Tacoma woman ‘prayed’ for her stalker.

A stalker waited for his victim outside Birney Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington. He had recently been released from Pierce County jail on $10,000.00 bail. He shot Jennifer Paulson as the 30 year-old teacher arrived at school in the morning. The victim and Jed Waits, the stalker, had met in a work situation in 2003. By 2008, Waits was obsessed with Ms. Paulson; they were never romantically involved, however.

Waits was killed in a subsequent shootout with a Pierce County Sheriff’s deputy. Ms. Paulson was known for devotion to faith, family and students

Jennifer Paulson was reportedly a caring, compassionate and selfless Christian. She tutored kids and volunteered to help inner-city youths. She even prayed for the stalker.

Wait’s unhealthy obsession began in 2003.

According to court documents, “he called at odd hours, sometimes 10 to 15 times per day.
He drove from his home in Ellensburg to Tacoma and showed up unannounced at her workplace, asking to see her even though she didn’t want to see him.”

He sometimes sat in his car and just watched her.

Children were not at school, when the special education teacher arrived.

“She was being bothered by this man, but she was still praying for him,” said the Rev. Dean Curry, pastor of Life Center of Tacoma.

Waits killed Ms. Paulson, who was 30 years old, outside the school at about 7:30 AM, February 26, 2010. According to the Tacoma News Tribune:

“Paulson’s devastated family and friends described her as woman of abiding faith who possessed a deep well of kindness and generosity. She focused her life on kids, teaching them at Birney during the week and then helping at-risk children through a church-sponsored program on Saturdays.”

“She was a kind, merciful, loving person,” Ken Paulson said this morning. “That’s probably why she was a special ed teacher, because she loved so much.”

According to the TNT, Paulson graduated from Life Christian School and Academy in 1998, a member of its inaugural class. She was on the honor roll every semester of her high school years.

“She took advanced placement classes, edited the school newspaper, worked on the yearbook and earned varsity letters in volleyball, softball and basketball.”

No one apparently counseled the strong Christian woman, who regularly attended Life Center, that carrying a gun does not conflict with faith.

Pastors and Bible teachers ought to be teaching folks what the Bible says about lethal force. The Great Commission includes deliverance from sin and every kind of oppression, healing, dominion over demonic powers and principalities and putting enemies to flight! That is the “full Gospel” that some folks teach was only for the early Apostolic church and the Old Testament- but not for today.

Those that counsel women like Ms. Paulson should be thinking about what it means to rely on Protection Orders when the stakes can be so high. Pastors, lawyers, family members and police should always remind potential victims that obtaining a Concealed Pistol License and carrying a pistol is an option. Women should also get training so the stalker does not disarm her. There is no conflict between great faith and being armed.

Do you lack faith when you have a fire extinguisher in your home or learn CPR? Think about it. Those of us that counsel women in domestic violence situations should be wise and prudent, not politically correct or deluded by false notions about what Christ taught.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed a new law that eventually led to creation of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship. The purpose of this legislative initiative was, “That every facility should be offered citizens outside of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and organized militia [National Guard] to become proficient in rifle shooting, and that this purpose can best be accomplished by means of rifle clubs.”

Even today, federal law provides a definition for an organized and an unorganized militia. The unorganized militia are the able-bodied citizenry at large (traditionally men between certain ages) that are able to defend their country. Pres. Roosevelt believed that America’s military preparedness depended on having people of all ages involved in competitions and other firearms training.

Thus, civilians, the NRA, police & military shooting have all evolved together and there has been a constant interplay of innovation in technology, training techniques, competitions and personnel. Expert civilian competitors often compete right alongside expert military and police marksmen. Those with no police and military training succeed the same way that competitive soldiers, sailors and police succeed- by extra commitment, natural talent and a great deal of training.

The purpose of the DCM was to encourage this kind of interaction and military weapons were distributed from the U.S. surplus. The program almost died out in the Sixties because U.S. policy makers decided that small-arms were almost a thing of the past except for stopping waves of Soviets from crossing into Western Europe. The non-profit CMP was created at the last minute. There are still CMP competitions and reasonably priced WW II Garands and other excellent military weapons are available to folks that participate in competitions and other organized shooting activities.

I belong to Paul Bunyan Shooting Club in Puyallup and starting in February and throughout the summer, the Club will shut most of its facilities for certain days during which CMP practice and various rifle competitions are held. Normal rifle shooting at Paul Bunyan is at 200 yards or less. For me this is one of the few opportunities in which I can experience shooting at a target from 600 yards. In Service Match competition, all competition is with open sights and equipment that is standard for military rifles.

The preferred rifle for many is the semi-automatic version of the M-16 that most U.S. troops use in the field; i.e., semi-auto rifles (that means one shot with each pull of the trigger)that the media refers to as an “assault rifle” because they are usually black, accept magazines that are made to be easily removed and replaced with a fully loaded magazine and look like the full-auto weapons that our armed services deploy in times of war.

Many of the guys and ladies that shoot rifles either own one or would like to because they are accurate, easy to use and you can easily put a scope on many of them or other interesting equipment like lights and foregrips and things that make them no more threatening than much more powerful guns (that have more recoil and killing power) but those that want to take away guns- and our Constitution- want you to believe that they only want to ban the really evil guns with no legitimate sporting purpose “that are only made to be used for killing lots of people in a war“.

Once certain features (like foregrips) are banned it just becomes a matter of manipulating the definitions. The average member of the public that thinks the media is talking about full-automatic machine guns can hardly be expected to understand all the technical data on which federal and state gun restrictions hinge. It could easily be argued that a semi-automatic pistol is much more insidious than a military style rifle because pistols also hold quite a few bullets, are reloaded with removable clips and can be carried concealed.

Pistols were also designed for use in warfare and have killed many of America’s enemies along with innocent victims of crime. That is why the drafters of the Constitution saw fit to protect the use of such weapons! If they are militarily useful, the weapons can also be used to deter criminals, terrorists or even foreign enemies that might come to our shores.

Our club has some CMP Garands and the club occasionally lets members use them to participate in shooting events. The club’s Garands are semi-automatic 30.06 tack-drivers, modified with match-grade, free-floated barrels for more accuracy when the barrel heats up in competition. M-1 Garands hold eight rounds.

Hitting a six foot high target at 600 yards with iron sights is an accomplishment in itself! Hitting the X-ring is extremely gratifying. Many teenagers are very skilled in such competition. It takes the ability to go into an extreme state of focused quietude that is the opposite of football, video games and other activities to which many of us are habituated. Women of all ages are also devoted to various disciplines involving both rifle and pistol shooting- and shotguns.

Another amazing event is an Appleseed Shoot. This is a grueling weekend of training that is similar to boot camp. While you learn the techniques that “make every man, woman and child a Rifleman,” you also learn about our Revolutionary War heritage. Every kind of rifle is used and every age and background. This movement is nationwide and draws people from all over. I went back and attended in North Idaho because I lived there for many years. In Couer d’Alene at the Fernan Range and Gun Club, I met men and women from Montana, Seattle and many places in the Northwest.

The rifleman’s skills are just as important now as ever before in our history.

I have also shot Steel Plate competitions. At Paul Bunyan we have very young kids that participate with their moms and dads and the young ladies (and older ones) often outshoot grown men that have years of military experience.

There is also a group of guys that work in public maintenance for Sumner with whom I have competed in combat-style IPSIC shooting. You run through a maze of multiple targets while shooting for speed and accuracy (sometimes at moving targets). I mention the guys from Sumner because if anyone ever attacked the City of Sumner with guns, the SWAT team could arrive late and the bad guys might be in more trouble than the residents of Sumner. These guys have trained to hit when they shoot and they train to shoot fast. They reload and shoot rapid-fire with pistols while they sprint past targets. My approach is to learn to do what they do while walking with an occasional jog.

Everyone is helpful and one reason to be there is to learn to shoot and handle jams and other unexpected developments while you have gobs of adrenaline downgrading your fine motor skills. After you run through one course and shoot as many as ten or twenty- or sometimes thirty rounds- you begin to get a feel for how men trained in times past- like the Texas Rangers that learned to shoot from the saddle while riding past a target at full gallop.

A new sport that is becoming very popular is cowboy action shooting. The Renton Fish & Game Club hosts these colorful affairs. All the guns are copies or originals from before 1900 and people wear expensive cowboy costumes and assume fictional identities (often from favorite Western dramas). Ladies seem to be especially drawn to this and everyone shoots a shotgun, usually two six-shooters and lever-action rifles. The targets tend to pop up, roll on the ground or spin and often loom within mock-ups of saloons, mining shafts and stage coaches. There also cowboy events held on horseback

Another sport that is becoming just as popular as cowboy action shooting is three-gun IPSIC. Based on the multiple-targeted configurations discussed above, 3-gun competitors race through mazes with military-style carbines that are semi-auto versions of the weapons used by our U.S. military in warfare. Pistol and tactical shotguns are also part of the fun. Targets may be close or 500 yards away so many of the rifles hold more than one kind of sighting system in order to transition from close quarters combat to distances at which you can barely see a man-sized target.

Some of these competitions emphasize shooting from cover and attempt to recreate what happens in actual combat. Although recreationists and professionals often use simulated ammunition to conduct exercises against actual opponents that shoot back, you cannot substitute for training with real weapons.

Many attend schools like the Firearms Academy of Seattle (that I attended) where the skills of legal reasoning, sound tactical judgment and good decisions are provided. I announced a class on the LAW OF ARMED DEFENSE in January, 2010 and over forty people attended- many of them husbands and wives. All these activities are marked by prudence and the highest regard for safety and good citizenship. Even though more people have more guns than ever before, gun accidents are lower than ever before.

More people are carrying in public (judging by the increased number of CPLs issued across the U.S. recently) so it is good that so much education and training is available. Every state now has concealed carry except for Wisconsin and Illinois. A concealed carry law was passed in Wisconsin and then vetoed by the Governor a few years ago.

In all these competitions and training events there are some that will be going into the military or law enforcement, others that have already served and many that will go into other pursuits. After the Civil War, shooting sports became fashionable in colleges, the mansions of the wealthy and every part of American society from shooting ranges in working class neighborhoods to the White House. The U.S. may be experiencing another time like we saw in the early 1900s when shooting sports were integrated into American life- including the public schools. Justice Scalia tells how he would ride the subway in NY and take his .22 rifle with him for shooting practice afterw school.

A Ninth Circuit judge recently stated in a written appellate decision concurring with the majority opinion in the NORDYKE case that a terrorist attack like the Mumbai attack (in which 179 innocent people were killed by automatic weapon fire) would not get very far in the United States because of the Second Amendment.

But without the citizens that exercise their right to keep and bear arms, the Second Amendment would only be words on paper for lawyers to argue about. Incidentally, almost every Constitutional legal expert now concedes that the 2nd Amendment means what the Founders thought it meant when they drafted it. Pres. Roosevelt was right! Whatever goals people that shoot pursue, they add strength to our nation.

In the initial stage of testing police ammo (1972 to 1973), we recommended that Dallas replace its lead roundnose (LRN) ammo with a then-new Winchester load that pushed a 158-grain lead hollowpoint (LHP) bullet at what today would be +P velocities.

We based our decision largely on a military method of measuring temporary wound-cavity volumes in ordnance gelatin that we modified for handgun ammunition. The program’s success led to the lab obtaining better chronographs and formulating a plan to evaluate as much commercial handgun ammo as we could.With the chronograph upgrades, we could make simultaneous readings of a bullet’s entrance and exit velocities by placing independently wired chronograph screens on either side of the gelatin block. The new setup also let us gather more data, and we crunched them in a number of ways.

As with the .38 Spl., we tested other police cartridges by first evaluating the original load for each. For the .357 Magnum, it was the old 158-grain lead semiwadcutter; for the .45 ACP, we used the 230-grain FMJ roundnose.

We used test firearms that were common to police carry, not unrealistically long test barrels. You can see these “baseline” wound volume numbers in the accompanying chart plus a range of newer loads we tested. Remember that the 10mm and .40 S&W cartridges didn’t exist then.

Don’t be surprised that we included the .41 and .44 Magnums. A fair number of Texas cops packed the big revolvers in those days.As we moved to newer ammo types, we continued to review officer-involved shootings to sharpen our ability to predict the success or failure potential of a load.

Some of the newer .357 Mag.HP loads posted very high numbers in our tests, with temporary wound cavities often six times larger than the baseline .38 Spl. LRN could manage. And this, good reader, is where reality clashed with theory as we discovered that the military wounding standards we borrowed were too narrow for expanding handgun bullets.

Typical Scenario: A single incident will suffice to illustrate our problem; many others had similar elements:Two patrolmen asked a man for identification. Instead, the suspect produced a .25 ACP pistol and dropped one officer with a bullet to the kneecap. The second officer quickly emptied his .357 Mag. revolver at close range, only to watch the suspect stroll away as if nothing had happened, still holding the little pistol at his side.

The uninjured officer managed to fumble three or four fresh cartridges into his revolver and ran after the
suspect. He yelled to turn the man and was taking up the trigger slack when the suspect’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell.

He had been hit hard in the first volley, but the effects were delayed. The injured officer recovered uneventfully, but the shooter remained comatose and died about a week later.The medical findings were eye-poppers. In the initial flurry of .357 Mag. bullets, one fired parallel to the plane of the shoulders struck the suspect in the left armpit and traveled across the left lung and lodged lightly in the heart muscle. The officer had purchased a 110-grain JHP load with very fragile bullet construction; the jacket appeared to have been designed for .38 Spl. velocities. The wound-cavity volume the load produced in gelatin was about 51⁄2 times that of the baseline .38 Spl. and very high among wound volume producers, yet it failed to stop a dangerous man.

By Allan Jones

The following are more notes on terminal ballistics:

One of the benefits of working in a morgue is that I get to see what works and what doesn’t. Ballistic gelatin is good as far as it goes, but there’s nothing like seeing what a bullet actually does once it strikes bone, flesh, and organs. Suffice it to say, it doesn’t always mimic ballistic gelatin.

The other is that I get to hear some great CCW stories. Here’s one of them: A recently-married couple living in one of the less desirable sections of Atlanta decided that for safety purposes they should get a handgun and learn how to shoot it. They bought a Glock 27 in .40, CCW permits, and made regular trips to an indoor range.
One evening, having just come back from the range, they cleaned and loaded the Glock and had left it on the coffee table in the living room, intending to put it up later. Shortly thereafter they heard a knock at the door and, expecting company, opened it without looking through the peephole.

A crazed male entered the apartment brandishing a handgun yelling, “Give it up, give it up!” The husband said that it was obvious the individual was high on drugs and there was absolutely no question in his mind that both he and his wife were going to die. Knowing this, he decided that his only option was to go down fighting.

The BG forced them both down a narrow hallway into the living room, screaming all the while. The husband was in the lead, followed by his wife, and then the BG, whose view of the living room was being blocked by the husband and wife.

The husband reached down, grabbed the Glock, pushed his wife aside, and fired one shot at the BG, striking him dead center in the middle of the chest. Although knocked to the floor, the BG still made a feeble attempt to retrieve his own gun. At this point, the husband let him hold another one to the chest. That ended that little problem.

Upon talking to the still-shaken husband, the police said he could remember little of what all the BG had said. As he recalled it, “All I can remember is that his first words were ‘Give it up!” and his last words just as he saw the Glock were “Oh, (fill in the blank)!”

I see an average of 8.2 autopsies per day/365 days per year, and I can tell you that when the chips are down, there’s nothing that beats a 12-gauge. As for handguns, the name of the game is not only shot placement but how a properly-placed bullet acts once it gets there. I’ve seen folks killed by a bb to the eye and others survive after being hit by several well-placed rounds with a 9mm.
As for me, I’ll take a slow-moving .45 to a gun fight any day. I absolutely despise a 9mm for defensive situations (yes, they will eventually kill but often not quickly enough to prevent the BG from doing you in first)and a .380 as well. These are probably the two calibers I see most often on the autopsy table.

But then, I’ve seen most everything. I’ve seen a guy killed by a .416 Rigby, as well as a suicide to the head with a .44 Mag that didn’t penetrate the skull on the other side.

The long and short of it is that you just don’t know how ANY bullet will react to tissue and bone until you open them up and take a look. I’ve seen hardball fragment and hollowpoints act just like hardball. That said, shoot what you’re comfortable with and place your shots well whatever caliber you use.

The .357 is gloriously effective. It’s just that semi-autos are much more common than they used to be, so we see far more 9mm and .380 rounds on the autopsy table than we do the .38 and .357. Particularly among the gangbangers, the 9mm and .380 are the weapons of choice. The .357 is a wonderfully effective round for self-defense from what I’ve seen, but it’s rare that we get them in anymore.

Again, this is from experience that I’ve made my calls on what works and what doesn’t. I have no use for mouse guns like the .32, although it’s a lot better to have a mouse gun than nothing at all. Personally, I’ll never carry anything smaller than a .40 and prefer the .45. Day in and day out, results from the autopsy table show me that the .45 is the gun to have in a gun fight, provided you can shoot it well. If not, it’s better to have something you can shoot well, even if it’s a mouse gun, than something you can’t.

I spent most of my life in Knoxville, TN and absolutely loved it. But then, my job is working in the Medical Examiner’s Office, and, as you said, this is a target-rich environment. Having a job in an Atlanta morgue is job security at its best.

I’ll take slow and heavy to light and fast any day. What I want is a round that plows through bone and tissue and expends ALL of its energy in the body. That said, the 125-grain .357 is marvelously effective.

Yes, the 9mm and .380 are the rounds I most often see on the autopsy table, but they’re also the rounds that usually require multiple hits to make the kill. The standing joke in the morgue is to guess the caliber by looking at the x-rays. If multiple rounds show up on the x-rays more often than not it’s a 9mm or .380 (or .32 or .25 or some mouse gun caliber). If only one round shows up, it could be an inordinately good hit with a .380 or 9mm, but more likely it’s a .40 or .45.

Yes, the .380 and 9mm will do the job, but usually multiple hits are required as opposed to single hits with a .40 or .45.

First, ballistic gelatin, being all that’s available for most bullet testing, is good as far as it goes but it’s often far different from what we see in the morgue. A far more realistic scenario would be to dress up ballistic gelatin with a heavy coat of denim to mimic blue jeans, embed some bones obtained from a butcher shop, and throw in a few objects of varying densities to mimic organs. Try it again, and I think you’ll see that this impressive wound cavity that’s so often seen in ballistic gelatin goes down the tubes. The human body isn’t just composed of one density as ballistic gelatin is, and the bullet does various things to various parts of the body as it passes through.

And that’s why I think observations from a morgue are so important. Day in and day out, I get to see what works and what doesn’t. More than that, I get to see what the same caliber does with various bullets weights and designs and how it reacts to different parts of the body. The best of all are when the gangbangers use the mix and match technique and shoot a variety of bullets in the same magazine and these bullets wind up in the same victim shot from the same gun. Hardball and hollowpoints in the same body from the same gun give a great comparison on the effectiveness of each.

To be continued. Please e-mail your comments to

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According to William F. Jasper in an August, 2009 New American article entitled TERRORIST TARGETING OF POLICE, law enforcement should expect attacks to intensify around the world. The article cites statistics from another article by Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster (Los Angeles Police Department, retired) showing that “as of August 14, 2005, world-wide, there have been 554 terrorist attacks targeting police officers. These attacks resulted in 2,546 injuries and 1,327 fatalities.”

Many of the attacks (on the increase since 2005) against police are the work of “Islamic extremists”. But many “Islamicists” maintain open cordial relations with non-Islamic governments, including Putin’s Russia. Jasper notes the history of Islamicist back-channel relations with the Russian KGB-FSB and GRU. Such channels provide arms, munitions, and explosives.

The Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerrilla(a Communist text), authored by Brazilian Communist Party member Carlos Marighella, has been translated into many languages and has become a handbook for Islamic terrorists. The Mini-Manual instructs terrorists to focus on police commissaries, police stations, jails, and military and police vehicles:

The roads followed by the police vehicles must be mined at key points along the way and at forced stopping points. When the mines explode, the vehicles will fly into the air. The police will be caught in the trap and will suffer losses or will be victims of ambush.”

Jasper explains the reason for concerted attacks on the police:

In a free society, the police are indispensable agents for protection of the rule of law; both for protection of the citizen against aggression by criminal elements, and even more importantly for protection of the citizen against aggression and abuse by government officials. In the totalitarian society that the terrorists hope to create — whether modeled on Iran, Cuba, Russia, or post-Soviet Kazakhstan — the police are purely instruments of oppression for the central government, whose power is unrestrained by constitutional checks and balances. Although the urban guerrilla and his street demonstration accomplices vociferously denounce what they claim is oppression and brutality, their true aim is to escalate violence to a level that will provoke the government and the police to suspend civil liberties, invoke emergency powers, and dismantle the constitutional structures that protect against the concentration of power.

Thus, the goal is to alienate the government from its own people. As Marighella’s Mini-Manual states:

The government has no alternative except to intensify repression. The police roundups, house searches, arrests of innocent people make life in the city unbearable…. The armed forces, the navy and the air force are mobilized to undertake routine police functions….

Rejecting the “so-called political solution,” the urban guerrilla must become more aggressive and violent, resorting without letup to sabotage, terrorism, expropriations, assaults, kidnappings, and executions, heightening the disastrous situation in which the government must act.

Marighella did not originate the strategy, however. A 1980 book, THE TERROR NETWORK, by Claire Sterling explains that Marighella was part of Brazil’s pro-Moscow Communist apparatus for forty years.” Castro’s DGI and the Soviet KGB provided the techniques from which Marighella developed the MINI-MANUAL.

A 1948 event occurred at the Pan-American Conference in Bogota, Colombia that became a prototype from which Marighella’s text would draw. The Soviet and Cuban game plan included assassination of Colombian politician George Gaitan. The city of Bagota was full of Western leaders. Urban guerrillas directed by a few handfuls of hand-picked operatives, including Fidel Castro, generated violence that overwhelmed law enforcement.

THE COMMUNIST ATTACK ON U.S. POLICE, by W. Cleon Skousen, showed how more than more than 1,000 corpses were left lying in the streets. Many of the people associated with the Weather Underground, the Black Panther Party and other radical groups associated with the 1960s are still active in radical politics. Jaspers cites Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn as two examples. Most of the public does not understand that solid evidence has linked Bill Ayers to the murder of San Francisco Police Sergeant Brian McDonnell on February 16, 1970:

Larry Grathwol, a former FBI undercover informant inside the WU, says that Ayers admitted to him that Dohrn had planted the bomb for him. Ayers and Dohrn, who are friends and supporters of President Barack Obama from his Chicago “community activist” days, have never repented of their revolutionary activities, and in fact, Ayers is still actively involved with the communist government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

Fred Burton and Ben West describe in Stratfor Global Intelligence how a Greek police officer, Nektarios Savas, was shot and killed while guarding a witness in Athens on June 17, 2009:

Savas was parked in an unmarked vehicle outside the residence of Sofia Kyriakidou, the wife and key witness in the trial of Angeletos Kanas, a convicted member of a defunct Greek militant group. At 6:20 a.m., shortly after sunrise in Athens, Savas had just gotten coffee and was settling in for his shift when two gunmen approached his vehicle and fired 24 rounds into it, hitting him 18 times and wounding him fatally. The assassins then sped away on motorcycles driven by two other accomplices. Savas was never able to draw his weapon.

The group believed to be responsible, according to the authors, was thought to be an ideological spinoff from the Greek terrorist group November 17 (N-17). The ideology shared by many such “left-wing” groups in Europe is also common to Islamic operatives; i.e., the adherents to such ideologies reject democracy, capitalism and outside influence — especially from the United States. EA also rejects EU policies in Greece that it claims hurt the working class.

Stratfor Intelligence warned in the July, 2009 article that N-17 has a history of assassinating police officers, diplomats and industrialists by using small arms at close range:

Periodic attacks by anarchists and left-wing militant groups in Greece date back to 1975, when the emerging N-17 shot and killed CIA Station Chief Richard Welch in Athens. In 2009, however, militant attacks have become more frequent and lethal. There have been 16 attacks so far in 2009, compared to 10 in 2008 and 4 in 2007, and Savas was the first casualty linked to EA or similar groups since 2004.

Burton and West delineate a pattern of such assassinations aimed at police in Greece over the course of several years:

On Jan. 5, 2009, during protests in Athens following the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy in December 2008, gunmen shot and seriously wounded a policeman standing watch outside the Culture Ministry building (EA claimed responsibility). Then on February 3, three gunmen on motorcycles fired on and threw grenades at a police station in an Athens suburb (claimed the next day by a group calling itself the “Sect of Revolutionaries”). And in December 2004, a policeman was shot and killed while guarding a British diplomat by a man believed to be linked to EA.

Such groups may initially place warning calls before detonating bombs. At first they may conduct attacks at night to lessen the potential for loss of life. Early EA attacks seemed to be more the acts of vandals than terrorists- like the environmentalists in the Northwest:

“Recent NEA attacks, however, are clearly intended to kill. Due to this escalation, EA has begun to look more like N-17, and its recent attacks appear to be borrowing from N-17’s playbook.”

N-17 was responsible for assassinating 22 people over 25 years. Although its small cadre of operatives targeted corporations and other symbols of capitalism, it employed simple attacks with firearms in making targeted attacks.

One single .45-caliber automatic pistol was linked by ballistics to five different attacks over a 20-year period. N-17 attacked the U.S. Embassy in Athens in 1996 and assassinated U.S. Navy Capt. William Nordeen in 1988.
Small-arms attacks against foreign diplomats and Greek businessmen were N-17s stock in trade. The targets were hit entering or exiting vehicles or stopped in traffic.

N-17 operatives shot a CIA station chief outside his home as he was coming back from a Christmas party. In 1983, N-17 killed Navy Capt. George Tsantes while he was in his vehicle at a traffic light. N-17 seems to favor drive-by motorcycle executions which work well when the targeted vehicle follows routine schedules.

In 2007 and 2008, militants detonated a series of improvised incendiary devices made with camping gas canisters under vehicles belonging to Saudi, Turkish, Philippine, Italian and Bosnian diplomats. Note that such attackers began like Christopher Monfort began- by planning attacks that destroyed vehicles but caused no physical harm to anyone!

Low-level attacks require surveillance and provide practice in following the basic attack-cycle. The budding terrorist conducts preoperational surveillance to determine where a car is parked at night. By determining where an individual parks his or her vehicle, the terrorist begins moving through a learning curve but he or she still needs additional intelligence in order to conduct an assassination that targets an individual.

Another aspect of N-17 and EA that has similarities to Monfort’s lone-wolf assassination is the accusation of police brutality to justify acts of terror against police. Economic crisis may also be used to justify terrorist attacks. Foreign companies and governments or fat-cat bankers may get the blame. In Greece, international banks and investment houses are in the crosshairs. Are attacks on Citibank in Greece harbingers of what we can expect in the U.S.?

Countersurveillance, using a team of individuals trained to detect surveillance, can interrupt surveillance of a target before an operation ever begins. A team that detects surveillance while an operation is still in the planning stage may cause would-be attackers to move to another less challenging target.

If you are a police officer or public official, you are a high value target! A single officer often must keep herself safe while watching another person or location. It is difficult to remain alert when nothing seems to be happening. Complacency becomes your biggest enemy! Burton and West noted that danger is amplified in the age of iPhones, Blackberries and laptop computers. The lack of situational awareness can be very deadly, even for trained security personnel.

According to Jasper there is “extensive evidence that Putin and company are orchestrating the terror offensive. It is the same terrorist offensive experienced during the 1960s and ’70s, but in a new phase, under a new guise; instead of the ‘anti-colonialism’ and ‘national independence’ movements, Communists used as covers in that earlier period, they have adopted and co-opted Islam to serve their purpose.”

During the last three months, Seattle-Tacoma area has experienced several shocking attacks against police officers. None of them have involved Communist or Islamic terrorism. Except for the strange case of Christopher Monfort, apparently a loner who allegedly ambushed two Seattle law enforcement officers, there is very little in the way of ideological baggage that is apparent in these incidents.

Despite the lack of apparent connectedness, there are cultural factors that should not be ignored. Note that there have been many scholars over the years that have identified the way in which social forces create a “Spirit of the Age”.

The Bible speaks of this concept in spiritual terms and German philosophers like Hegel and Nietsche have also identified the concept of social forces that link up with individual world views. The spirit of the current age tends toward larger and more powerful government. Many people now identify with various social movements that call for more government power. Terror is becoming an over-arching social issue and a force that divides our society and that could even create a split between law enforcement and the rest of us. That is the goal of the socialist “politicization” strategy. Keep in mind that local law enforcement is the first line of defense against totalitarian tyranny. Nevertheless, the first line of defense against garden-variety criminals and totalitarian activism is a vigilant and well-armed citizenry.

A recent Socialist Worker article about the attacks against police officers is an example of the socialist mentality toward such violence. Socialists inveigh against the cynicism of the media and cops’ so-called law-and-order agenda when it comes to Monfort and Clemmons:

Despite his political passions, no friends or acquaintances from his past believed that Monfort would resort to violence to get his views across.

Whoever killed Officer Brenton, his death, along with those of the Lakewood officers, is being used to mount a right-wing, law-and-order campaign. Law enforcement agencies and their political supporters have seized the opportunity to claim a greater share of public resources at a time when budget cuts are forcing cutbacks of vital government services.

Rather than recognize our law enforcement officers for the safety they provide, socialists (including many in the “mainstream” media) minimize the violence directed toward law enforcement and argue that law enforcement officers systematically victimize minority members like Monfort and Clemmons!

Know who your local LEOs are and make yourself known to them. You and I should and do appreciate what LEOs do. The job of being a policeman (or police woman) gets much more difficult in a society where lawyers and media second-guess every move and crazed individuals are waiting for LEOs to drop their guards in order to gun them down! Even though the recent killings seem random, there are forces and powers and principalities at work even in heavenly places- for good and evil. So be vigilant!

“A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.”

Friedrich Nietsche

For the weapons of our warfare are not those of the world. Instead, they have the power of God to demolish fortresses. We tear down arguments.

2 Corinthians 10:4

See Fred Burton and Ben West Stratfor Global Intelligence

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Ciudad Juárez is ground zero in Mexico’s war against drug cartels.

After gunmen blasted away at a taxi and killed two men and a woman, the army and police were unable to obtain information from any of the witnesses:

Capt. Velásquez scrambled to the site of the killings, where the gunmen had already vanished. He and his men yelled questions at dozens of eyewitnesses: How many killers were there, what kind of car did they drive? “Not one person said a word. Not even what direction they had gone,” says Capt. Velásquez, 42. “Executions here happen at any time, at any place. That terrifies the population. They don’t trust anybody. And they don’t talk.”

On December 21, 2009, cartel hit men carrying AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles burst into a house in eastern Mexico killing several relatives of a slain Mexican Naval Special Forces officer named Melquisedet Angulo. Angulo, 30 years old, was recently killed in a firefight with the Beltran Leyva cartel that controlled smuggling routes in central and southern Mexico and the Mexican capital. The cartel was allied with the Gulf cartel. The Gulf cartel and the notorious Zeta hitmen, control northeastern Mexico.

Arturo Beltrán Leyva, the head of the Beltran Leyva cartel and other members of the cartel were also killed. The attack against the mother and other members of the slain Mexican hero’s family is a message to the government that things are leading to a new level of terror in the war between the Mexican government and the cartels. The leaders of the cartel are intent on intimidating any opposition and can and do extend their reign of terror across the border into the United States.

Mr. Angulo’s mother, aunt, a sister and a brother were killed in the attack Tuesday. A sister was badly wounded. According to the Wall Street Journal:

The shooting came just hours after the enlisted sailor was buried with a military honor guard for his role last week in a Navy Special Forces operation that killed Mr. Beltrán Leyva, the highest-profile drug lord taken down in Mexico since Osiel Cárdenas, former head of the Gulf Cartel, was arrested in 2003.

Mexico’s powerful drug cartels and affiliated gangs are battling for control of the city and President Felipe Calderón has sent 7,000 soldiers and 2,000 federal police into the urban warfare. The residents of Mexican war zones like Juarez are helpless as murder rates soar in Mexico, a nation where citizens that are not members of the police and armed forces are prohibited from owning guns:

In 2008, 1,600 people were killed in drug-related hits. This year, more than 2,500 have died. By some estimates, Juárez’s approximately 165 deaths per 100,000 residents make it the murder capital of the world. That compares with 48 violent deaths per 100,000 residents of Baghdad.

In the Philippines, possession of guns is much more highly regulated than in the U.S. Nevertheless, well-armed rebel groups, bandits, politicians and ordinary people obtain all kinds of weapons, including home-made military-style weapons that are often just as effective as those possessed by police and military personnel anywhere in the world.

Last November, a Maguindanao politician’s son, Andal Ampatuan, Jr., allegedly participated in a massacre in Ampatuan township. Local gunmen, allegedly including six officers and the Maguindanao provincial police chief and his deputy, diverted vehicles containing journalists and the wife, two sisters, an aunt and several supporters of Ampatuan’s rival. The Ampatuan clan has previously provided heavy political support to Philippine President Arroyo.

Ampatuan’s political opponent, Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao’s Buluan township, sent several female family members along in the convoy in the belief they would not be harmed. The convoy was forced to a secluded location where fifty-seven were hacked, raped and shot, then buried in a brave that had been prepared with earth moving equipment in advance. At least thirty journalists were among the dead.

The point of these anecdotes is to show that an armed citizenry is always in a more powerful position when armed. Keeping and bearing arms makes citizens disciplined, vigilant and alert to danger whether it is from domestic political factions, criminal organizations or foreign enemies.

Mexico’s government has waged war with the drug cartels by militarily occupying many areas within Mexico:

Mr. Calderón’s war on drug gangs has defined his presidency so far. Within months of his 2006 inauguration, he dispatched the army to states where drug-related violence was on the rise, calling powerful drug cartels a threat to national security. Three years later, some 45,000 troops—about a quarter of the army—patrol areas ranging from Ciudad Juárez to Mr. Calderón’s home state of Michoacán.

Jorge Tello, Mexico’s National Security adviser, stated that Mexico has done more to fight drugs and violence in Ciudad Juárez than any other place in Mexico. Many residents of Ciudad Juárez are demanding an end to the military occupation. Soldiers cover their faces with black balaclavas in order to conceal their identities from the narcotistas. The government deploys .50 caliber machine guns during patrols.

Despite machine guns and constant patrols, the local Juárez Cartel, the Aztecas and a cadre of corrupt cops and ex-cops called La Linea oppose rival gangs acting on behalf of Joaquin Guzman that aim to take over the drug trade in Juarez; namely the Artistic Assassins and the Mexicles. The gangs simply observe the timing of the patrols and then change the time and locations of their attacks accordingly.

The drug gangs have diversified and extortion has provided a new motivation to increase the body counts:
The extortion wave has spread to funeral homes. Last month, an assassin and his driver parked in front of the Funeraria del Refugio, a squat, yellow building on a crowded street. The killer walked in, interrupting a funeral, and locked mourners in the bathroom, yelling that he had come to collect a protection payment. He then executed the funeral home’s manager, police and eyewitnesses say. The next day, the men returned and burned down the funeral home.

Former soldiers, known as “Zetas” are the Gulf Cartel’s enforcers. They decapitate rivals and law enforcement officers. Another deserter from the Mexican army is Manuel Aponte. A former lieutenant in the army, he deserted in 2004 and is now a top lieutenant for Joaquin Guzman, the cartel leader.

Another example of dysfunctional government intervention is the United Nations. The UN is allegedly involved with joint military operations in the eastern Congo that have resulted in the deaths of 1,400 civilians. The United Nations urgently needs “a new approach to protect civilians,” according to a Human Rights Watch report.

The presence of about 19,000 United Nations peacekeepers has not only failed to protect women and children from rape, torture and murder but actually may have aided and abetted the slaughter, according to a number of reports including the New York Times.

Human Rights Watch researchers describe “girls being summarily killed after being raped, and other victims being tied together before their throats were slit”.

Many governments are working under the auspices of UN programs to disarm citizens. Even some Western Washington politicians seem to look to a nebulous UN agenda in their attempts to violate state gun laws, ban assault weapons and create sanctuaries for illegal aliens.

In some under-developed countries, governments have virtually declared war on their own people in efforts to ban guns. Uganda is one example of extreme violence perpetrated by the Ugandan government against selected tribes that hold onto their guns as protection in the midst of appalling ethnic conflict that is all too often enmeshed with governmental policies.

Many of the worst human rights violators around the world sit on UN committees that condone violence against Israelis or those of other ethnic and national origins. You could almost say that the world has become a mirror image of Chicago in the days of Al Capone- or today, for that matter!

The dictators around the globe are like Chicago aldermen that receive favors for keeping their neighborhoods in line. Every now and then, we hear about genocides (sometimes after the UN disarms the victims as it did in Rwanda) that remind us of the Valentine’s Day massacre, when gangsters dressed like cops gunned down Capone’s Irish rivals on the North Side. The best antidote to the tyranny of crime-related violence or political gangsters is a disciplined, trained and well-armed citizenry.

The day after we proposed a community event honoring First Responders, a Seattle police officer demonstrated a degree of vigilance and preparation that exemplifies the qualities exemplified by many in law enforcement and other professions. Benjamin L. Kelly, 39, has over four years experience with the SPD and is a military veteran. Officer Kelly showed alert presence of mind during a situation that started out very routinely.

While on patrol, Kelly saw a car with the hood up and the engine running. He ran the plates; the car had been reported stolen early the same day so there was paperwork to be completed. One of the challenges in staying aware of your surroundings is that most situations present distractions.

About 48 hours earlier, four officers were drinking coffee and using laptop computers in a Lakewood coffee shop when Maurice Clemmons turned around and opened fire. Did any of the four victims look up and make eye contact with Clemmons as he entered the coffee shop, passing them moments before he started shooting?

Kelly sitting in his patrol car doing paperwork, observed a man walking up behind him on the driver’s side and recognized that the man was Clemmons! Imagine how the officer felt exiting from the driver’s seat. He was close to becoming another victim when he ordered Clemmons to stop and show his hands. Clemmons did not show his hands and began to run away in the other direction going around the vehicle.

Again telling Clemmons to stop, the officer drew his gun. Clemmons seemed to be reaching for a gun. Kelly fired shots at Clemmons and at least two rounds stopped Clemmons who had already been shot in the torso two days before during a struggle with one of the officers slain in Lakewood. At the time of his death, Clemmons was armed with a .40 caliber pistol taken from one of the officers at the scene of the premeditated ambush against Lakewood LEOs in the City of Parkland.

Kelly was justified in using deadly force to stop Clemmons because he had reason to believe Clemmons had already committed the violent murders of four officers. Thus, even if Clemmons had not presented an imminent threat to Kelly, Clemmons would have posed an imminent threat to the public if he got away!

Clemmons was an individual who wrestled with his own private demons. Society extended compassion towards Maurice Clemmons when he convinced an Arkansas parole board and Gov. Huckabee that he was a changed man. Many mistakes are bound to occur in a compassionate and open society like ours. The watchmen at the walls may let down their guards. In some nations, the guardians themselves commit violence against the people they are entrusted to protect.

In one sense you and I are no different than the officers that walk the thin blue line. You and I need to exercise situational awareness. Whether you are sitting in your car, relaxing in a restaurant or walking in the park with your family- stay on guard! The best piece of safety equipment we have is an alert mind. Take your gun but don’t leave vigilance behind.

HONORING THOSE THAT STAND GUARD AT THE WALLS OF THE CITY

Nandell Palmer hosted a recent event honoring unsung heroes. We honored men and women that raise families, nurture churches and encourage others. The program included song, dance, oratory and a feast that Nandell and his family prepared and served themselves!

We are talking to Federal Way about such an event to honor law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical providers and other emergency personnel. The event should call attention to the need for the whole community to prepare for emergencies.

We are asking everyone in and around Federal Way to think about how we can honor our First Responders. Surrounding communities contain agencies such as South King Fire and Rescue that work in and around Federal Way so we may have to reach out and consider personnel from the surrounding area.

We also need to honor men and women like a JAG officer I know that had to leave his business for a year and assist as an active-duty military lawyer helping soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas. We now realize that stateside duty is just as dangerous as going to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Every place is now a danger zone! Modern tactical doctrine has evolved to the point where recognizable fronts and uniformed armies have been replaced with committed packs of warriors that randomly circulate in small teams looking for opportunities. Thus, a teacher, a firefighter or a janitor may need to be just as vigilant as a member of our special forces in Afghanistan!

The risks are all around us every day, not just during an obvious catastrophe. This is why churches and pastors may be the most important key to getting ready for future events. The sense of community that already exists in churches requires that pastors, priests and rabbis- even imams and other leaders- train those within our various spiritual communities so that we do not just react to crises. Get into CERT training and classes provided by the City, state and federal governments and recognize First Responders that labor among you.

Many of us already have extra food and emergency supplies. Many people meet the criteria to be honored as First Responders in one capacity or another. We need a committee to handle the nominations and determine which individuals will be honored. Each individual will represent all responders from the various agencies in and around Federal Way.

None of us are able to take all the steps necessary to prepare for every contingency. We depend on each other. The beginning of good government is when neighbors voluntarily pool resources in order to provide for each other’s well-being and for the common defense. Historically, public order starts with volunteerism. A militia is formed. We divide into specialties. Eventually a strongman starts using force to extort goods and services from his neighbors.

Every Thanksgiving, I appreciate America’s Biblical roots, the U.S. Constitution and the freedom to talk and write about such things. I also appreciate the professionals that have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and stand guard over the City!

WHEN LEAD IS WORTH MORE THAN GOLD

On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, Federal Way’s Emergency Management Coordinator Ray Gross presented a seminar entitled at City Hall “LONG TERM DISASTER SURVIVAL; BEYOND THE FIRST 72 HOURS”. There are several varieties of catastrophic events that most us would never contemplate.

The governmental infrastructure, including police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel will be overwhelmed during catastrophic events. It could take a week for help to arrive- or much longer! Keep in mind that historically social breakdown is never far away.

Life will go on after a catastrophe. You will have to pay your mortgage. Attorneys, government officials and insurance companies will ask for copies of legal records. You will need doccumentation to claim your home and to work and keep your loved ones out of the government system. Stay in control of your family’s physical needs, including food, water, shelter and protection.

You can barter food and water. Ammunition will be in demand and outdoor clothing, tents, generators, firewood and seeds are goods that you and your neighbors will need. Make sure to have a tarp to seal any holes in your roof. The tarp will also work well for making a temporary shelter if you need to camp out.

You need a long term supply of food, water, medicine, clothing and tools and a kit kept ready in your vehicle in order to leave quickly. First-aid supplies will be important and you should anticipate the possibility that you will have bodies of loved ones about you without any normal means of dealing with the bodies.

Grief, injuries, aggressive animals and unemployment are all exacerbated when there is a lack of community. Many of us barely know our neighbors! How will your neighbors react if they see you eating well during a time when their larders are bare? The time to create a unified community is now and one place to start doing it is in the churches.

Pastors and church leaders in Federal Way should organize with other churches and emergency response officials for emergencies. Community-minded people (especially men and women of faith) will keep up morale better than those that only care for themselves. You should make plans to secure your home and neighborhood. During a time of social breakdown, you may choose not to fight and run from your home but may never be able to return.

Most government emergency materials contain lists of all the things you should have in an emergency- extra water, flashlights, batteries, water filters, whistles, bandages and aspirin, to name a few. Gross, a former Marine, asks whether you will know how to handle a weapon if you choose to exercise your Second Amendment rights.

You need to be realistic as to your capacity to react to violence with deadly force. You can only be a neighbor with arms outstretched to share light, food and warmth with your neighbors if you are also prepared to resist those that would take by force.

Think about issues like hygiene, garbage disposal and first-aid. Talk to your neighbors and assess their strengths and weaknesses. Encourage them to engage in planning now. Obtain a Concealed Pistol License, get some professional firearms training. Stock up on extra ammunition. You can never have enough bullets when lead is worth more than gold!

One Sunday in October, we met in Normandy Park to discuss ways to make the public aware of why Mayor Nickels is acting against the interests of the people of Seattle with his illegal edict against guns in parks and other public places. Rather than take the legislative route or seek an AGO opinion, many of those that have contacted me are conviced that legislative battles are hopeless and may just create legislative history that could backfire when we get into the courts.

After the meeting in October, SAF filed suit on behalf of several Plaintiffs impacted by the Mayor’s decree, a Kent attorney, Bob Warden, announced to the news media that he would appear armed at a Seattle community center in order to protest the ban. On Saturday at twelve noon, November 14th, Mr. Warden and another armed advocate arrived. The news cameras filmed Warden’s entry and an employee politely demanding that they leave, telling them they could return unarmed. The two men promptly left the premises.

Warden’s press release stating that he would be attempting to enter the community center dismayed some gun activists while others favored such action all along.

Mike Cheney, leader of the Seattle Second Amendment Group, and others from open-carry circles, had scheduled the October meeting in order for all us to seek consensus on how to proceed against Mayor Nickles’ illegal gun bans. Mike stated:

“I believe it is good to get together and discuss strategy and attack this thing as an informed and unified group. I have received very positive response to this concept and believe we can win this and further advance the rights along with the image of all gun owners.”

Everyone involved agrees with Cheney that this wasn’t just an Open Carry event “but impacts us all!” Two local television news broadcasters were there with cameras. And the owner of Dino’s welcomes gun owners. Open Carry or concealed carry is welcome at Dino’s. Great food and the media personnel certainly must have been impressed with the caliber of folks represented at the meeting, thirty or forty openly armed, well-dressed citizens at a very nice family restaurant.

The discussion was very pro-law enforcement and the consensus seemed to be that we should avoid anything that might put the Seattle Police Department in between honoring our Washington state firearms preemption law and obeying a chain of command that answers to the Mayor. Openly armed protests or parades in the streets are not feasible because the City will not issue a permit without language banning firearms. In the case of parades, such language may pass legal muster in view of the express provision in our Washington State Constitution that there is no right to maintain an armed body of men:

Section 24 - Right to Bear Arms

The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this Section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.

We discussed legal action about to be filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and whether there would be a Temporary Restraining Order to keep Mayor Nickles from prohibiting citizens from exercising our rights and responsibilities under Section 24 above. Someone suggested an “empty holster” protest in order to provide grassroots support for the SAF’s imminent legal action. As folks that appreciate our friends within the Seattle Police Department (of which there are apparently many), the suggestion made sense that we set information tables and distribute information explaining why we carry weapons and how armed citizens help deter crime.

Another idea was to conduct an information campaign in the Mayor’s neighborhood. Openly carrying in the Mayor’s neioghborhood could be construed as an attempt to intimidate the Mayor and could also send the wrong message to the media, the public and the judges. One Seattle area activist reminded us that judges talk among themselves and that anything that telegraphs the wrong message to the judges is not a good strategy.

There were several present that have ideas for how to include the SPD. Winning the support of LEOs is just as important as our image with judges. Thus, anything that looks we are daring law enforcement to disarm us is out of the question. Several of those at the meeting indicated that they will be following up with the police guild and others within law enforcement circles.

One idea that was particularly well received is to work with the Marines in their food and toy drives, Another suggestion that made some sense is to pick up trash on the freeway where passing motorists can get used to seeing our holstered weapons and appreciate our commitment to our communities.

The idea on which we settled is to go to a location such as Westlake Center and hand out informational brochures. Open-carry practices are well understood by the Seattle Police and it is unlikely that anyone will be stopped downtown. Even though Westlake contains a city park it is also an area traversed by the general public where leafleting is commonplace; the likelihood of any arrests for open-carry is very minimal.

Rather than protest or demonstrate, we will have signs that urge the public to “Ask Me Why I Am Carrying a Gun“. Thus, most of the communication will be one on one and there is no likelihood of anyone passing by feeling threatened in any manner.

I went to the meeting wondering what the open-carry folks would be like. I have previously only had the pleasure of meeting a few open-carry practitioners. I saw some very well crafted hardware (mostly in black Kydex holsters worn outside the belt) and came away with a very positive appreciation for everyone that attended and encourage anyone interested to get involved. Everyone was extremely professional. Many good things could result from the meeting on Sunday, including more groups like the Seattle Second Amendment Group. If anyone in the Federal Way area is interested let us know.

The manner in which societies organize for warfare has always been dependent on a number of interrelated factors. Technology is an important factor but there are many instances where societies that are behind in the technology of warfare or even behind in industrial strength and other economic factors have been able to become better organized than their opponents. Japan, for example, created the first successful carrier groups and managed to do this virtually overnight in the years before Pearl Harbor. At Pearl Harbor the Japanese executed tactics gleaned from systematic study of the British attack on Taranto that destroyed a major portion of the Italian Navy.

Just prior to WW II, theorists like Liddell Hart advocated in favor of integrating fast moving armored vehicles with smaller infantry units and air cover. The only authorities in a position to follow Hart’s innovative doctrine that were actually listening were members of the German High Command. The Germans’ execution of the lightning-fast tactics that the world came to know as Blitzkrieg overran France’s “state of the art” defenses in a matter of a few days with a loss of German lives that was almost nil!

The ability of the U.S. to mobilize and organize a civilian industrial base in order to convert to the building of carriers and planes and other military armament was one important factor that turned the tables on the Japanese and the Germans.

Hitler attempted to personally manage and direct forces that had been effectively trained to proceed with a great deal of rapid decision making at the operational level. Hitler’s seriously flawed military logic in overriding the advice of his generals and consigning Gen. Paulus’ Sixth Army to utter destruction led to its defeat on the Eastern Front.

Over time, battlefields, as the world historically has perceived battlefields to exist, have become almost a thing of the past. During the Napoleonic Wars, hundreds of thousands of men were formed into massed ranks which presented solid boxes at which their opponents would fire. Soldiers on both sides were ordered to fire into massed ranks of the enemy, usually without taking aim.

The field of battle was filled with black powder smoke and cannon balls would skip across the open ground, often removing heads and arms and legs as the iron balls bounded through rows of soldiers lined up like bowling pins.

The American Civil War and WW I caused great loss of life because both sides had such accurate rifles, machine guns and artillery that the men were pinned down in deadly trench warfare. The certainty of death by exposing men to such accurate long range fire initiated a search for new battlefield doctrine that would avoid the drawn out carnage and attrition of the trenches.

By WW II, the German High Command’s innovative mix of tanks, armored vehicles and planes dictated a new kind of warfare that depended on speed and initiative rather than masses of men. The other great powers had greater resources in terms of weapons and by almost every other manner of reckoning. The Germans, nevertheless, had developed a process of planning, innovating and testing various plans and tactics involving new technologies that other leaders only vaguely understood until the German onslaught demonstrated to the world what the English historian, Basil Liddell Hart, had been talking about for so many years; i.e., decentralized coordination between fast moving infantry, mechanized troops and tactical air support.

By the time of the first Gulf War, the U.S. was able to detect and destroy Iraqi armor so effectively that enemy troops just gave up and walked into the desert. At the present time, there is no enemy in the world that can challenge the U.S. on the high seas, in the air or on land. Our forces are trained, organized and equipped in ways that no other nation can match. Thus, it is as if the U.S. holds the power of a magistrate; i.e., we are literally the policeman of the world.

This situation prevails as a result of GPS, satellite reconnaissance, networked communications, along with other technogies that make it possible for planners located anywhere in the world to view every inch of a battlefield environment and communicate instructions or reach out and touch personnel and equipment in real time while committing few, if any, troops to the battlefield arena. This is because of robot technology and surveillance systems that make death almost certain for any personnel that expose themselves to the systems our planners and scientists have developed.

According to Max Boot in “War Made New”, however, every victor runs the risk of becoming complacent and relying on the technological and military prowess that provided the last victory. While the U.S. was basking in the benefits of the “peace dividend” our enemies were exploring our weaknesses. The fact that no army will expose itself to the bewildering networks of weaponry deployed by our armed forces creates a new medium of battle. The only way for an enemy to attack is to infiltrate our society with networks that operate with the kind of decentralized structure by which our own special forces deploy.

Each new innovation can only be integrated into a battle system by gradual experimentation and tactical experience. One example of such innovation is information reported by military intelligence that terrorists are using online social networking systems to identify targets, communicate strike opportunities as they arise and conduct survellance. Thus, older technology is always preserved alongside state of the art developments. This fact brings us to an interesting thesis.

It is a matter of less than five yearse before WMDs will be deployed within the U.S. homeland, according to the a new report by the co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission. See EMP Attack. Suit-case nukes, biological weapons and chemical warfare are all available to terrorists and criminals. The argument that nuclear weapons are too high-tech for terrorists is more a kind of denial than a reassurance to any thinking person. Those who really study such subjects at the highest levels state that is not a matter of if but when the enemy will unleash such weaponry.

Many small arms and personnel are pouring back and forth across the U.S.-Mexican border. An epidenic of kidnappings has started in Phoenix and experts predict that the business of kidnapping is spreading to other cities in the U.S. The fact that many of the kidnappings and much of the contraband and personnel crossing the border involves Mexican gangs goes hand in hand with credible intelligence that Middle Eastern personnel are also coming across our Southern border and receiving many kinds of weapons other than just small arms.

When the new administration uses the complaints about U.S. manufactured guns showing up South of the border, ask yourself whether you would care to be defenseless in El Paso, Texas when the violence spills over the border from Ciudad Juárez.

According to the New York Times, cities llike El Paso, Phoenix and Tucson are “hardly alone in feeling the impact of Mexico’s drug cartels and their trade. In the past few years, the cartels and other drug trafficking organizations have extended their reach across the United States and into Canada. Law enforcement authorities say they believe traffickers distributing the cartels’ marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs are responsible for a rash of shootings in Vancouver, British Columbia, kidnappings in Phoenix, brutal assaults in Birmingham, Ala., and much more.”

It will not take a WMD event to paralyze our economy. Even temporary economic and social disruption could make our armed forces vulnerable. Various synchronized forces and events are ready to converge in many parts of the world. Cyber-warfare and political confusion can amount to chaos in the midst of profound despair and recriminations.

Think about the questions that existed (and still exist) after the WTC attacks and the invasion of Iraq. Some people still question whether Al Qaeda was really behind the attacks. The apparent confusion about how seriously the American public should view terrorist threats raises the issue of whether additional unrecognized enemies can wreak havoc. Can terrorists intitiate attacks in a manner that disguises the identity of the enemy power initiating an attack? Can these attacks occur via tactical teams utilizing small arms, WMDs or industrial-financial sabotage by computer-hacking or some other electronic attack?

Think about this scenario: An ordinary-looking freighter ship heading toward New York or Los Angeles launches a missile from its hull or from a canister lowered into the sea. It hits a densely populated area. A million people are incinerated. The ship is then sunk. No one claims responsibility. There is no firm evidence as to who sponsored the attack, and thus no one against whom to launch a counterstrike.

But as terrible as that scenario sounds, there is one that is worse. Let us say the freighter ship launches a nuclear-armed Shahab-3 missile off the coast of the U.S. and the missile explodes 300 miles over Chicago. The nuclear detonation in space creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

Gamma rays from the explosion, through the Compton Effect, generate three classes of disruptive electromagnetic pulses, which permanently destroy consumer electronics, the electronics in some automobiles and, most importantly, the hundreds of large transformers that distribute power throughout the U.S. All of our lights, refrigerators, water-pumping stations, TVs and radios stop running. We have no communication and no ability to provide food and water to 300 million Americans.

This is what is referred to as an EMP attack, and such an attack would effectively throw America back technologically into the early 19th century.

DARPA, a U.S. Government R & D technology lab, was able to create microwave technology at a relatively local cost with generally available electronic components that could disarm many high tech weapons systems. Such inexpensive designs are published on the internet.

The best way to deal with roving bands of killers is on their own terms. The low-tech swarming concept developed by terrorists is also one of the evolving doctrines of our own special forces. A unit or individual blends into the social environment and, by means of cheap handheld GPS units (available at any electronics shop or outdoor store), cell phone and laptop, units come together as opportunities are presented. Similarly, the ancient Parthian and Mongolians and Turks were just some of the Asiatic horsemen that were able to envelope their enemies by converging from many directions with little or no apparent leadership.

The fact that the Asian “hordes” knew their enemies’ weaknesses stands in stark contrast to the lack of knowledge regarding the onslaught on the part of their victims (Europeans, Persians and Arabic societies, as well as the Chinese empire, to name a few). Such swarming tactics resulted in whole regions becoming systematically repopulated with mountains of skulls.

When a team comes together the units “swarm” their enemy like wolf packs or sharks. The best weapons against such forces are forces of citizens that are armed and trained to detect patterns, react and respond until the police and/or military take over.

The principle of social organization that most characterized the Twentieth Century is the same principle upon which 19th Century factories and armies were organized; the military-industrial complex organized as a massive hierarchy of professionals, bureaucrats, and engineers; i.e., as cog-like components in a huge machine. The concept of a citizen militia seemed outmoded by the 1950s.

A conventional comment is that, “The professional soldiers can provide for our defense.” The idea of a citizen armed with a deer rifle standing up to Blitzkrieg-style storm troopers seems laughable. The U.S. homeland, however, is unlikely to sustain a conventional attack on our homeland, unless our society is already decimated by the networks of terror cells that may already be waiting for the “perfect storm” to arrive.

The fact that so many naysayers deny that we are embroiled in real warfare is because the nature of the new warfare is such that there is normally not a conventional battlefield space.

The real space where the battle occurs is in hearts and minds of citizens and the outcome is determined by how we prepare for and then react to sudden manifestations of violence in schools, churches and synagogues, malls, streets or workplaces.

Our enemies will exploit any dissension (especially partisan gamesmanship) and attempt to break down our trust by creating horrific fear at the same time as the true aims and source of the terrorist acts become more difficult to identify. One source of such “plausible deniability” may result from more than one set of actors with conflicting ideological and national loyalties getting involved, perhaps in joint operations.

There are no means by which enough police can be deployed to guard all our schools. Think of all the workplaces, intersections, overpasses, malls, churches and other facilities where a few homicide teams or even women and children that worship death and are bent on destruction and suicide can systematically murder many innocent Americans.

The best defense will be men and women, armed with hand guns and proper training. The government will not take the initiative to train you because “thinking outside the box” is the province of a few individuals- individuals that may lack the patience to wade through the bureaucratic gauntlets. Military officers normally listen to credible military leaders, usually from within their own command.

Even a President or Secretary of Defense has a very difficult time changing the military culture and landscape, littered as it is with turf wars. It took years to unify the various armed forces into an integrated structure where each branch coordinates with the other. A few citizens armed with pistols and spare magazines probably cannot stop a WMD. But think of what happens after a WMD event. If a suit case bomb explodes do you think the carnage will just stop there?

There are some quiet discussions going on among our political leaders about the possibility of arming some of the staff in our schools. There may be a need to change some state and federal laws. Every war takes a different kind of thinking than the last war. The concept that may be foremost in the present day battlefield is “swarming”. No one quite knows quite how it works but for defense of our U.S. homeland it could be as simple as several armed people that are near an intersection stopping one or more terrorist teams from systematically executing drivers while stopped at a traffic light during rush hour.

A Pakistani terrorist, Mir Aimal Kasi, attacked CIA personnel outside the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, killing two CIA employees and wounding three in 1993.

“At around 8 a.m. on January 25, 1993, Kasi stopped his Isuzu pickup behind a number of vehicles waiting at a red traffic light on the eastbound side of Route 123, Fairfax County. The vehicles were waiting to make a left turn into the main entrance of CIA headquarters. Kasi emerged from his vehicle with an AK-47 and proceeded to move among the lines of vehicles, firing into them. Within seconds, he had killed Lansing H. Bennett MD, 66, and Frank Darling, 28. Three others were left with gunshot wounds. Darling was shot first and later received additional gunshot wounds to the head after Kasi shot the other victims.”

Kasi stated later that he wanted to kill people that were more important to the government. Kasi escaped and was hiding in Afghanistan from where the FBI lured him with an offer of a business deal and then captured him by going to his hotel room in Dera Ghazi Khan, in the Punjab province of Pakistan, “rendering” Kasi back to the U.S. Kasi was tried and convicted in the U.S. On November 12, 1997, four US oil executives and their Pakistani taxi driver were shot dead in Karachi, in what was described as a deliberate response to Kasi’s guilty verdict. Kasi was executed by lethal injection in 2002.

All the military experts recognize the viability of the swarming concept. Swarming tactics do not require advanced technology. Just as happens on any other battlefield, technology plays its part and we need the professionals. Ordinary citizens will usually be able to respond to an emergency that occurs in a public location more quickly than the police. If the professionals are tied down by multiple emergencies, civilians with radios, cell phones and some preparation for defensive tactical engagement may be able to head off potentially devastating attacks by the crazed individuals that seem to be appearing in “gun-free” zones with some regularity or even to confront jihadist homicide teams.

Citizen defense conflicts with the way many of us have been trained to react but such thinking is in line with the mental outlook of most freedom loving people up until a few generations ago. One of the reasons that Americans got away from such civil defense strategies relates to the defunct official philosophy that the world would be destroyed by nuclear events if there was ever a war. Thus, the notion developed that there was no use preparing to defend against our enemies since “mutual assured destruction” had become official policy under the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT). Even military forces were reconfigured in a manner reflecting the primacy of the unthinkable nuclear threat.

The contributions of many human resources and various perspectives from inside and outside the ranks of the security professionals is indispensible. Intelligence and sophisticated communications, radioactivity detection, bomb squads and medical/rescue teams have been augmented with billions in federal and state funds. Nevertheless, you can get to your neighbor’s home in an emergency faster than any other “first responder“.

You don’t have to be covered with body armor or trained as a SWAT operator or to operate radar to get a concealed carry license, take some defensive shooting classes and think tactically.

The government has also spent billions to inform citizens about the importance of vigilance and getting ready for emergencies. There is a great deal of training being provided by local governments but, at least for now, the tactical training is something that you will have to develop without government assistance, unless you work for the government. Think about the nature of modern warfare and why individually armed men and women may become more important to our national security than ever before. Our biggest vulnerability is also our greatest strength- the mindset of the average American citizen.

See Citizen Journalists for information related to how journalism and online social networking can relate to Online Civil Defense.