BEYOND THE DROPZONE

Author, retired FBI Special Agent on ‘WHAT AMERICA MEANS TO ME’

Posted by editor on 3 March 2010 at 2:26 am UTC

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Post-9/11 Combat Veteran Running for S.C. Lt. Gov.

Posted by editor on 23 February 2010 at 12:32 am UTC

 

Endorsement by W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Hi all,
Though I rarely - if ever - get involved in political campaigns, I am endorsing my friend Bill Connor, who is running for the office of LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

Here’s why:

A graduate of The Citadel and the University of S.C. School of Law, U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Bill Connor is an infantry officer (Airborne, Ranger). A recipient of the Bronze Star and the combat infantryman’s badge, he has been described by his superiors as “a fearless, consummate combat leader” and an American soldier who, while serving in Afghanistan, “performed well under intense enemy fire and always led his men from the front.”

The great Swedish warrior king Gustavus Adolphus once said, “A good Christian will never make a bad soldier.”

Bill — a man of great faith and strong Christian values — is no exception.

Where does he stand politically?

-Bill is pro-life and pro-school-choice. 
-He wants to end the tax on military and law enforcement retirement.
-He wants to end state income tax.
-He plans to push for energy independence.
-He wants to strengthen state sovereignty initiatives.
-He wants less government, but expects more pure leadership from those who govern.

“We discovered in recent months how important the Lieutenant Governor can be: The Lt. Gov’s leadership experience, maturity, and decisiveness are critical,” Bill writes at voteconnor.com. “I have the leadership experience through nearly 20 years in the military, and have proven my leadership in combat, the toughest crucible of leadership. I’m tested and ready.  If we were to be hit with another 9-11 in SC, we don’t want a rookie learning about life and death decision-making. The Governor commands the National Guard, and state law enforcement and must know the laws of the state.”

Bill and his wife, Susan, have three children - Peyton, Brenna, and Will.

Visit Bill Connor online at http://voteconnor.com/

Semper Fi,
WTS

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.

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Hizballah does not “represent a substantive majority”

Posted by editor on 20 February 2010 at 6:17 pm UTC

Hizballah’s deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem again reiterated Friday that Hizballah “will not be affected by some objections on its armed resistance,” according to the Lebanese news source, Naharnet.

“We won’t be shaken by the objections of some sides on the resistance [Hizballah] because we represent a substantive majority among the Lebanese people,” said Qassem, adding, “The resistance is a demand and, God willing, it will go on.”

A Muslim cleric and trained chemist, who advocates the use of suicide bombers as a legitimate means of waging war, Qassem writes in his book, Hizballah: The Story from Within, “The weapon of martyrdom is the main and pivotal weapon on which we can rely.”

Qassem also told CBS News in 2002, “We don’t call them suicide operations because suicide comes out of a loss of hope in life, while martyrdom is a love of life.”

Qassem’s reiteration Friday is nothing new, nor is it not unlike the rantings of other jihadi leaders. However, it must be understood that Hizballah does not “represent a substantive majority among the Lebanese people.”

Hizballah (which former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff says “makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team”) is greatly feared – perhaps by a majority – in Lebanon, as it should be throughout the rest of the world.

But with the war-on-terror focus on fronts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the African and, yes, European continents, Hizballah continues to operate beyond the general public’s scope of understanding.

Why the Lebanon-based Shia terrorist army matters -

1.    Hizballah is trained, equipped, and heavily financed (an estimated one-billion dollars annually) by Iran, and the organization is operationally supported by both Iran and Syria. In fact, this week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly told Hizballah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah that if a new Israeli-Hizballah war breaks out, Hizballah “should retaliate strong enough to ‘close their case once and for all,’” according to Naharnet.

2.    Hizballah is expanding its political base in Lebanon, and the organization is increasing its global reach.

3.    The group has “conducted very large, spectacular” terrorist operations worldwide.

4.    The group has defiantly refused to surrender its arms in Lebanon as called for under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701.

5.    The group has demonstrated time-and-again since its bloody May 2008 attacks against the Lebanese government and civilian population that it has no qualms about overtly killing Lebanese civilians as a means of furthering the organization’s aims.

6.    The group has heavily infiltrated the legitimate Lebanese Army – an army which the American taxpayer is supporting with $ millions worth of military aid – while Lebanese Pres. Michel Sleiman is having friendly phone chats with Ahmadinejad.

7.    Since May 2008, Hizballah has wormed its way into position as an official component of the overall Lebanese Defense apparatus.

So, yes, Qassem’s boasting may sound like typical jihadi-leader braggadocio, but Hizballah is hardly typical. And Lebanon is a “front” (for lack of a better word) worth some serious consideration.

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RITA COSBY PENS BOOK ABOUT HER FATHER’S WARTIME SERVICE

Posted by editor on 25 January 2010 at 2:38 pm UTC

Three-time Emmy winner’s father was a Polish Resistance fighter during World War II

[Rita Cosby]

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

In April 1945 Nazi Germany was on the ropes (Hitler would in fact put a bullet in his brain on April 30), and a half-starved 19-year-old Polish prisoner-of-war, Ryszard Kossobudzki, had escaped his Nazi captors and was making his way — however precariously — toward Allied lines.

He was not alone.

With him were approximately 60 comrades, many of whom — like Kossobudzki — were former Polish resistance fighters. They had no way of knowing their danger was lessening. In fact, all they knew was that they had escaped certain death. Their soon-to-be-defeated enemy was desperate and regularly committing summary executions of recaptured POWs. And they were deep behind enemy lines.

At one point during their trek away from the POW camp, a warplane flew low above the forest from which they were seeking cover-and-concealment. At first the men believed they had been discovered by the Luftwaffe. But fear turned to rejoicing when instead of the infamous black cross on the plane’s fuselage, they saw the bright white star of the U.S. Army Air Forces.

The men and boys were furthered heartened when the pilot upon spotting them dropped a chocolate bar (surely a Hershey’s in 1945) with a note wrapped around it. The note was simple — and I paraphrase — “Go 15 miles west to American lines and freedom.”

They did. They were saved. And young Kossobudzki made his way to America, eventually becoming an American citizen, changing his name (as so many did in that era) to Richard Roger Cosby.

Cosby’s yet-to-be-born daughter — three-time Emmy award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author, Rita Cosby — related this story and other accounts of her father’s wartime service during last week’s Women Honoring Valor luncheon at the Columbia (S.C.) Convention Center.

Cosby spoke not only of her father’s heroism, but of the service and sacrifice of the heroes in attendance — Medal of Honor recipients Col. Charles P. Murray, Jr. (U.S. Army, Ret.), Lieutenant Michael E. Thornton (U.S. Navy SEALs, Ret.), and Master Sergeant John F. Baker, Jr. (U.S. Army, Ret.) — as well as those who continue to wear the uniform.

In addition to the Medal of Honor recipients, some 300 special guests and dignitaries — including three former S.C. first ladies, several legislators, S.C. Adj. Gen. Stanhope Spears, other senior military officers, nationally acclaimed poet Kay B. Day, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal — attended the luncheon which incidentally ended up as the venue for the announcement of Cosby’s forthcoming book about her dad, “Quiet Hero: Secrets from my Father’s Past” (to be released by Simon and Schuster in May 2010).

Cosby — a personal friend of about two years who I had the privilege of introducing at the luncheon — was attending the event in the hometown of her alma mater, the University of South Carolina School of Journalism (Yes, yours truly once taught at the j-school as an adjunct). Cosby is a former FOX News and MSNBC correspondent and program host. She’s currently a special correspondent for CBS’s Inside Edition, and she guest-hosts for ABC Radio in New York. Her father, now 84, was recently recognized for his wartime service by the president of Poland.

Organized to raise money for the Medal of Honor Society’s 2010 national convention, the Women Honoring Valor luncheon was hosted by the Greater Columbia Marine Foundation and the Medal of Honor Convention project.

The Medal of Honor 2010 convention — hosted by the S.C. State Guard Foundation and the Citadel — is to be held in Charleston, S.C., Sept. 29–Oct. 3, 2010.

[For more information about the 2010 convention, visit medalofhonorconvention.com]

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.

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The Jihadist who infiltrated the U.S. Army’s officer corps

Posted by editor on 9 November 2009 at 5:58 pm UTC

[Dr. Walid Phares]
A conversation about sleeper-terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan with Dr. Walid Phares
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

IN THE WAKE OF LAST WEEK’S JIHADIST TERRORIST ATTACK against a U.S. Army base in North America – specifically the attack launched by sleeper-terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, an unfortunately commissioned U.S. Army psychiatrist and devout Muslim who, following his faith’s teaching to the letter, murdered 13 of his infidel enemies and wounded scores more at Fort Hood, Texas – numerous experts are defying politically correct convention and reiterating to an ill-informed American public what they (the experts) have been trying to get across to us since before 9/11:

The Jihadists are at war with the West. They are coming after us with every means available to them. They are capitalizing on our free institutions to do so, using corrupt media and weak politicians to facilitate their freedom of movement and disinformation campaigns. And they have infiltrated our national defense structure, a fact known to many for years and proven to all on Thursday, Nov. 5, six days before Veterans Day.

Chief among the outspoken experts on Jihadist terrorism (in the first few hours and days after Nov. 5) is Dr. Walid Phares, who directs the Future of Terrorism Project for the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

According to Phares, Hasan was-and-is an indoctrinated Jihadist, who – lone wolf or not, linked to a specific Jihadist group or or not – acted with the intent to strike his enemy, America.

Responding indirectly to the current U.S. Administration’s reluctance to consider Hasan’s attack an act of terrorism, Phares, writing for FOX News, says, “What the world has witnessed this week in Texas cannot be described just as a ‘horrific outburst of violence’ directed at the American military, Instead it is part of a wider ideological war, generated by radicalization and inciting individuals to perform such acts. ‘Lone wolf’ or not, organized or not, fully self-aware perpetrator or not, influenced by overseas radicals or not, this massacre of servicemen has moved America from stage to another.”

Phares predicted the rise of the domestic Jihadist threat decades ago (clearly detailed in his book, Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America).

Discussing previous attempts to attack the U.S. military inside the confines of the U.S. homeland, he told Russia Today TV: “Jihadists targeting military on U.S. soil is strategic.”

We spoke with Dr. Phares, Monday.

W. THOMAS SMITH JR:  Some commentators are saying it’s difficult to know what happened to Hasan; what made him tick, was he boiling inside for a while? We’ve heard commentary about the so-called “need” to be careful in our analysis. Your thoughts?

DR. WALID PHARES: What made Maj. Hasan tick is ideology. What made him attack that day at that hour is to be investigated. If our analysts, especially within the government, can’t figure out what makes a Jihadist – lone wolf or not – tick, we have a problem.

The U.S. government and many in the media are confused by the fact that he adhered to an ideology and used the narrative of that ideology for years, yet he was able to conceal it for so long. If the attack had taken place in Pakistan, Egypt, or even Saudi Arabia, with the same statements made by the perpetrator, neither authorities nor citizens would ask the question. It would be a given that it is Jihadi Salafist narrative. Officials would know immediately what they were dealing with. The “caution” we are told to follow here in the U.S. is political. It is not based on reason or any scientific logic.U.S. leaders must be precise in identifying the ideology, explain it to the public and at the same time warn citizens as regards unfair and illegal backlashes. I am not sure decision-makers are getting the best advice.

SMITH:  Department of Homeland Security [DHS] Sec. Janet Napolitano says DHS officials are working with various groups around the country to thwart any possible anti-Muslim backlash following the shootings at Fort Hood. In your opinion, will there be a backlash, and is this DHS’s responsibility?

PHARES:  Sec. Napolitano’s statement is shifting the debate from investigating an ideology responsible for the production of Jihadists, which is – or should be – the top national security consideration, to an unwarranted panic reaction about so-called backlashes. That’s what we almost had after 9/11. Apologists for Jihadism were trying to advance the theme that a mass backlash was happening and that this should be America’s top priority, shifting the debate from going after the Jihadists to fearing backlashes on the streets. The backlashes, as they were portrayed, never happened, because the American public by-and-large is mature, reasonable, and desires peace and civility.

Fact is, the more officials unwarrantedly talk about backlashes, as if they are imminent, the greater the risk of creating an environment which could make them happen. U.S. officials should instead be talking about Muslim resistance to the Jihadists. American leaders must call on all Americans, and especially Muslim-Americans to stand by their government as it uproots the Jihadi terror networks, and work on de-radicalization.

SMITH: Some media in the U.S. and the UK are linking the Fort Hood terrorist to the Sept. 11 terrorists. Does that surprise you?

PHARES: I read the Telegraph’s report about Hasan’s link to Jihadists. Well, the fingerprints of Jihadism are all over the place. Whether-or-not Hasan met or conspired with any known terrorist or radical Jihadist, is not the point. He himself was indoctrinated, and he made the decision to wage war or terror against unarmed U.S. military personnel on U.S. soil. That is enough to understand the essence of this case.

If the investigation reveals more physical links to terrorism, that should be examined thoroughly.  In my analysis, any mass murder with Jihadi commitment is terrorism by all international convention. Problem is, the Administration is not likely to admit the ideological link. For if they do, it might collapse the expressed expertise of their advisors regarding “Arab and Muslim-world affairs.” The latter have pressed the Administration to abandon the ideological identification of the terrorists.

That said, I don’t think this policy will last too long for the simple fact that the Jihadists are not shy, and aren’t secretive about their doctrines. They have and will let us know very openly about their commitment through their actions immersed in doctrinal statements. On the other hand, it is unfortunate, that many in the blogosphere are not focusing on the ideology, but on religion. This is actually helping the apologists – and behind them Islamist lobbies – win the day.

SMITH:  Sen. Joe Lieberman announced a Senate investigation into the Fort Hood attack. Lieberman, who of course chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, says there were “strong warning signs” that Hasan was an “Islamist extremist.” Your thoughts?

PHARES: Sen. Lieberman’s call for an investigation of homegrown Jihadism is the only statement from the U.S. government that has made any sense so far. While the Administration is in denial and its opposition is in chaos, Lieberman’s clear statement is where the response to this terrorist attack must begin.

SMITH:  It’s been reported that Hasan snapped because of his imminent deployment overseas. Others have said, he was angered by racist slurs.

PHARES:  Such reports are equivalent to hallucinations, not sound analysis. That’s like suggesting there is a justification for Hasan’s snapping. He doesn’t like a decision made by a superior, so he goes and shoots that superior? If he snaps because of racial slurs, he would shoot the persons who allegedly insulted him? Hasan has been making Jihadi statements for years. In the modus operandi of Jihadists, they use any prevalent politically charged issue to build on it and incite for hatred.

What made me ponder – in addition to the fact that he clearly acted within the Jihadist model – is the fact that he was cold-blooded and very focused.I was given a document that shows Hasan applied to attend a Homeland Security Conference set at the George Washington University this year under the title, “Thinking Anew—Security Priorities for the Next Administration - Proceedings Report on the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force (Apr. 2008-Jan. 2009).” He signed-on as being affiliated with the Uniformed Services University of Health Services. For someone who simply “snapped,” it is highly unlikely that he would have thoroughly researched sophisticated events like these, which were attended by an elite group within Homeland Security.

In short, he could have perpetrated his Jihadi terror there. Any expert analyst will tell you that his drive was far more complex than his bloody act. All the arguments about anger, tension, and foreign policy not only do not hold water, but they are close to hallucinations. A man who participates in a high-level conference on Homeland Security of this kind, who has been active in the Jihadi ideological realm, and who massacres scores of American military personnel, is a Jihadi terrorist in fact.

SMITH:  What do you make of the statements by Jihadists online, and on Facebook, etc., in support of Hasan?

PHARES:  Well, that’s the easiest part: This is prologue-evidence to the nature of his mission. You will see more of this with time. But going beyond this, the real questions to address are the following:

Who was he in contact with – in terms of these activities – over the past years?

Who indoctrinated him? This is inescapable and has to be discovered?

Are there other similar cases like Hasan’s that we need to be attentive to?

I hope Sen. Lieberman’s initiative to investigate the matter in the Senate will be a first step. I hope we do it expeditiously before we are surprised again, dramatically by future Jihadi terrorists on U.S. soil.

SMITH:  Reports describe Hasan as not exactly a conservative Muslim. Some in the media argue that “Hasan’s presence at the [strip] club paints a starkly different portrait of the alleged killer from that offered by his imam and family members, who have described him as a devout Muslim, and one who had difficulty finding a wife who would wear a head scarf and would pray five times a day.”

PHARES:  In fact, it is just the opposite. If anything, his visits to such a club fit perfectly the psychological sphere he was floating in as a Jihadist. It has been established that indoctrinated Jihadists often visit places they deem evil to fill themselves with a deeper hatred for the society they are at war with. We must try to understand the differences between a devout religious person and a totalitarian zombie. I’ll will address this issue in the near future.

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.

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RANK MATTERS

Posted by editor on 1 November 2009 at 2:21 pm UTC

[Originally published at Family Security Matters]

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

In the HBO film series, Band of Brothers, there is a 20-second scene wherein U.S. Army Airborne Maj. Dick Winters directs Capt. Herbert Sobel to salute him after Sobel attempts to avoid rendering the ancient military courtesy.

Of course, Sobel – a failed former company commander who had lost the confidence of his men (for a host of reasons) and as a consequence loses his company prior to the company’s shipping overseas – has nothing but disdain for Winters. After all, Winters once served as a lieutenant under Sobel in the company Sobel lost, which Winters ultimately gains.

Maj. Winters, now a combat-experienced field-grade officer, outranks the non-combat Capt. Sobel.

So when Sobel strolls past Winters in a chance coming-together that neither expects, Sobel avoids eye contact in order to avoid saluting Winters, who quickly though calmly calls the captain on his failure to salute a superior officer.

“Capt. Sobel, we salute the rank, not the man,” Winters says.

Sobel salutes. Winters returns the salute.

It brings to mind an incident years ago, which forever taught me the importance of respect for rank as a means of protecting the physical and even spiritual integrity of any military organization.

I was a young Marine lance corporal, who for several months had been thrown together with a combat-seasoned gunnery sergeant on a project overseen by the “gunny.”

Over time, gunny and I got to know one another pretty well. He shared stories about his time in Southeast Asia, as well as a few of his “exploits” with women from around the world. He talked a lot about his love of baseball. He told hilarious jokes. He also (in my presence) chuckled at the demonstrated-inexperience of certain Marine privates and PFCs – we called them “boots” — which made me feel like part of “the men’s club,” the unofficial albeit exclusive association of experienced “salty” Marines within our unit.

So when a new – somewhat uncouth and inarticulate – sergeant joined our ranks, I felt comfortable enough in my relationship with gunny to make a private comment about the new sergeant’s inability to properly conjugate a verb in spoken English.

Gunny exploded.

Leaping from his chair he went straight for me, his anger-reddening face inches from mine.

“Smith, you’re talking about a sergeant of Marines!” Gunny shouted. “Don’t you ever talk that way about a superior, boy! Do I make myself clear, lance corporal?!”

Gunny’s language was in fact a bit more colorful than that, but you get the point.

I did, and I never forgot it.

Fact is, we in the military respect rank like we respect flags, emblems, and other symbols of tradition and position. We exhibit that respect, and we always strive to quash displays or utterances of disrespect for rank.

That respect has less to do with the man (or woman) holding the rank than it does the rank itself (a difficult concept, I have discovered, for civilians with little or no military experience). Though it is far easier to exhibit respect – to include the rendering of military courtesy – and obedience to a superior officer if we have respect for that officer as being fair, capable, and competent.

Still we cannot escape the importance of rank in-and-of-itself, nor can we dismiss the fact that military rank is infinitely more important – perhaps it is even sacred – than civilian positions-of-authority in terms of protecting the structural integrity of an organization.

This doesn’t mean we blindly follow failed-men or unlawful orders (though we do sometimes have to follow men we don’t like and orders we don’t agree with).

It does however mean that – for those of us who serve or have served in the military – rank is as a flag. It may not be as personally dear to us as a flag – depending on the flag – but it must be respected and protected as a means of further protecting the soundness of a military organization if that organization is to remain structurally sound.

Winters was right, “We salute the rank, not the man.”

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.

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Navy Cross recipient Harrington to speak at Marine Corps Birthday Ball

Posted by editor on 1 November 2009 at 1:58 pm UTC

[Photograph – Myron Harrington while serving as advisor to the South Vietnamese Marines, Quang Tri Province, I Corps, 1972]

COL. MYRON CHARLES HARRINGTON, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) will present the keynote address at the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball to be held at Embassy Suites Hotel in Columbia, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009.

A 1960 graduate of the Citadel, Harrington received the Navy Cross (an individual award for battlefield heroism second only to the Medal of Honor) for his actions as a Marine company commander – Delta Company, 1^st Battalion, 5^th Marines – during the bloody battle for the Vietnamese city of Hué (part of the broader Tet Offensive), 1968.

A portion of Harrington’s citation reads:

“…Disregarding his own safety, Captain Harrington then fearlessly maneuvered to the point of heaviest contact and, rallying his men, boldly led a determined assault against the enemy soldiers. Shouting words of encouragement to his men, he skillfully maneuvered his unit forward and directed the Marines’ fire upon the hostile emplacements. Largely due to his resolute determination and intrepid fighting spirit, his men overran the hostile positions and routed the North Vietnamese soldiers, accounting for twenty-five enemy soldiers confirmed killed. …”

Harrington went on to hold various posts in the Corps, including that of commanding officer, 24^th Marine Amphibious Unit, Beirut, Lebanon, soon after the 1983 terrorist-bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in that city.

Retiring from the Corps in 1991, Harrington accepted the position as headmaster of Trident Academy in Mount Pleasant. He served in that capacity from 1992 until retirement in 2007, and was subsequently designated “Headmaster Emeritus.” Harrington currently serves as co-chair of the Medal of Honor Society’s 2010 Convention project. Hosted by the South Carolina State Guard Foundation and the Citadel, the convention will be held next year in Charleston.

[Col. Harrington]

The Marine Corps will officially recognize its 234^th birthday with celebrations, worldwide, on dates (like Nov. 7) close to the official birth date (Nov. 10).

The celebration in Columbia will be hosted by the Greater Columbia Marine Foundation.

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.

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A SPARTAN KING AND TWO S.C. GENERALS

Posted by editor on 12 October 2009 at 7:37 pm UTC

 
S.C. Generals Stan Spears (r) and Gene Rogers (l) make a pilgimage to Thermopylae, site of the last stand of Sparta’s lionhearted Leonidas
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Maj. Gen. Stanhope S. Spears and Brig. Gen. Eugene F. Rogers, vacationing last month with their wives in Greece, tour the site of the 480 B.C. battle of Thermopylae where some 300 Spartans and an untold number of allied Greek soldiers all under the command of Spartan King Leonidas — the towering warrior immortalized in the statue (pictured) — battled to-the-death a force of Persian invaders perhaps 100-times their number.The doomed but heroic stand of the Spartans defending the pass at Thermopylae, not only severely bloodied the much-larger Persian army, but bought time for allied Greek forces who would go on to win victories over the Persians in the battles of Salamis and Platea, effectively ending Persia’s invasion of Greece.

“Had Leonidas, whose name means ‘lion-like,’ been an American and lived in the modern era, he surely would have been a candidate for the Medal of Honor,” says Rogers, the project co-chair of the national Medal of Honor convention to be held in Charleston, S.C. in 2010. “The Medal of Honor is the highest decoration awarded by our country for valor in combat, and when you consider today the 95 living-recipients of the Medal, they all — to a man — seem to possess what must have been the lionheart of Leonidas.”Rogers – a career attorney (co-founder of Rogers, Townsend, and Thomas law firm in Columbia, S.C.), a former U.S. Air Force JAG officer and World War II-era U.S. Marine – serves in the S.C. Military Department’s Joint Services Detachment (JSD). He divides his time between his home in Columbia and his villa in Rafina, Greece near the home of daughter, Carol, and grandson, Michael Eugene Papaletsos. He is married to former S.C. Rep. Elsie Rast Stuart.

Spears is the adjutant general of S.C. He commands the S.C. Military Department, which is composed of — among other elements — the S.C. Army National Guard, the S.C. Air National Guard, the S.C. State Guard, and the JSD. Spears’ wife, Dorothy, took the photograph of the “Spartan king and two S.C. generals.”— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.

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PERSPECTIVE: Twenty Years Beyond Cat-Five Hugo

Posted by editor on 3 October 2009 at 4:42 pm UTC

 
ON WATCH — An exclusive interview with S.C.’s emergency management chief Ricky Platt
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Retired South Carolina Army National Guard Colonel Charles R. “Ricky” Platt is watching, planning, and re-planning for a killer storm or a terrorist attack he prays will never come; knowing full-well, one – perhaps both – is an unfortunate inevitability.

But as director of the S. C. Emergency Management Division (SCEMD) – a position Platt has held since July – his job is not to thwart or prevent a storm, an attack, or even a nuclear disaster.  He can’t.

Platt’s job is to oversee the Palmetto State’s preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities; manage the SCEMD; and coordinate efforts with other emergency agencies locally, regionally and nationally. It’s a series of life-and-property-saving responsibilities the self-described “country boy from the town of Olar, S.C.” seems perfectly matched for.

For instance, in 2008, Platt designed and directed Exercise Vigilant Guard, a huge multi-state exercise that trained and tested thousands of Guardsmen and hundreds of civilian responders in scenarios ranging from earthquakes to nuclear events to counterterrorism operations.

The success of Vigilant Guard 2008 – to date, the largest joint military/civilian exercise ever conducted in the United States according to SCEMD – is touted by officials with both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Guard Bureau as a standard by which other like-exercises might be measured.

In an exclusive interview held at West Columbia, S.C.’s Pine Ridge Armory – which houses SCEMD’s Emergency Operations Center – Platt describes the aftermath of any future disaster. “It’s going to get messy,” he says. He also discusses the importance of planning and revising plans, daily SCEMD responsibilities, and the increasing criticality of state defense forces (e.g. the S.C. State Guard) in the post 9/11 world.

W. THOMAS SMITH JR.: The National Incident Management System (NIMS) doctrine has clearly benefited S.C. in terms of preparedness and national standardization since 2004. But what has been NIMS’ greatest – or most obvious – measurable impact on our state and local response capabilities?

CHARLES R. “RICKY” PLATT: NIMS has made us work together: Agencies working with local responders, local responders working with other locals and other counties, to state, and right up the chain to regional and national FEMA. It’s really the networking and learning from each other. Police officers, firefighters, and EMTs [emergency medical technicians] teach others about responding. The military teaches the finer points of planning. NIMS has thrown us all into one room: Learning from each other and planning together.

SMITH: Yes, but don’t emergency responders plan?

PLATT: They do. But they don’t have 660-plus-page hurricane books. Their plans are much smaller, because they are usually concerned about one town or city.

SMITH: Regarding books and plans, what about the National Response Framework, which replaced the National Response Plan, last year? Explain how you might alter – or would you in any way alter – the NRF?

PLATT: In military vernacular, the National Response Framework is your How-to-Fight book. It is very general. But it is by design. And it is because the federal government – thank goodness – does not want to tell the states and counties how to operate. I don’t want to be critical of it because it’s a very good effort – written at the national cabinet level – that details how the nation conducts all-hazards response. As I say, it’s general, but you’ll see more specificity in it in time.

SMITH: Beyond planning, how does S.C. compare with other states today in terms of our ability to adequately respond to natural disasters (specifically hurricanes) or terrorist attacks? What might other states learn from us?

PLATT: Our watershed event was Hurricane Hugo in 1989, then there was Andrew in 1992. In my personal opinion, those two events brought FEMA closer to the states. Also before Hugo, S.C.’s emergency management office was basically 20 to 24 people (most of whom worked in emergency management as an additional duty) set up in a basement in a state building down on the Capitol complex. Now we have evolved to a very professional – approximately 75-employee – emergency management division.

SMITH: What has been the greatest single improvement to S.C.’s emergency management capabilities post-9/11?

PLATT: Obviously, post-9/11 is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. And some very good initiatives have come from DHS like Seahawk.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Platt is referring to Project Seahawk, a multi-jurisdictional task force responsible for preventing and/or disrupting any criminal activity or terrorist attack in the port of Charleston, S.C.  On Oct. 1, 2009, the U.S. Coast Guard under DHS assumed operational control of Seahawk from the U.S. Department of Justice, which has overseen Seahawk since 2003.]

There have been so many initiatives since 9/11. And when you consider Hugo where the National Guard was used strictly to support law enforcement and to prevent looting, the Guard now approaches its duties – post-9/11 – prepared for and considering all threat scenarios and contingencies.

Granted, the threat assessment level here in S.C. is lower than in states wherein there are larger, more-urban population centers.

SMITH: Why is the threat assessment level lower here than in other states when we have several nuclear sites and military bases, all of which are potential terrorist targets?

PLATT: True, those facilities do increase the threat level. But the way DHS weighs the data is through a peer evaluation based on population centers.

SMITH: Looking at Hurricane Katrina (2005), which primarily struck Mississippi and Louisiana, particularly New Orleans.  Many in the media – and those trying to score political points nationwide – hammered FEMA for failing to protect those in the hurricane’s path. But it was not FEMA that failed; it was a gigantic failure at the state and local level. Why wasn’t the truth of this ever clearly revealed?

PLATT: Let me just say this: Those in Mississippi were hit far worse in areas, and they had a lot of deaths because of the flooding.

You have to evacuate [before a hurricane hits]. We evacuated for Hugo. Had we not evacuated for Hugo, it would have been the same situation here in S.C. You have to get out of the way, and that is a local responsibility that starts at the county level and is supported at the state level.

With the measures we have – and have had – in place, [what happened before, during, and immediately after Katrina] would not have happened in S.C.

SMITH: How important – and in what ways, specifically – is the S.C. State Guard to the state in terms of mitigating, responding to, and assisting in the management of natural disasters or terrorist attacks?

PLATT: Very important. Look, the New York Naval Militia [part of the New York State defense forces] for instance, patrols New York harbor. Congress has given them several millions-of-dollars for boats and to assist the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies that patrol the harbor.

Our own state defense force, the S.C. State Guard – and the State Guard mission – is very valuable to us: We depend on the State Guard to run the points-of-distribution and other things.

In the next few weeks, the backup personal information program (PIP) system – that makes automated warning calls – is going to be moved from here to the Olympia Armory [S.C. State Guard headquarters in Columbia] as soon as we can get the lines running, and then we’re going to train them on the system.

SMITH: How many State Guardsmen will be required to operate the system?

PLATT: As many as two-dozen at a time.

SMITH: So in the event of a hurricane or some other disaster, the automated telephone calls made to all people in an affected area will essentially be made by the S.C. State Guard.

PLATT: The State Guard will be facilitating the system for the SCEMD. The warning will come from the warning point here [at the Emergency Operations Center], then the State Guard will push the warning out to the proscribed counties.

SMITH: What is it about our emergency management capabilities that would surprise South Carolinians?

PLATT: Our liaison work with other agencies is 365 days-a-year: For instance, this morning we met with U.S. Geological Survey people and S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) working to mitigate flooding hazards. Everyday we talk to SLED [State Law Enforcement Division], DNR, S.C. Highway Patrol, Department of Public Safety, U.S. Department of Transportation, American Red Cross.

SMITH: Why everyday?

PLATT: Remember, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said, “Plans mean nothing. Planning is everything.” There are new and changing scenarios. Constantly changing environments. Weather. New earthquake data. Population increases. More building. Technology continues to provide better imagery. And then there are the responses. There are always things going on that the public never sees.

SMITH: Where do we need to improve as a state?

PLATT: Making sure we always have an informed citizenry. We do have an informed citizenry, but that’s always a challenge for me personally. Though who our citizens are, is also our strength. It’s our ace in the hole.

SMITH: In what way?

PLATT: Look at the numbers of retired policemen, firemen, and military we have in S.C. It’s significant and – though it doesn’t factor into DHS’s formula – I personally believe it is a force multiplier. After all, what do you think a retired Marine is going to do if he sees some bad guys trying to do harm to others?

SMITH: Shut the bad guys down.

PLATT: Exactly.

— Military analyst W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a former U.S. Marine rifle squad leader and counterterrorism instructor. He is a veteran war correspondent; having covered conflict in Iraq, Lebanon, the Balkans, Israel & the West Bank. Visit him at uswriter.com.

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Jihadist War may be ramping-up against America’s Homeland

Posted by editor on 1 October 2009 at 4:06 pm UTC

[Originally published at Family Security Matters]

In the wake of several recent arrests of Jihadists across North America as well as the Obama administration’s insistence on renaming the very real global war on terror as simply a “transnational challenge,” U.S. Congresswoman Sue Myrick (Rep.-NC) is connecting the dots in a commonsensical show-don’t-tell approach to fact: Why this asymmetrical war by the Jihadists against us is every bit a full-blown war and not some politically diluted “challenge.”

According to Myrick, though there may be no current evidence materially connecting any of the recently revealed terror plots, FBI investigative documents and press releases, clearly indicate a coordinated effort by the enemy based on a single objective.

“These plots are all tied together by one thing: a global ideology that is self-identified by its believers as jihadist, or ‘jihadiyya,’” says Myrick in a published statement, last week. “It is hard to ignore this fact when in these cases below several of these men very clearly, and very directly, state that they followed this ideology (jihad), and wanted to kill.”

Myrick adds, “I find this connection disturbing seeing as these plots come on the heels of the Administration’s efforts to rename ‘jihadists’ – which is what they [the terrorists] call themselves – ‘violent extremists.’” [See letter from Myrick to Barack Obama, Sept. 10, 2009.]

The cases Myrick points to include: 

• FBI Arrests Jordanian Citizen for Attempting to Bomb Skyscraper in Downtown Dallas:
  “Smadi made clear his intention to serve as a soldier for Usama Bin Laden and al Qaeda, and to conduct violent jihad.”
• Illinois Man Arrested in Plot to Bomb Courthouse and Murder Federal Employees:
  “…Finton expressed his desire to receive military training and to travel to Gaza or other overseas locations to become a jihadist fighter.”
• NC Boyd Case—New Charges…Possible Target was Marine Corps Base Quantico:
  “According to the indictment, during the period from 1989 through 1992, Daniel Boyd traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he received military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad.”
• NY Transit Terror Case- indictment handed down- conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction—explosive bombs—in the United States:
  Zazi has told FBI investigators that he “attended courses at an al Qaeda training facility” while in Pakistan.
• Brooklyn Resident Indicted for the Conspiracy to Commit Murder Overseas and Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorists:
  “According to the indictment and other documents filed by the government, in early January 2009, Kaziu devised a plan to travel abroad for the purpose of joining a radical foreign fighter group and to take up arms against perceived enemies of Islam.”

Dr. Walid Phares, an international terrorism expert, echoes Myrick’s concerns in a piece, this week, “Warning: The Jihadists are Mushrooming Inside America”:

According to Phares, “The immediate question raised by an increasingly worried public is the connection between these terror cases. While law enforcement and judicial authorities proceed in a bottom-up reasoning, that is to build the case for a global connection between what is happening with the help of legal evidence, counterterrorism and conflict analysts are already understanding what is happening inside America.”

Rep. Myrick, who serves on the serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Intelligence community, including intelligence-related activities of the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, other agencies of the Department of Defense, and the Departments of State, Justice, and Treasury), is the founder of the 120-member Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus.

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.

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