1 June 02

At this year's NTI, we were able to view a captured Al-Qaida training video and hear comments from several people on the current situation in the "War on Terror."

In the video, we saw Al-Qaida operatives training for terrorist "events." The training site was somewhere in Afghanistan. What first struck me was the high degree abject brutality, even in these "roll playing" exercises. Roll players portraying hostages were heard to say, in English, "Please don't kill me." There is little doubt in my mind that these operatives were being trained to hear hostages say that and other English-language phases. That opinion was strengthened when we saw hostages being herded up to the roof of a building and then murdered (simulated) and their bodies thrown over the edge, one by one, in full view of crowds below and, of course, news media helicopters which would presumably be hovering above.

Operations portrayed involved raids on buildings, kidnappings, and murders of individuals in their own homes. Sights included golf courses, which caused all of us to believe these people were training for operations in America and Western Europe where the game of golf is popular.

All of it appeared to involve detailed planning and sizable groups of heavily armed operatives. RPGs were routinely used to initiate the operation. As mentioned above, bestial brutality and an utter lack of concern over human suffering were the common threads in all the scenarios. In addition, most scenarios appeared to be suicidal in nature. There seemed to be no plan for the escape or extraction of terrorist operatives.

On the other side of the ledger, we had the opportunity to see the federal government's newly revised policy manual for local "first responders" to terrorist events. The theme can be summarized in one sentence: Seal off the area and don't take any action until federal authorities arrive! First responders are discouraged from doing anything on their own aside from establishing a perimeter, and they are also instructed to prevent anyone else from taking action.

In every "active shooter" incident we've experienced in the USA, all the murdering was completed within the first twenty minutes. That statistic alone, at least in theory, makes SWAT teams irrelevant. They can't possibly get organized and get to the scene that fast. If first responders fail to take immediate action on their own initiative, anything the SWAT team does, whenever it finally arrives, is unlikely to affect the final outcome in any significant way. A federal response team, arriving hours or even days later, is apt to be even more extraneous.

The message is clear: If you get caught in the middle of a terrorist event, you're on your own! You better be armed and make your move at the first opportunity. If you are taken hostage by one of these groups, there is no doubt that you will be murdered outright or ceremonially murdered later, and neither your gender nor you age will make any difference.

Rescue of individuals is NOT in the federal plan. Even after all the lip service paid to the heroic passengers of Flight 92, individual initiative is still being officially discouraged.

/John

1 June 02

Lessons from NTI 2002:

We had a good collection of gunmen at this year's event. At the "DTI Dance" stage, 93% of rounds launched struck bad-guy targets. Many lessons were learned. Here are the most important:

DECISIVENESS. Decisiveness is probably the most important of all tactical skills. If you're going to exit, do it quickly and don't come back. Get distance and get out of sight. If you're going to disengage, do it aggressively, then exit quickly even if you have to push past or push through people. If you're going to engage, do it quickly and with exorbitant violence. Don't hesitate. Don't start to do one thing, then stop and start to do something else. A confused countenance always fixes you in one position and generates a focused response by predators.

ALERTNESS. The more warning you have, the more time you have to put a plan together. You must make it a habit of looking all around constantly. I find the "Step-and-Scan" technique to be particularly valuable in this regard.

SMOOTH AGGRESSIVENESS: If you have a plan, it must be executed seamlessly, with great force and speed, and without delay. Don't vacillate and don't falter.

HAVE A PLAN: Accept the fact that it won't be perfect, but, without one, you will dither and hesitate. When you become overwhelmed, take a breath, reform you plan and continue.

YOU NEED YOUR HANDS TO FIGHT: In an emergency, if you have something in your hands that is not important and is not helping you right now, it needs to be immediately jettisoned, so that your hands are free to do the important work at hand.

MOVEMENT: Whether you're engaging or exiting, aggressive movement will invariably unbalance your opponent(s). We see it again and again. Unless you're in a strong, covered position, you must be moving constantly.

KEEP MAXIMUM STRENGTH ON YOUR GUN: A strong, tight Weaver stance is always best. People who hyper-extend their pistols, particularly when they are shooting one-handed, betray their position, get disarmed, or get shot in the arm. Don't stick your pistol where angels fear to tread! The Isosceles stance is NOT suitable for serious shooting.

MAKE USE OF COVER AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY, BUT DON'T CROWD IT: Moving to cover needs to be an automatic response, but many shooters crowded it and were thus unable to use it effectively. The "Rollout" technique will always maximize your advantage.

DON'T POINT YOUR GUN AT YOURSELF: It's difficult to imagine how shooting yourself in the middle of a tactical situation would be helpful to you! And yet, we saw many ostensibly experienced gunmen point their pistol at their weak-side hand more or less contiguously as they moved through tactical exercises. Muzzle consciousness is something that every aspiring gunman should learn on the first day of his training, but the lesson is long on many when things get exciting.

/John