Explosive Devices Found in Mail Sent to Hillary Clinton and Obama

The ISDA Secure Transportation and Executive Protection News Podcast for Wednesday, October 24th, 2018 

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In Executive Protection News

From New York Times

Explosive Devices Found in Mail Sent to Hillary Clinton and Obama

Two explosive devices were found in mail sent to the offices of former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Secret Service said Wednesday.

The devices were similar to one found on Monday at the home of the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, two law enforcement officials said.

In a statement, the Secret Service said it “has intercepted two suspicious packages addressed to Secret Service protectees,” who were identified as Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama.

The device addressed to Mrs. Clinton in Westchester County was found late on Tuesday by a Secret Service technician who screens mail for her office, the statement said. The package addressed to Mr. Obama was intercepted by Secret Service personnel in Washington DC early on Wednesday.

“The packages were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such,” the statement said. “The protectees did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them.”

The statement said the agency had “initiated a full scope criminal investigation that will leverage all available federal, state, and local resources to determine the source of the packages and identify those responsible.”

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/nyregion/clinton-obama-explosive-device.html

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In Vehicle News

From NextGov

DHS Funds Tech That Lets Emergency Vehicles Talk to Nearby Cars

Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics have no time to waste when responding to emergencies, and the Homeland Security Department wants to keep everyone safe as they speed to the scene.

The department awarded a $1.1 million contract to a Chicago-based startup to flesh out cellular technology that automatically notifies drivers when they’re in the vicinity of police cars, firetrucks, and ambulances. The system, developed by HAAS Alert, could ultimately reduce the number of collisions involving emergency response vehicles, saving both lives and dollars.

Vehicle collisions are one of the biggest dangers first responders face in the line of duty.

 

https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2018/10/dhs-funds-tech-lets-emergency-vehicles-talk-nearby-cars/152243/

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In Business of Executive Protection News

From Strategic Marketing Solutions

Copy, Paste, and Hope is Not a Marketing Strategy

People want to interact and communicate with you and your business on social media. They want to be inspired and know your story. With the amount of stuff being shared on social media networks you have to make a concerted effort to stand out from the minutia. Don’t just copy, paste and hope that someone clicks on what you are selling.

Audiences, friends, colleagues, potential customers, and clients are all bombarded by this minutia and these posts are just simply scrolled by because the tweets and posts were uninteresting, boring, ho-hum. The messages didn’t tell them the why. Why should I buy your service/product; why should I take the training. Instead, it is simply blah.

This is rampant everywhere on social media.

Usually, businesses who copy, paste and hope get frustrated and give up, and are the biggest complainers and naysayers that social media marketing doesn’t work.

Changing the Mindset

Change the mindset and get out of the copy, paste and hope ditch. Ask yourself these questions before, after, and during your social media marketing efforts.

What is my overall social media marketing strategy? What is my strategy for this particular network? Is it likes, leads. sales, customers, etc. What are my social media goals? Is this the right network to post this? Am I reaching the right market? Why should anyone care about this post? Is this post engaging, thoughtful and convey the why? What is the objective of this post? Does my post have a call to action – what do I want people to do? Why is this post important to my market, client, and customers? Does it provide value?

Provide Context

Our average focused attention span is 8 seconds, down 4 seconds from 14 years ago. To put that in perspective, our attention span is less than a gnat and a goldfish!

What is it that holds our attention for those 8 seconds on a tweet, a post or a page? It is context. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary context is defined as the words that are used with a certain word or phrase and that help to explain its meaning. The image, video, or message in that post or tweet affects you in some way – emotionally or cognitively. You can relate or understand the message immediately. It clicks. For example, a Vine video about a dog doing crazy tricks grabs your attention because you love animals or you have a dog and want it to do those tricks or even simply because it is funny. Because of context, you are more apt to click the like button and share the message. Context is the story that adds relevancy to your message.

Understand the medium

Each social media network is very, very different even though they are starting to look and act the same. Images might work best on Facebook and Pinterest but to be successful you also have to understand the demographics in each medium. For instance, Pinterest users are primarily women who are interested in purchasing or wanting a particular product whereas Facebook is more for social interaction with friends, family, and colleagues. So the images could be completely different.

Further Recommendations

Focus on the end user that will see the post, not your own ego Give quality, insightful information away for free – and do it often. Stop selling and start telling your story. Be creative. Think beyond copy, paste and hope boredom. 

https://larrysnow.me/copy-paste-hope-not-marketing-strategy/

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In Recommended Reading for Protection Professionals

Targeted Violence: A Statistical and Tactical Analysis of Assassinations, Contract Killings, and Kidnappings

Authored by Glenn P. McGovern and written in 2011, Drawn from case examples of incidents from around the world, Targeted Violence: A Statistical and Tactical Analysis of Assassinations, Contract Killings, and Kidnappings is the most complete resource of information on the attack methodologies, tactics used, and groups responsible for targeted killings and kidnappings. The author, a former SWAT and JTTF team member—whose experience includes providing protection to diplomats, high-ranking military personnel, prosecutors, and organized crime informants—presents a wealth of global statistics on assassinations, contract killings, and kidnappings that have occurred from 1950 to the present.

Leaving no stone unturned, the book breaks down the various incidents of targeted violence by region, country, month, day of the week, and time of day. It reports on likely locations for each type of attack, success rates, who is likely to initiate the attacks, and who they are most likely to target. The book’s easy-to-follow format allows readers, experienced or not in personal protective work, to determine the types of attacks known to have occurred in any region.

This complete reference includes 35 case studies that examine attacks on motorcades and pedestrians dating back to 1973—highlighting the lessons to be learned from each example. It analyzes the modus operandi of individual assailants and groups in order to determine commonalities between targeted victims and why certain groups tend to target a specific type of individual. The text concludes with a chapter on victimology.

Just like anyone, assassins and hit men fall into routines and can become creatures of habit. By studying and understanding the collection of historical information contained in these pages, security, military, and law enforcement professionals responsible for providing protection will be better prepared to identify potential threats and develop the tactics needed to thwart such attacks.

About the Author

Glenn McGovern, district attorney investigator, Special Deputy U.S. Marshal, police officer, deputy sheriff, law enforcement specialist, began his law enforcement career in 1986 as an eighteen-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force Security Police. It was here that he first began his studies of terrorism, tactical operations, and protective details. Europe, at the time, was on fire as groups such as the Sicilian mafia, November 17, Red Army Faction, Hizbollah, and many others were conducting their terrorist attacks. As a newly minted law enforcement member who was also assigned to a police unit that had a combat mission and was deployable worldwide, the study of the tactics used by these groups was mandatory. It was during this time that he had his first introduction to close personal protection operations, first with Soviet diplomats visiting under the SALT II treaties, then later in  Panama with the commanding general of all U.S. forces in South America. He was also involved in an unusual protective operation in that he was locked in with the protectee, which in this case was over $16 million in cash en route to the U.S. military installations in the Pacific.

He later took a job with the Bureau of Investigation of one of the largest district attorney’s offices in California, where he remains to this day. Here he quickly became a member of the Special Operations Group tasked with protective operations for district attorney staff, primarily prosecutors, as well as victims and witnesses. It was as a member of this group that he became more involved in the nuances of protective work as well as the training of a protective team. In particular, providing protection to victims and witnesses involved an issue that most protective teams don’t generally have to deal with. At times, the witness being protected was a member of an organized prison gang. As a member of the gang, even on the “outs” that person was in a position to see the methods of operation, equipment, members of the team, and how they operate. As anyone who has worked organized crime, and gangs in particular, can attest, it doesn’t take much for a gang member to get back in the good graces of his or her gang, and as a result, bringing with him or her the inside knowledge of the protective operations of the DA’s office.

While with the district attorney’s office, he was assigned full-time to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force as a Special Deputy U.S. Marshal conducting international terrorism investigations for a period of three years. In this assignment he conducted counterterrorism investigations into a variety of groups, including some that have carried out targeted killings. He also was able to attend training that included the construction and detonation of a 500 lb vehicle car bomb, as well as dealing with suicide bombers, which provided him unique insight into how these operations could be carried out. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the Union Institute in Ohio as ell as a certificate in crime and intelligence analysis from the California State University, Sacramento. He is the author of several articles dealing with intelligence and SWAT-related subjects as well as a bimonthly online publication of urban ambush case studies. He also speaks on the issue of protective operations, specifically the tactics employed in these types of attacks.

https://amzn.to/2q8dVrl

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