8/14/2019 The Proactive Tool of Pr...Intelligence _ Stratfor

1/4

8/14/2019 The Proactive Tool of Pr...Intelligence _ Stratfor

2/4

8/14/2019 The Proactive Tool of Pr...Intelligence _ Stratfor

3/4

committed attac;s have self-identified or other ise come to the attention of authorities efore theattac; as carried out5 .ecause of this () teams ensure that no mentally distur ed person issummarily dismissed as a Lharmless nutL until he or she has een thoroughly investigated and hisor her communications carefully analy3ed and data ased5 +ata asing is crucial ecause it allo sthe tenor of correspondence from a mentally distur ed individual to e monitored over time andcompared ith earlier missives in order to identify signs of a deteriorating mental state or adeveloping intent to commit violence5 () teams ill often consult mental health professionals insuch cases to assist ith psycholinguistic and psychological evaluations5

Not all threats from the mentally distur ed come from outside a company or organi3ation ho ever5Although the common perception follo ing a or;place incident is that the employee L@ustsnapped L in most cases the factors leading to the violent out urst have een uilding up for a longtime and the assailant has made detailed plans5 .ecause of this or;place or school shootingsseldom occur randomly5 )n most cases the perpetrator has a targeted a specific individual or set of individuals that the shooter elieves is responsi le for his plight5 Therefore () teams also ill or;closely ith human-resources managers and employee mental health programs to try to identif yearly on those employees ho have the potential to commit acts of or;place violence 5

)n or;place settings as ell as other potential threat areas () operatives also can aid other security off icers y providing them ith the photographs and descriptions of any person identif iedas a potential pro lem5 The person identif ied as the potential target also can e riefed and theinformation shared ith that person=s administrative assistants f amily mem ers and household

staf f5

Another crucial function of a () team is to Lred team L or to loo; at the security program from theoutside and help identify vulnera ilities5 Most security loo;s from the inside out ut () provides thea ility to loo; from the outside in5 )n the e2ecutive protection realm this can include an analysis of the principal=s schedule and transportation routes in order to determine the most vulnera le timesand places5 Countersurveillance or even overt security assets can then e focused on thesecrucial locations5

/ed teams also sometimes perform cy erstal;er research5 That is they study a potential targetthrough a criminal or mentally distur ed person=s eyes -- attempting to o tain as much open-source and pu lic record information on that target as possi le in order to egin a surveillanceoperation5 ,uch a pro@ect helps to determine hat sensitive information is availa le regarding aparticular target and highlights ho that information could e used y a criminal planning an attac;5

/ed teams also ill attempt to invade a facility in order to test access control or to conductsurveillance on the operations in an effort to identify vantage points >or LperchesL? that ould mostli;ely e used y someone surveilling the facility5 Once the perches around one=s facility areidentified activities at those sites can e monitored ma;ing it more difficult for assailants toconduct preoperational surveillance at ill5

One other advantage to () operations is that eing amorphous y nature they are far more difficultfor a potential assailant to detect than are traditional security measures5 Even if one () operative isdetected -- regardless of hether the team has identified its targets -- the surveillers= an2iety illincrease ecause they li;ely ill not ;no hether the person they encounter is a

countersurveillance operative5

This com ination of countersurveillance analysis and investigation can e applied in a num er of other creative and proactive ays to help ;eep potential threats of f alance and deny them theopportunity to ta;e the initiative5 Although a large glo al corporation or government might reIuire alarge () team these core functions can e performed y a s;illed compact team or even y oneperson5 or e2ample a person living in a high-threat environment such as Me2ico City can acIuirethe s;ills to perform his or her o n analysis of route and schedule and can run surveillancedetection routes in order to smo;e out hostile operations5

The details of the (9re3 Merelles ;idnapping indicate that it as a professionally planned and ell-e2ecuted operation5 Crimes of this cali er do not occur on the spur of the moment ut rather reIuire e2tensive surveillance intelligence gathering and planning -- the very types of activities thatare vulnera le to detection through the proactive tool of ()5Tell red and ,cott hat you thin;'et your o n copy

,end us y our thoughts on this repor t5

8/14/2019 The Proactive Tool of Pr...Intelligence _ Stratfor

4/4

/eprinting or repu lication of this report on e sites is authori3ed y prominently display ing the follo ing s entenceincluding the hy perlin; to ,tratfor at the eginning or end of the report5

LThe (roactiv e Tool of (rotectiv e )ntelligence is repu lished ith permiss ion of ,tratfor5L

Simply copy and paste this code

LMa href Lhttp: