Increased threats + Increased Concerns <> Increased Security

The Jewish high holidays are on their way and just in time for the recent threats from "the American Al-Queda" against targets in the U.S. and Australia and the break-up of another Southern California plot. But Australia? I must admit I'm not sure why he picked them, but hey it's his videotape anyway. Regardless of my personal feelings about those who wish to change my beliefs by force - I want to discuss the fallacy that merely increasing our concerns somehow increases our security.

Efforts will be made to increase the preparedness of Jewish and Israeli property all over the world, but I keep hearing people say that somehow we're better prepared because of our awareness. Well, I must admit that this is somewhat true, BUT it is the preparedness supporting this awareness that brings the security. Imagine of we all knew that 9/11 was going to happen but lacked a way to tell anyone besides each other? OK maybe this isn't the best example but we must have a plan for reporting and responding to threats - regardless of when we must react. Thus plans must be dynamic to be useful if a plan is discovered at any phase up to and including its successful manifestation. So we must have a way to report our suspicions and investigate them. This may be from a conversation overhead in public (however unlikely) or it may be THAT PERSON WALKING TOWARDS US NOW!

So now that we have the heightened awareness going for us we need to get the plans in place (and communicated) to ensure we are able to identify, assess, respond, and resolve all real or potential encounters.

The hard part is coordinating the activities of the good guys - private, local law enforcement, state law enforcement, federal law enforcement, and the intelligence capabilities of each.

What private intelligence capabilities you ask. Every organization possessed an immense intel ability. How many of our members here information in public, find information on the web, or are able to collate information from all of these sources? I worked with a firm that tracked domestic environmental extremists for a client. Were we successful? Very much. So much so that after some of the less publicized acts of Eco-terror we provided much of the contextual information to law enforcement investigators.

As they say - Keep you ear to the ground. Oh, and have a plan, test it, revise it, test it again, communicate it, and keep it flexible. Your defense in-depth starts with your intel, progesses through your passive and active defensive measures and ends with your ability to react to a successful event.

Rob
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