to take control of a situation, then you will see a disaster/attack go from chaos to organized chaos, giving everyone involved a higher chance of survival.

   On a side note, I am interested in this whole TerraForce thing?  That must be a typo about the US Marines training them?  I just couldn’t find anything to support that claim and perhaps what the article meant to say is that it was ‘former US Marines’.  Maybe some Embassy guys, or some unit came in to train them, and I could be wrong.  Either way, if any of the readers have any input about TerraForce, let me know. –Matt

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Mumbai unbowed by attacks

Richard Orange

October 24. 2009

Early next month, the head of London’s Metropolitan Police, the former secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, and a panel of international security experts will gather in Mumbai’s Trident Hotel for a “security and resilience summit”.

That some of the world’s foremost experts on terrorism, including Sir Paul Stephenson of the London Met and the former homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff, are willing to spend a day and night in a hotel where militants killed more than 30 people just a year earlier is a sign of how much the city has recovered. (Many of the same faces were in the Trident for a similar conference as early as January).

In the time since 10 Pakistani gunmen brought terror to Mumbai for two days starting last November 26, India’s main business hub has bounced back. (more…)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Disaster Response: U.S., Australia Lead Samoa Relief Mission

Filed under: Australia,Disaster Response,Samoa — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 12:25 PM

     Below you get a little indicator of the type of Incident Response mechanisms FEMA is using for this.  I am not familiar with IMAT, but I am familiar with Incident Command, and that is exactly what will be used to coordinate these efforts.  The best part is Australia is fully on board with Incident Command as well, and this is a prime example of using a universal command language and system to unify the effort. –Matt

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US, Australia lead Samoa relief mission

by Amy Coopes

Wed Sep 30, 2009

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia, New Zealand and the United States led immediate pledges of assistance to the Samoan islands after a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami which killed dozens.

US President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in the remote Pacific territory American Samoa, where at least 14 people were killed when a massive wall of water swept over the US-administered island early Tuesday local time.

“The president tonight declared a major disaster exists in the territory of American Samoa and ordered federal aid to supplement territory and local recovery efforts in the area struck by an earthquake, tsunami, and flooding,” a statement from the White House said.

(more…)

Monday, August 31, 2009

Disaster Response: The Security Officer and Incident Command

    I read this story below, and it reminded me of how little respect folks have for the security officer of a facility, all the way up until something awful happens.  Something like a terrorist attack or natural disasters or a response to a influenza virus outbreak like Novel Influenza A (Swine Flu). It usually takes a really bad deal to remind everyone how important an initial response and attack is, in order to combat these type of things.

   But what this story missed, and was ‘oh so close’ to mentioning, was the importance of Incident Command to the initial response to an incident like a pandemic.  Incident Command is the answer, and it is also something that has been federally mandated by DHS.  But what does that really mean, you might ask?

   It means that the US government has recognized the power and efficiency of such a system, based on it’s usage during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the hurricane responses the last couple of years and the fires that ravage the west every summer.  It is a simple command language and structure, that all units involved can rally around and understand.  That is a powerful thing, because the emergency response that is most organized and most flexible to answer the rapid pace of an evolving incident, will win.  It has been proven time and time again, hence why it is the preferred command structure for emergency response in the US.

(more…)

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Law Enforcement: Three Officers Killed in Pa. Shooting

Filed under: Crime,Law Enforcement — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 9:28 AM

    Rest in peace to the officers killed, and the last couple of days have been rough for this kind of deal.  I think we will see more of this too, as the stresses of the recession and lost jobs continues to kick in. And often the idea for such a thing, comes from the previous news attention of another incident.  This stuff really sucks.

   One thing I wanted to comment on with this, is the continued use of the AK 47 in some of these shootings.  It is a cheap weapon, reliable, and the round is very effective.  And if the active shooter has armor piercing rounds, then that makes that weapons system really scary.  Either way, more departments out there should continue to make it mandatory to get a plate carrier with a carbine in each patrol car.  There should also be more training out there for officers to deal with active shooters and the super empowered individual.  We must be prepared for all and any scenario, and to not give an officer the best chance at ending a active shooter rampage or at least protecting himself on scene, is just wrong.

   I also look at this from the Mumbai perspective, and what terrorists are learning about the US system of response.  They are watching, and they are learning, and realizing the strategy and tactics necessary to inflict the most amount of damage.  In Pakistan, they are strapping bomb belts on to themselves, along with AK’s and and ammo, and the goal is to shoot until they are out, and then blow themselves up.  Or blow themselves up, if they see an opportunity.  God help us when we come across an active shooter in the US that has this mindset.  So the ability to deal with an active shooter quick, or even an active killer is extremely important.  I say killer, because look at the terrorists that used bulldozers in Israel to kill.  

(more…)

Monday, March 9, 2009

Training: Is Your Company ‘National Incident Management System’ Ready?

Filed under: Kaizen,Training — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 3:05 PM

   Ok gang, this is an important one, and I am hoping that any company reps that might read this, actually pay attention.  Here at Feral Jundi, I have been talking my head off about the importance of the Incident Command System, and why we should be getting ICS smart.  Well this little deal below is one reason, in my list of reasons for going this route.  If a company is used in a disaster zone or some national security deal, and they are not up to speed on NIMS, then they will certainly be behind the power curve.  And seeing how all the federal, state, and local groups have been given the orders of ‘one mission, one team, one fight’ since 2004, we need to catch up in the private industry if we want to integrate well into that effort.

   In the Fire Services, all federal/state/local/private industry groups were required to be up to speed on Incident Command.  It is actually part of the fire refresher training each year.  But notice how I tacked on ‘private industry’, because fire contractors all had to be able to integrate well on an incident.  They had to have radios, the fire equipment, a red card stating that they were qualified, and they needed to know who and what an Incident Commander was on a fire.  ICS was a necessary bit of knowledge, if a contractor wanted to play with others on fires. 

    Even if your company does not take the time to learn this stuff or train it’s employees, you as the security specialist could definitely take it upon yourself to learn.  If you have questions about Incident Command and how it works, just do a Google or Feral Jundi Search. Or you could just ask me and I will be more than happy to fill in the blanks.  I also think the attacks in Mumbai, are certainly an indicator that we must get organized when it comes to managing chaotic environments.  During that attack, there was no Incident Management and really no leadership bringing everyone under such a system.  The result was chaos and casualties, with extreme blame on the government for not doing enough to deal with such a thing.  Things to think about…-Matt 

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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge Approves National Incident Management System (NIMS)

For Immediate Release

Press Office

Contact: 202-282-8010

March 1, 2004

U. S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge today announced approval of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) (PDF, 152 pages – 7.6MB) the Nation’s first standardized management plan that creates a unified structure for Federal, state, and local lines of government for incident response.  “NIMS gives all of our Nation’s responders the same framework for incident management and fully puts into practice the concept of, ‘One mission, one team, one fight,'” Ridge said.

(more…)

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