Must Reads for SWAT and Counter Terror Operators. Knowledge Will Save Your Life.
/By: Ron Camacho
In 1905, famed philosopher, author, literary and cultural critic, George Santayana, warned us that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense. Scribner's, 1905: 284).
In short, Santayana’s message is simply to “Never Forget.” Indeed, these words have resounded through history to remind us of many human tragedies. They serve as a last bastion of preparedness and prevention; a bugle call to never let them happen again. Jews in the diaspora of Israel, and elsewhere, use the term to remember the unconscionable events of the Holocaust. Americans say them as reminders of the horrific 9/11 terror attacks. Drive around any neighborhood in the United States and you will still see this “call to arms” on flags, T-shirts, and car stickers, serving as a constant reminder to honor those who have died in attacks that are a blight on humanity. Unfortunately, we do forget. Maybe we haven’t yet forgotten the Holocaust or 9/11, but certainly many other attacks on schools, hospitals, and other civilian targets have faded into the recesses of our minds. Though we may have forgotten, the education, training, and knowledge of bellwether events are still there for law enforcement and security personnel to use. These exist in the writings and teachings of one man. These sources serve as reminders of all that have come before, and to help us be prepared for these incidents when they return. That person is author, terrorism expert and university professor Dr. John Giduck.
For those of us in law enforcement agencies and school and hospital security departments who are every day called upon to be ready to race into the worst hell imaginable to save our most innocent from all manner of threats, we must study the events history has given us. We cannot be condemned to repeat the mistakes of those who came before us; for if we do, our students, medical professionals and staff today are condemned to be added to the losses of the innocent victims of years past. But just what are those losses? In the Modern Era of Terrorism, which began in July 1968, schools, universities and hospitals the world over have been consistently targeted. And they have been targeted by more than just committed terrorists. In the US and other countries, we see more and more socially produced predators selecting them as targets, seeking to kill those found inside in the greatest possible numbers.
In his first book, Terror at Beslan, Dr. Giduck begins by offering us an in-depth understanding of terrorism and tactics. He skillfully uses an investigative “boots on the ground” method combined with an academic approach to document this horrific terror attack on a school in Russia, where Islamist terrorism uses targets as dress rehearsals for other nations. Yet, Beslan was not the first documented terror attack on a school. On May 15, 1974, in Ma’alot, Israel, Palestinian terrorists attacked a school, where they killed 26 hostages, 23 of whom were children. Those numbers paled in comparison with Beslan, which saw 314 teachers, parents, and children killed; 186 under the age of 18. In addition to being able to go onsite to the Ma’alot school with Israeli special forces, Giduck was able to gain access to the Beslan school in the immediate aftermath of the military rescue operation. He took eyewitness accounts of the siege, and was even able to interview Russian commandos who assaulted the school as well as review Russian government reports on the incident. Due to his ability to speak and read Russian, Giduck was able to do an in-depth examination of the attack and reconstruct what the terrorist plans were during the school takeover. This was not the first time terrorists in Russia used a hostage-siege as a tactic. In June 1995, Chechen terrorists stormed the city of Budyonovsk and ultimately took over a hospital for days, then repeated that attack at another hospital in the city of Kizlyar in January 1996. These were not just Chechen attacks, but Al-Qaeda planned and funded terror operations. Ask any American hospital administrator or director of security if he has ever heard of Budyonovsk or Kizlyar, or understands the significance these two cities have on the safety and security of our own facilities, and the answer will most likely be “no.” The death tolls at Budyonovsk and Kizlyar did not reach the levels at Beslan, however, as Giduck writes that “Beslan is where the terrorists perfected mass-hostage siege tactics.”
Terror at Beslan gets inside the minds of the terrorists, hostages, and rescue forces. It is a primer for all law enforcement and security personnel on what to expect during a terrorist-initiated school takeover. Not only did Giduck fervently write this informative book, he also conducted presentations and debriefings, that ranged 4 to 8 hours, for police officers, college and school staffs, safety officials and the military. In these debriefings, Giduck broke down the main points of what occurred at Beslan, often leaving his audience stunned while describing the horrifying actions that occurred before, during, and after the rescue attempt. In his many briefings, Giduck would tell audiences to imagine what would occur in the United States if an elementary school were seized and over 300 people, of whom 200 were children, were killed. Giduck said, “Life as we know it would never be the same. Parents would refuse to send their kids to school.”
Dave Acosta, a national authority on school shootings and author of the book Victims No More! wrote this about Terror at Beslan: “It chronicled the events of the world’s worst school shooting. John pleaded for us to be vigilant, to acknowledge that something like this can happen here in the US. It inspired me to work hard to find a solution that would save lives.”
This is not the last time Giduck would share his extensive knowledge on the subject of school shootings or terrorist tactics.
After the November 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, India, Giduck and retired Chester, PA Police Chief Joe Bail traveled there to dissect this tragic, yet important event. The terrorists had evolved their methods and the results showed that a small group of well-armed militants was able to paralyze a city and hold it hostage for four days, killing 174 and wounding more than 300. Giduck and Bail were able to walk the grounds of the multiple bloody attack sites, take pictures and examine them with a critical eye. They were looking at the sites from the terrorists’ point of view with the goal of intimately accessing the attackers’ mindset. For many in the West, this would be their introduction to the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Army of the Righteous, but for the Indian Security Forces this was a well-known, active, and deadly enemy, one that had also partnered with Al Qaeda. As with the Chechens and Beslan, this attack was their announcement to the world that they had joined the global jihad. Once again, due to his reputation and contacts, Dr. Giduck was able to secure interviews with Indian special forces commanders who executed rescue operations. The information gleaned by his onsite examinations, along with the various interviews that were conducted, were then organized and put into an excellent, detailed, presentation. This training was used to educate the same audiences (law enforcement, security, and military) along with additional hospital, hotel and railway personnel, since these attacks exposed vulnerabilities in all aforementioned fields.
The extensive research Giduck and his teams conducted at Beslan, Mumbai, and other terror events across the world led to him developing a clear picture of terrorist methodology, particularly regarding the tactic of mass-hostage sieges. All of that work was provided to us in detail in his book When Terror Returns.
When Terror Returns is like having the NFL playbook of the opposing team. The book gives the reader a complete understanding of what actually goes on in the mind of a terrorist, particularly when engaged in mass-hostage siege attacks. When Terror Returns clearly demonstrates terrorist methodology, tactics, and strategy for taking over schools, universities, hospitals, hotels, malls or any combination of the listed locations. Giduck recognized and reported on the Six-Phase Mass Hostage Siege Model to describe, step by step, what the terrorists’ actions are and how the first responders and rescue forces can identify these activities. If first responders can recognize that a mass-hostage siege is taking place, they can quickly take steps to mitigate it, albeit a difficult task. Speed and forceful actions are a necessity due to the terrorist tactic of asking to negotiate while they continually fortify their positions. The terrorists’ secrets are in the book to be discovered, and every American responsible for the safety of others should read it and apply the collected and codified lessons within it.
Famed speaker, trainer and bestselling author of On Killing and On Combat, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, has regularly called Dr. John Giduck a “national treasure.” In commenting on When Terror Returns, he wrote:
“When Terror Returns is the masterpiece of one of the great warrior scholars of our time. John Giduck has established himself as ‘the’ irrefutable world expert on the brutal and horrific Beslan school siege in Russia. Now he has applied his skills to inform and forewarn us, with a tour de force of the evolution of terrorist mass-hostage siege tactics in the Modern Era of Terrorism.”
Validating Dr. Giduck’s information and predictive modeling is the most recent in-depth research on the efficacy of the presence of police and armed security in those facilities that are prolific targets. In 2019, one of Dr. Giduck’s master’s students, Molly Jeffress, conducted an exhaustive analysis of all 297 mass shootings or attempts on US schools between 1996 and 2018. Titled, “Examining the Deterrent Effect of Armed Police and Security in Schools: An Analysis of the Circumstances Surrounding the Decisions by Students and Adults to Commit Mass Attacks on Schools in the US from 1996 to 2018,” this unprecedented research effort by Ms. Jeffress concluded that schools without SROs or armed security were 465 times more likely to be targeted for mass shootings than those with such a security presence. This reality can be applied to hospitals as well, yet another common target for terrorists and social predators. Such data add to the aggregate information that we must all be aware of, that we must commit to our knowledge, that must inform our training and, most of all, that we must “Never Forget”!
Colonel Grossman has also consistently offered a message that resonates with Santayana: “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior”. By accessing Giduck’s study and analysis of decades of terror attacks, and studying the evolution of their tactics, targets and victims, we can be prepared for what is yet to come.
Molly Jeffress’ original research paper, or a summary of it, can be obtained by contacting her at: joyntm@hotmail.com.
E-copies of Dr. Giduck’s books, which include Terror at Beslan, When Terror Returns, and Shooter Down: The Dramatic, Untold Story of the Police Response to the Virginia Tech Massacre, can be found on Amazon.com. Hard copies can be obtained by writing to info2@circon.org.
Chief Ron Camacho is an accomplished law enforcement executive who spent time as an advisor in Afghanistan and Mexico. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, has a master’s in criminal justice from Liberty University, and is the chief of the Chambersburg Pennsylvania Police Department. He is the owner of Camacho Consulting LLC, a leadership and management training company.
