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Brigadier (Retired) J (Jeff) Little OBE MBA CGIA FICPEM FSyI – Joint Founder and Director of TriTectus.
Jeff Little served over 30 years in the British Army following a wide and diverse military career seeing duty during the Cold War in Europe , Operation Banner in Northern Ireland, Operation Granby in the Middle East, the Balkans War during the siege of Sarajevo for which he was awarded the OBE, the USA, Gibraltar, Turkey, Kosovo and throughout the UK. He has been involved in numerous contingency and response operations at home and overseas at both national and local levels. He gained extensive project management experience within the then Defence Procurement Agency and served on the Directing Staff of the Royal Military College of Science.
On leaving the Army he took an MBA with the Open University and studied emergency planning and disaster management at Coventry University. This work spawned his passion for resilience and security issues. For 3 years, Jeff served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the UK’s National Security Inspectorate (NSI) and is now a member of the elite security and resilience consultancy TriTectus. TriTectus draws upon a unique and expert pool of strategic and operationally experience practitioners who both individually and collectively provide world class advice and guidance to governments and private organisations. He is a fellow of the Security Institute (SyI) and a past chair of the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management (ICPEM). In his spare time he teaches the game of Mah Jongg, writes short stories and cooks outstanding curries.
Islamic State (Daesh) has claimed responsibility for the coordinated and murderous attacks in Brussels on the morning of 22 March 2016.
Latest casualty figures indicate between 31 and 34 people may have been killed and over 260 were seriously injured. Some individuals remain unaccounted for, including a British computer programmer resident in Brussels.
The targets were both ‘soft’ – the airport departure hall at Zaventen airport where three suitcase borne explosive devices were aimed and a city centre metro train near Maelbeek station – but all were timed to inflict maximum casualties and chaos at peak hour for commuter travel.
Such easy attacks on transport hubs are now the characteristic of urban terrorist cells. Nails were added to the design of the devices to inflict maximum injury and suffering on those victims caught in the blast.
The terrorists could equally target shopping malls at peak periods, sport stadiums, iconic commercial premises and tourist attractions in major cities. FM security personnel must be constantly alert to such possibilities and be prepared to react and respond.
The need to share information and intelligence is now even more urgent than ever before. Such attacks on the transport infrastructure are almost impossible to prevent without creating unacceptable delay and frustration for the travelling public.
CCTV still showing Najim Laachraoui (left), Ibrahim el-Bakraoui (centre) and one other unidentified suspect at Brussels Airport
The plotters seek to instil fear and a feeling that state control has been weakened or even lost. The real outcome is actually the reverse – populations may be scared by such incidents but inevitably rally strongly against the criminals in support of their nation and in shows of sheer defiance and solidarity against the perpetrators.
Reports indicate that suicide tactics were used in the Belgium attacks, with two of the three devices targeted at the airport functioning and resulting in the death of two of the carriers, Brahmin el-Bakraoui being one, whilst his brother, Khalid, has been implicated in the metro train attack.
A third device failed to function and was destroyed by an ordnance disposal team. One bomb carrier remains unidentified although an arrest was made earlier today (Wednesday) in the Anderlecht region of the city.
The Belgium capital has been seen as a safe haven for radicals for many years. These men planned and executed the attacks on Paris in November last year. Najim Laachraoui, one of the key Paris plotters, a skilled bomb maker and thought to be the third Zaventen bomber, remains on the run and is the focus of a huge manhunt by police, intelligence services and Special Forces.
Crisis rehearsals
It is now time for all organisations, in both the private and public sector, to dust off their crisis management plans and consider how they would deal with the unthinkable. Strengths and weaknesses will never be identified unless such plans are exercised and their actions rehearsed.
FM providers can take the lead here by coordinating such exercises within their areas of responsibility and providing realistic scenarios – not just terrorism related – but involving natural calamities such as floods, fire and utilities failure.
Whilst suicide bombings were deployed on Tuesday, another frequent tactic used by the extremists recently is the multiple terrorist armed attack (MTAA) where a gang of armed attackers will roam free within a shopping precinct or a holiday resort, shooting randomly into crowds and often using hand grenades to inflict mass casualties.
Such tactics were first exhibited in Mumbai and later used in Nairobi, Peshawar, Paris and Tunis. They present a clear and present danger and sufficient overmatching firepower has to be deployed at high speed in order to defeat such gangs who may well take hostages when engaged by the security forces thus creating a longer term siege.
Defeating these and other attack methods can only be achieved by good intelligence. Many of these radicalised killers have a background in lower level crime and are therefore known to law enforcement and to the courts.
Only by using modern technology and smart software to track their movements can alarms be created when they are seen together in a group. As a last line of defence, only when they are seen arriving together at locations where they can cause harm to society, will there be an opportunity for interdiction.
The sheer scale of monitoring all of those who may be suspects, individuals of interest or who have recently returned from the Mesopotamian conflict zone is simply immense. The security services will never be given sufficient resources to monitor each one every day and night.
Unless 22/3 is going to be accepted as the new normality, then hugely increased and proactive cooperation between the authorities and industry is essential. This conflict is now set to be a generation long campaign and a concerted campaign plan is needed to bring together the power of the state, the advanced technology of the developers and the eyes and ears of the FM industry.
If this is not forthcoming, there will be many more days of national mourning across the continent. Sadly, despite the best efforts of our own intelligence organs, one day, the terrorists will get through to a UK target. Not if. When.
It will be too late for enquiries and accusations at that stage. Urgent action is needed now.
The UK alert state is at Severe – an attack is highly likely.
Brigadier (retired) Jeff Little OBE will be presenting on ‘Security, resilience and recovery in an increasingly uncertain world’ at Facilities Show 2016, which is co-located with IFSEC International. Jeff’s presentation will take place on the afternoon of 22 June in the FM Excellence Arena at ExCel London.
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Brussels Terror Attacks: Collaboration is the Watchword for the Authorities and Security IndustryRetired Brigadier Jeff Little OBE offers his prescriptions for preventing, as much as is possible, future terror attacks.
Jeff Little OBE
IFSEC Insider | Security and Fire News and Resources
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TERRORISM/PREPAREDNESS ..A good article that highlights some of the real and immediate challenges facing the authorities and the security industry, not just around Europe but globally as well. With regards to Europe specifically these kind of attacks have been a long time coming and are by no means a ‘new thing’. What has been witnessed in Belgium, France and even back to 7/7 and the Madrid rail network attacks has happened before. Europe has had plenty time to prepare itself against this. Our ‘own’ political terror groups from the 70’s and 80’s along with Middle Eastern groupings have carried out… Read more »
TERRORISM/PREPAREDNESS ..A good article that highlights some of the real and immediate challenges facing the authorities and the security industry, not just around Europe but globally as well. With regards to Europe specifically these kind of attacks have been a long time coming and are by no means a ‘new thing’. What has been witnessed in Belgium, France and even back to 7/7 and the Madrid rail network attacks has happened before. Europe has had plenty time to prepare itself against this. Our ‘own’ political terror groups from the 70’s and 80’s along with Middle Eastern groupings have carried out… Read more »