The Private Group - Dangerous situations

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Improvised explosive devices.

Weapon of choice for the militant combatant in area's such as Iraq and Afghanistan where explosives such as unfired artillery rounds, mortar bombs and RPGs are readily available. These are able to be command detonated (e.g. mobile phone device) or booby trapped.

A form of IED was utilized in the first real modern terrorist attack on Australian soil, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 1978. The explosion at the rear of the Hilton Hotel killed three ( or two, depending who's report you get to read) and was a blast from within a rubbish bin, throwing schrapnel over a wide area.

Of interest, this incident was also the catalyst for the first active deployment of the military on Australian soil in modern times. The response included cordons using APCs, armed troops on the streets and overflights by armed helicopters. It was the action that spurred the AFP to improve their CPP capability.

In Australia most true terrorist acts will have the police as first responders. The police will take up holding positions, and may not even be aware that this is a politically motivated crime, when first engaged.

This holding position should expand to inner and outer cordons, with evacuations and invocation of special emergency powers. When it is confirmed that it is a terrorist incident (such as a bomb, seige or assault) control is then passed to a central command (Canberra) and the military.

The military will then take over the inner cordon, and, depending on circumstances, negotiations. Various alternates, including assaults, will be considered at this time.

Where this plan may fall down is in the 'active shooter' or 'multiple active shooter' scenario such as the recent attacks on hotels in India. Poor command and control, as well as lack of reliable information as to the players intentions and actions will contribute to this (the fog of war). Distance and short time frames will place the response onus on local police, without specialist training.

For major events troops, and specialist resources, may be pre-positioned and special Acts of parliament assented to. These may create different standing command structures, shorter response time frames and a wider variety of different responses may become available. Rapid escalation would be a key characteristic.

Events such as CHOGM and G7 meetings carry a higher risk, and the response normally includes prepositioned troops and standing joint command structures. Special Acts of parliament have previously been used to grant extra powers with regards to use of force, as well as other methods to control and exclude people.

Within Australia the responders for any military physical terrorism response is now split into to TAG (Tactical Assault Group) teams being TAG (W) consisting of members of the Australian Special Air Service (SAS) and TAG(E) being members of a Commando unit.

The W stands for West, given the SAS base in Perth, and the E stands for East, given the commando units base in Sydney. Other players include the Federal Police, ASIO (The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation) and ASIS (The Australian Secret Intelligence Service) in supporting roles. BCI(A) - Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, Australia and it’s state brother’s and sister’s will have a large role along with our international links.

Intel analysts tend to be traders of information within their community, and enjoy the challenge of piecing together past, present and future movements. They are the resource used to provide the intelligence on which a response is based. They are also the resource which will initially locate a suspected terrorist activity. Of late, within Australia, each year there is a suspected, attempted or proven case of terrorism detected.

Of course, home grown terrorists create a further nightmare, as they may be originally intercepted by State Police who may not recognize the significance of what they find as it is not ‘in context’. They are part of the background, and may not stand out as a foreign militant would. This is also true of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, for foreign troops deployed there, as the militants blend in with the generally population better than the patrolling force.

As a technological footnote it believed that a member of ASIS was the original creator of the ‘ghost phone’, that modern marvel that allows a phone to appear inert whilst transmitting everything within the microphones range (you just phone it to turn it on!). It was used successfully for many years, being carried by informants to allow the eavesdropping of meetings. They are also capable of avoiding most ‘sweeps’ as they transmit within the mobile phone range often ignored by electronic devices, and have low powered transmission bursts until activated.

Our current mobile phone systems also lend themselves to discreet tracking (NextG especially), as most have the capacity to do both satellite (GPS) and tower triangulation. This information can be sent to a third party, giving a tracking history.

It was rumoured within intelligence circles that even the distribution of some of earlier mobile phone systems, such as the CDMA network, were held back because technology for discreet eavesdropping by our security services had not caught up.
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People appear to have the idea that terrorism is organised. Nothing would appear to be further from the truth. It is more like clubs or gangs. There are loose associations, similar idea's, some sharing of intelligence and training. 'Cells' can form and have no contact with others. With the internet this is becoming easier.

This equates getting hold of, and stopping them, with trying to squeeze jello. The war on terror is a fight against a non-nation, an ideal or idea, a disaffected person or group. There is no front line, no lines of communication, no tangible uniform or identifying feature.

How will we know when we've 'won'?

For Security and Intelligence links to supply information or make enquiries.

Author is The Director. This is based on his knowledge of the process for 'Aid to the Civil Power' operations, and the relationship between the military, intelligence and police in dealing with Terrorist Acts on Australian soil.