Ben Sheen: Hello and thank
you for joining us. My name is Ben Sheen. I'm one of the managing
editors here at Stratfor and I'm joined here today by our Vice President
of Intelligence Fred Burton.
Fred Burton: Good morning Ben.
Ben: Good to have you here Fred.
Fred: Thank you.
Ben: Now, here at
Stratfor we have developed an incredible resource, an incredible amount
of information based on security, both at the personal, the corporate
and the national level. As an individual who spent a lifetime in high
risk, high threat environments, what are some of your big takeaways when
it comes to security?
Fred: I think I'm
really excited about this series because we're going to break it down on
how people can protect themselves. And I think most people have this
perception that the government is going to look out for them and make
sure that they are always safe. The first takeaway on any kind of
security plan is the proper mindset. You have to be aware that the world
is a dangerous place, so it's critical that individuals maintain the
proper mindset.
Ben: And it's
interesting because often people have that illusion of safety and they
will actually miss certain cues that could be really important to
maintaining their own security and security of those around them. How
can somebody enhance their overall ability to be aware of threats?
Fred: Well I'm hoping
that the series will do that. But that brings me to the second point of
the Building Blocks to Personal Security, which is situational
awareness. And a lot of this deals with that mindset and being cognizant
of your surroundings and making sure that you have the proper
situational awareness, whether that be you're walking to your car late
at night, or going into a hostile environment such as Afghanistan.
Ben: And often
something we have seen in the past is that when a situation does begin
to unfold, often people react very slowly or do not immediately
recognize the warning signs. And that seems to be a key thing as well is
that early identification of the threat and then a reaction to that.
Fred: No doubt much
like your time in Afghanistan. You have to be prepared to react and have
a plan. And that can save lives in itself, whether it be an act of
workplace violence or an act of terrorism. If you look at the current
polls out today, many people in North America feel very unsecure due to
the terror risk from ISIS for example. So we are hoping that this
Building Blocks of Personal Security will help individuals understand
and be prepared so they know what the threat may be, but more
importantly, be in a position to react and to understand to see it
coming.
Ben: And it's like you
talk about in your recent book, Under Fire, about the situation in
Benghazi. You mention the fact that often it's not just one thing that
will spark an incident. Often, it's a real collusion of factors; there
are many things that play a part in it. And actually, once things do
deteriorate they deteriorate very quickly.
Fred: That's the one
thing that I think that most people don't understand, that when things
start to unfold they usually can turn badly very quickly. Every victim
that has lived through a terrorist attack that I've talked to, for
example hostages, they will tell you that something just wasn't right
preceding those events. Call it your gut, but your mind is going to
perceive those kinds of things such as pre-operational surveillance. You
know that from walking the battlefields of Afghanistan. You get a sense
that something is just not right. And the people that stay alive from
those kinds of events react to those and put themselves out of harms
way, in an essence move and get off the x.
Ben: Absolutely, and
one of the things we used to look for specifically was the presence of
the abnormal or the absence of the normal. And those would often give
you little visual cues and if you were aware in your mind that something
might be about to unfold, you could already start surveying your
environment, being aware of individual threats, assessing escape routes
or cover positions and that sort of thing.
Fred: I think that's
critical Ben, meaning most people today if you look at them on the
streets any major city around the world, they have their head buried in
their iPhone or Blackberry. They're not paying attention to their
surroundings. There are certain critical moments in time on every
person's day-to-day work or taking the kids to school that you need to
be more situation aware, which leads to you have to have that proper
mindset and you'll be able to see and identify things that just don't
look right. And that could be a criminal, or that could be a potential
terrorist. So we're hoping that this series will help people understand
this and they can stay safe.
Ben: Absolutely Fred,
and that's why we are excited about the series because it's a
representation of so much of the work we've done here at Stratfor aiming
at making people safer in their personal environments. Unfortunately,
that's all we have time for today, but look forward to our series on
Personal Security in four parts starting next week.
