Bodyguard to the Holy? Mother Teresa’s Bodyguard

I’ve heard of “Bodyguard to the Stars” but what about “Bodyguard to the Holy“?

Here’s an interesting tidbit in bodyguard lore. Apparently Mother Teresa had a bodyguard on occasion. His name is James Alan Murphy and it seems he’s quite the man of adventure. Besides serving as a bodyguard for Mother Teresa, he was a salvage diver and charter boat captain.

I’ve never protected any religious figures but I know I’ve done my fair share of praying while on a protective detail especially that something doesn’t go wrong.

baalex @ November 21, 2008  http://www.executive-protection-news.com

Why does this man need a bodyguard?

Top 10 Secret Service Code Names

Time Magazine online recently published a list of the
Top 10 code names used by the secret service.

1) Obama-"Renegade"

2) JFK-"Lancer"

3) Nixon-"Searchlight"

4) Jimmy Carter-"Deacon"

5) Edward Kennedy-"Sunburn"

6) Reagan-"Rawhide"

7) Pope John Paul II-"Halo"

8) Kareena Gore, daughter of former VP Al Gore-"Smurfette"

9) Cheney-"Angler"

10) Cindy Mcain-"Parasol"

Foreign Civilian Security Contractors Disappearing

November 25, 2008: The United States is rapidly replacing foreign contractors in Iraq with Iraqis. Currently, about half the 163,000 civilian contractors there are locals. Some 28,000 are Americans, with the rest coming from dozens of different countries. The U.S. wants to have  most of the contractors hired locally as soon as possible. This will save the United States a lot of money, as the Iraqis will be paid according to prevailing wages in Iraq. That's less than half what most of the foreign contractors are paid.

The new Status of Forces agreement (which determines what U.S. troops can do, and who will prosecute those who misbehave) takes immunity (from the local legal system) away from the contractors. The U.S. has Status of Forces agreements in all countries where American troops are stationed. In Iraq, the only problem will be for VIP security details, who are liable to get into gun battles with attackers when there are civilians about, and it's uncertain if Iraqi courts could be fair and unprejudiced. This may get interesting, as the VIP bodyguards can get good jobs in other parts of the world, but the VIPs don't want to go unprotected in a place like Iraq. 

Contractors are used by the military because they are cheaper than soldiers. This is especially true in Iraq, where most of the contractors are unskilled labor from countries with very low pay scales. These civilians still make several times what they could back home, if they could find a job back home. Foreigners were hired initially because it was too dangerous to hire Iraqis. First, there was the loyalty problem, and then there was the risk of terrorists threatening, or killing, Iraqis working on American bases. There were some Iraqis working on those bases, mainly interpreters and some key specialists. And these Iraqis faced constant danger from terrorists. This policy greatly reduced the terrorist attacks inside American bases. There were only a few in over five years, all carried out by Iraqis who had access to the bases.

For the contractors, there is some danger in Iraq, but the chances of getting killed or wounded were a third of the rate for the troops, and the troops had a casualty rate that was about a third of what it was for previous wars (like Vietnam). Moreover, in the last year, combat casualties among foreign contractors has come way down, to, like, hardly any.

Armies have always had civilians along, to perform support functions. The historical term is "camp followers." In times past, the ratio of civilians to soldiers was often much higher, like eight civilians for every one soldier. Only the most disciplined armies (like the ancient Romans at their peak), kept the ratio closer to one to one. That's the same ratio U.S. troops currently have, although it was more like 90 civilians for every hundred troops during the Surge Offensive last year.

When conscript armies became common in the 19th century, it was suddenly cheaper to replace many of those civilians with conscripts (who were paid a nominal wage.) Now that armies are going all-volunteer, it's reverting to the old days, where it was cheaper to have civilians perform a lot of support jobs.

In Iraq, most of the civilian contractors work in the well defended bases, and most of the contractor casualties are among those (about a quarter of the total) who do security or transportation jobs that take them outside the wire. But even those have a lower casualty rate than the combat troops. For the really dangerous work, the troops are used. But working in a combat zone is still dangerous, no matter what your work clothes look like.

Row over Rabin killer interview

Leading Israelis have condemned interviews by two televisions channels with the man who assassinated Israel's former Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. Short versions of the first interviews ever done from Yigal Amir's prison cell ran on Israeli television on Thursday.

Amir has been moved to solitary confinement and denied telephone use and conjugal visits as punishment. The ultra-nationalist Jew, who opposed the Oslo peace process, has shown no remorse for shooting Rabin in 1995.

The telephone interviews were conducted without the knowledge of the prison service. Excerpts were broadcast on Israel's Channel Two and Channel 10 on Thursday evening, a few days ahead of the 4 November anniversary of the killing. But after widespread criticism, both channels later cancelled plans to run longer versions of the interview on Friday evening.

Deal 'a disaster'

In the interviews, Amir says his decision was influenced by the opinions of military figures at the time, including former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "All the military experts said that the Oslo Accord was a disaster," Amir said, referring to the 1993 accords under which Israel agreed to cede control of parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians.

Rabin signed the deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Amir also said he began considering the idea when he saw Rabin at a wedding with only one bodyguard:

"I saw that it was so easy, and told myself that in several years I would regret not having killed him." Defence Minister Ehud Barak was among those politicians and commentators who condemned the channels' actions.

"Yigal Amir ought to wither in prison for the rest of his life and he should under no condition be part of the mediatised public debate," he said in a statement. Amir, who is serving a life sentence, has been quoted in occasional written interviews and there has been one case where he was briefly questioned in television footage.

Asked by a reporter during one of his courtroom appearances if he had any regrets about the assassination, he replied: "Yes.... Why didn't I do it earlier?" The granting of permission for conjugal visits by Amir's wife, who he married secretly while in jail, has also been a controversial issue in Israel.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7701649.stm

Published: 2008/10/31 15:05:21 GMT

Blackwater offers to protect ships from pirates

Jeff Bliss
Bloomberg News /Friday, October 17, 2008

Blackwater Worldwide, whose security guards came under scrutiny after a 2007 fatal shootout in Iraq, is looking to the high seas to expand business, marketing its security services to shippers plagued by pirates.

Blackwater is in talks with several companies about protecting ships travelling through the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia, where piracy is increasing, said officials of the Moyock, N.C.-based company.

"We have the capability to assist" shipping companies, said Bill Mathews, Blackwater executive vice-president.

He and other company leaders are former Navy SEALs. Ship security "is kind of what we did for a living" before joining Blackwater, he said.

Blackwater is offering the MV MacArthur, a vessel with a crew of 14 and a helicopter pad, as an escort for ships through the Gulf of Aden. The helicopters and MacArthur won't be armed, although workers will carry guns, Mathews said.

The company will need a State Department licence to sell its services to a foreign government or business, said Anne Tyrrell, a Blackwater spokesperson.

The company isn't seeking new U.S. security contracts in Iraq, where a Blackwater team was involved in the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians while guarding a State Department convoy in September 2007. The deaths are being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The State Department paid Blackwater more than $832 million to provide security between 2004 and 2006, about half of the money under a no-bid contract awarded in June 2004.

Security in the Gulf of Aden, which ships traverse to go through the Suez Canal, has been a growing problem. The number of attacks off the coast of Somalia jumped to 44 in 2007 from 10 in 2004, according to the International Martime Bureau. Somali pirates are holding a Ukrainian ship they hijacked last month in a bid for ransom.

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008

Iraq Is Safer than Mexico

December 15, 2008: This month, about 26 people a day are dying from criminal and terrorist violence a day in Iraq. That's a bit lower than the death toll in northern Mexico, which on a bad day (like last November 3rd) saw 58 people killed. The police are generally helpless, hundreds of thousands of middle-class Mexicans have fled the border region, often to the United States (if they had dual-citizenship, which many do). Those without money must hunker down and wait for someone to win this war. The drug gangs show no signs of weakening, although the army believes that it can prevail in the next year or so.

Protection for President Obama Proves Daunting

Just Say No to Nosy Parkers in Executive Protection

Protective Security Considerations and the Press Conference.

The “Close Quarter Hold” as an Executive Protection Tactic

Richard Nance, an active Law Enforcement Officer, contributing writer to Officer.com and co-founder of Weapon Acquisition & Retention Tactics (WARTAC) has penned yet another article highlighting a defensive tactics technique with applicability to executive protection. While the gist of his article is aimed at Law Enforcement Officers performing more traditional police work,  his point on using a “close quarter hold” is valuable when it comes to bodyguard work.

Richard advocates transitioning to a close quarter hold in those situations when you are unable to holster your weapon while attempting to control a subject moving toward you. This is a very likely scenario for executive protection. Look at John Hinckley and his attack on President Reagan and you will see some of the responding agents and officers attempting to disarm and control Hinckley with their weapons drawn. As Richard notes, fighting with your handgun is a very real prospect particularly in an attack on principal (AOP) scenario. In close protection, the ability to take cover behind a barricade or other obstacle to “buy time”  doesn’t exist. “Just 2 Seconds” by Gavin DeBecker et al., illustrates the concept of using time and space to “defeat assassins.” In order to successfully capitialize on an attacker’s limitations of time and space as well as maximize on the limited time between attack recognition and response, both reactionary time and the effective application of gross motor skills is critical. The close quarter hold advocated by Richard Nance fits into that gap between attack recognition and response when the protector has already drawn his or her weapon. It’s a tactic that fits with the time and space limitations of an AOP. An AOP in the U.S. is more likely to consist of an attacker using a handgun and at less than 25 feet, the ability to execute a protective tactic that takes into consideration the limited amount of time the protector has to draw his weapon, acquire the attacker and shoot, a close quarter hold is an effective tactic.

BTW: Richard Nance has two excellent DVDs available with tactics that are appropriate for executive protection. Check out “Firearms Acquisition Tactics” and “Total Assault Protection”. 

Managing Your Bodyguard Service
Managing your Executive Protection business

If you are an executive protection service or bodyguard service provider, you are in business first and executive protection second. In today’s troubled economic environment, managing your cash flow is paramount to your survival as a business. Even if you are an independent contractor providing personal security services, you still need to manage your cash flow perhaps even more stringently than a larger business.

One of the challenges of providing executive protection services, or bodyguard services in today’s poor economy is collecting from a customer who has gone bankrupt. Business Pundit, at www.businesspundit.com has five tips on how to protect yourself from bankrupt clients. Read this now before you find yourself trying to collect from a customer who can’t pay. It’ll save you time and more importantly, money in the long run.

Why Executive Protection Should Fear the Suicide Bomber
Suicide bombers and the threat to executives

The Executive Protection community has already witnessed the implications of suicide bomber attacks against protected persons for several years. I don’t mean just the attack Benazir Bhutto, who’s death by a suicide bomber has had a profound impact on Pakistan and the region. We saw how effective a suicide bomber targeting a VIP could be with the attack on Raj Ghandi in the early nineties. We saw it and subsequently experienced when Shah Masood, the leader of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance was killed by Al Qaeda operatives two days before 9-11 as part of the overall Al-Qaeda attack strategy for 9-11.

This disturbing report on Al-Qaida efforts to recruit children as suicide bombers contains at least two critical observation from the perspective of preventing suicide bomber attacks on VIPs. First, the authors note the tactical advantage a child possess operating as a suicide bomber. As female suicide bombers have demonstrated the world over, children would not typically rise to the level of suspicion, or perceived threat as the classic, but sometimes erroneous portrait of a male suicide bomber. This presents a real challenge when you look at options for tactically neutralizing a suicide bomber. How many of us are willing to make that call based on instinct alone?

The second element in this article worth noting is the three day stalk of the target by the child suicide bomber. One of the primary security concerns surrounding a suicide bomber is the bomber’s ability to adjust the attack based on a real-time assessment of security surrounding the target. If operational conditions don’t favor the bomber, the bomber has the ability to delay the attack or as demonstrated in the near simultaneous attacks that occurred against in hotels in Jordan, select another equally attractive target instantly. In the Jordanian attacks, one of the suicide bombers was turned away from his primary target yet he moved to another adjacent location and still managed to kill innocent people. While the bomber was not successful in achieving his goals at the intended target, the bomber still succeeded in creating casualties and achieving a victory in the form of creating the ensuing fear and publicity that terrorist attacks generate.