Paul's Corner - 9 December 2002
“Paul’s Corner” is the cyber real estate Hack has
granted us to recruit and focus help from readers in order to create a direct
information conduit between the vast number of educated, intelligent, and
patriotically motivated Americans in the private sector, and Gov. Tom Ridge of
the Office of Homeland Security (OHS). It’s also Hack’s way of making sure his
readers have the kinds of information that will help keep them safe.
"It
requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is
deaf."
-Walter
Lippman
Our war with the Taliban, and
our pending invasion of
This week’s focus: The “Why” of Perpetuity
As a security analyst, I do all kinds of reading and
research in support of homeland security efforts and to better understand one
of our specialties – Executive Protection. Some of this research deals with
personal protective measures and feedback on what works well and what does not.
Pepper spray seems to have a divided audience. Some people swear by it as being
a very effective, non-lethal defensive tool that causes no permanent injury.
Others say that on some people it’s ineffective and may actually make the
situation worse.
May
make the situation worse. Hmmm... Let’s look at that for a minute. Taking away
the physical effects of pepper spray and the debate over whether or not those
on dope feel the effects, let’s look at the psyche of a criminal who’s just
been sprayed. What goes through their mind? Is it A: “Dang! I shouldn’t have
been messing with them in the first place. They got me fair and square. Or B:
“#$$%@@ if I get my hands on you...!!” While there actually are a few instances
of “A”, “B” is the more common answer. Why? It’s because the criminal sees
absolutely nothing wrong with what they’re doing. Absolutely nothing! In
fact, most of them feel completely justified in committing criminal acts, and
any retaliation on your part is not only unwarranted, but will actually
infuriate most criminals even more.
So it
is with the committed anti-American terrorist. They see the criminal acts of
themselves and their associates as fully justified, and any retaliation on our
part will only fuel their fire that much more. The bottom line? You can’t win a
“chicken or the egg” argument with a psychopath. The twisted terrorist mind
will always rationalize that they are the heroic victim righting a wrong, and
then victimized again by our retaliation.
We’re
about to launch a campaign against
The
first is what all of our homeland security panels (mine especially) have been
concerned with since 9-11, and that is hardening our vulnerabilities and
educating and protecting our citizenry. It’s a shared personal feeling that
Secondly,
and just as important, we should have a stronger “infomercial” system in place
to hopefully end the “chicken and the egg” thing and maybe help prevent future
generations of terrorists.
A small
example of this “infomercial” concept was used in
One of
my lifelong friends, John E. of
Naturally,
the question is how. Actually, “how” is two questions. How do we get our
government to do it, and how best can the idea be executed?
In
conclusion, we wanted to let you know that this article had two points. One was
to enlist your brainstorming aid in the mutual understanding concept, and the
second was to remind you there will more than likely be reprisals on US soil
when we launch against
Let us
know what you think.
IN THE NEWS
AND ON THE WEB:
Sources:
Downloadable Field Manuals: http://www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll?type=fm.
Yellow
Book Online: http://www.yellowbook.com.
News:
Al
Qaeda Holiday Threat: http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/12/05/terror.threats/index.html.
Al
Qaeda Planning New Attacks: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1039065109280.
Washington
Post’s National Security Page: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/nationalsecurity.
FBI’s
Terror Readiness Questioned: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A40996-2002Nov11¬Found=true.
Handling
the Info-Swap Squabble: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15908-2002Dec5.html.
INS
Clueless: http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20021206-24481400.htm.
FBI
Vendor Raided in Terror Probe: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17836-2002Dec6.html.
California
Cities Unprepared: http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=14655§ion=LOCAL&year=2002&month=12&day=6.
What are your thoughts?:
If you were
Are your concerns civil-defense
aspects of civilian preparedness, or are your concerns specific industries?
As an
example, read the above news item of “California Cities Unprepared: http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=14655§ion=LOCAL&year=2002&month=12&day=6.”
Let us know what still needs to
be done.
MAKING
A DIFFERENCE:
1. Current Warnings:
Nothing official, but
2. Contributions on a National Level:
Prep a small “care package” to send to the first responders of a city that may
experience an attack. Include things like instant coffee, snack bars, cushioned
insoles for workboots, etc.
3. Local and Community Opportunities:
Keep an extra eye open when in public gathering areas (malls) or around
infrastructure facilities. Report ANY suspicious behavior!
4. Family, Home, and Self:
Do more holiday shopping on-line and less in the malls this season.
*****************************************************************
To send us your
input, thoughts, comments, critiques, etc., contact us at J2Paul@aol.com
You can find Congressional addresses
at either www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. Another source for addresses
and on pending legislation can be found at www.vote-smart.org.
To report specific information you feel may be
indicative of a pending terrorist strike, call these numbers: 1)
Call your local police department, 2) Call your local FBI branch office (www.fbi.gov) 3) Call or write: 1-800-USREWARDS
or www.rewardsforjustice.net.
Those of you who’d like to volunteer your time or expertise can try the following:
1) Register as an emergency volunteer with
your local Police or Sheriff’s Department (see http://www.sftt.us/pc_04092002.html
for various categories of volunteers).
2) Contact “United We
Stand” at: http://www.uwsai.org.
3) Contact “Citizen
Corps” at: http://www.citizencorps.gov.
4) Contact “Freedom
Corps” at: http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/.
5)
Contact “Americorps” at: http://www.americorps.org/.
6) The Service Corps of Retired Executives: http://www.score.org/.
7) See
the “America Responds” volunteer info page
at http://www.nationalservice.org/news/homeland.html.
8) The American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/.
9)
Last, and maybe most important of all, your own neighborhood. For info on
starting a Neighborhood Watch group, see our
article at http://www.sftt.us/pc_04022002.html,
and also contact http://www.weprevent.org/
(1-800-WE-PREVENT), John Ashcroft’s Neighborhood Watch program at: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2002/March/02_ag_125.htm, and the National Crime Prevention
Council at: http://www.ncpc.org/.
To
report government waste: Citizens Against
Government Waste: http://www.cagw.org/.
For general input regarding improving our
“American Think-Tank,” contact
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About
the author: Paul Purcell is a private investigator, and is part owner of the
firm InfoQuest Investigators in