National Guard: Command post helps National Guard respond to possible disasters

By Army National Guard Spc. J.p. Lawrence
New York National Guard

UTICA, N.Y. (5/17/12) - The scenario is as horrific as it is potentially tragic: what if terrorists attacked the United States with chemical weapons?

About 1,000 National Guard Soldiers, Airmen and New York Guard volunteers trained to respond to such a scenario at the Utica National Guard Armory as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency II Homeland Response Force validation training, May 16.

The FEMA II Homeland Response Force - which is a robust, specialized, rapid-response task force made up of National Guard Soldiers and Airmen to reinforce first responders in times of disaster - included members of the New Jersey, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands National Guards.

The organization supports civil authorities in response to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) or Hazardous Material incidents that requiring the evacuation, decontamination and medical triage of casualties.

Army Maj. Aron Sacchetti, executive officer of the Command and Control Element of the HRF, helps the unit coordinate with civilians in the response to national disaster.

Army Spc. Louis Cesario, focuses while training as a liaison officer for the Homeland Response Force Tactical Operations Center in Utica, N.Y. May 16, 2012. Cesario helps the TOC provide important information to the civilian first responders in the event of an emergency situation. (Army National Guard photo by Spc. J.p. Lawrence)(Released)
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“We’re working as the primary command and control unit here to ensure that we are able to recommend to the commander what our current status is here, how long we can continue to operate, and if we need anything,” Sacchetti said.

If a disaster hits the FEMA area of New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico or U.S. Virgin Islands, the HRF command post would be responsible for keeping track of the military units that would respond. This includes hourly reports on the supply, equipment and personnel levels of the military response. That information would go to the civilian in charge of the total efforts of the military and civilian first-responders.

“We provide that information to the civilian first responders who are controlling the overall response to make sure that he’s got the information he needs to coordinate the efforts of the civilian and the military folks to deal with the situation as efficiently as possible,” Sacchetti said. “The goal is to save people’s lives.”
Components of this response have been tested in the world, but the process of combining disaster response with a traveling central command hub is brand new.

“This is all brand new, which helps with the excitement and the enjoyment – the fact that we’re building this program now,” Sacchetti said. “We hope that we never have to use it in real life, and so far, we have not had to.”
Sacchetti said the exercise has already helped them build relationships with civilian first responders, but he hopes to continue building relationships in the future in order to respond to the unthinkable.

“We’re all very proud to be part of this mission,” Sacchetti said. “We realize the seriousness of this and we take our training very seriously.”

http://www.nationalguard.mil/news/archives/2012/05/051712-Command.aspx?src=rss

Wells Fargo & 100 Black Men of America, Inc. Present the Procurement Summit at the 26th Annual Conference - An Opportunity For Your Business!

   

    

WEBINAR: UNDERSTANDING THE EEOC’S NEW CRIMINAL RECORDS GUIDANCE: EDUCATION AND ENFORCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance

Webinar: Understanding the EEOC’s New Criminal Records Guidance: Education and Enforcement Opportunities

On April 25, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a new enforcement guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The new guidance reaffirms the core principles present in earlier guidances, while updating and clarifying the EEOC standards regulating criminal background checks for employment. A New York Times editorial described the new guidance as “must reading for all employers.” Sponsored by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), Community Legal Services (CLS) of Philadelphia, and the National Reentry Resource Center, this webinar will provide advocates, workers, employers, workforce development specialists and policy makers with critical information on how to apply the new EEOC policy to their daily decisions when navigating criminal records for employment.

The webinar will feature a conversation between CLS's Managing Attorney, Sharon Dietrich, and Carol Miaskoff, Assistant Legal Counsel in the EEOC Office of Legal Counsel, as well as a discussion between NELP's Policy Co-Director, Maurice Emsellem, and Pamela Paulk, Vice President for Human Resources for the Johns Hopkins Health Systems and the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Phoebe Potter, Policy Analyst with the National Reentry Resource Center, will provide introductory comments describing the significance of the issue across constituency groups.

  In addition to detailing the key elements of the new EEOC guidance, the webinar will highlight best practices for employers, helpful implementation strategies for worker advocates, and key considerations for state and local policymakers to explore.

Date: Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Time: 1:30-2:30 p.m. ET

To register for this webinar, click here. Space is limited.


System Requirements

• PC-based attendees: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
  
• Macintosh®-based attendees: Mac OS®X 10.5 or newer 

Haitian Military? NO!

Haiti's wannabe soldiers say they met with leader

Originally published: May 14, 2012 5:27 PM
Updated: May 14, 2012 7:18 PM
By The Associated Press  TRENTON DANIEL (Associated Press)

Photo credit: AP | A member of Haiti's dissolved army gestures after a press conference at an old army barracks on the outskirts ofPort-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, May 14, 2012. The leaders of the band of armed men gave a news conference to press Haiti's President Michel Martelly to honor his campaign pledge of restoring the army, which was abolished in 1995 because of its abusive record. Today Martelly marks his one year anniversary as president. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Photos

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - (AP) -- The leaders of a band of armed men pressing for the return of Haiti's military met with President Michel Martelly while he was a candidate in hopes that he would bring back the army, a former sergeant said Monday.

Jean Fednel Lafalaise gave few details about the meeting, but said Martelly reassured members of the group that the army would be reinstated if he was elected president.

"This is what we are fighting for, this what we wanted," Lafalaise told reporters at an old military base outside the capital. "This is why we asked all our families to vote for Martelly."

A spokesman for the president couldn't be immediately reached for comment Monday.

The hopeful soldiers spoke with reporters on the same day that Martelly marked his first year as president.

Also on Monday, the Chamber of Deputies approved the Cabinet and government plan of Laurent Lamothe, making the former businessman Haiti's new prime minister. Martelly's first prime minister, Garry Conille, resigned because of disagreements with the president over priorities.

Several groups of armed men have been pressing Martelly in recent months to honor his campaign pledge of restoring the army, which was abolished in 1995 because of its abusive record. They've pressed their case by parading around Haiti's capital and the countryside while wearing military uniforms and sporting side arms.

The Haitian government has ordered the groups to clear out of several old army bases that they quietly took over in February but they have refused to leave.

Their paramilitary-like presence has come to embarrass Haiti as well as the country's United Nationspeacekeeping mission. The U.N. and Haitian National Police arrested two members of the group last week for carrying illegal weapons.

There has been much public speculation over who's financing the groups, with some lawmakers accusing them of receiving money from the government. Lafalaise said they are self-supporting.

"Nobody is financing us. We finance our own self," Lafalaise said. "We are the ones who fought to put it together."

The armed men say they plan to organize marches throughout the country on Friday, a national holiday.

In the first year in office, Martelly's government has cleared and closed several major camps for people dislocated by a killer 2010 earthquake, and has paid the school tuition for 1 million children.

But the first 12 months of his presidency have also been marred with political infighting and dysfunction that has slowed the post-quake recovery. His first prime minister resigned after only four months on the job.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Security: Personal Security. Kidnappings.

Personal Security: Express Kidnappings

The Book: International Security: http://www.risks-inc.com/books.html

Express kidnapping is a crime which has boomed over the last decade with incidents taking
place globally from Caracas to Vladivostok. There have been cases in London where victims have been snatched from the street and kept in captivity for several days until their bank accounts have been emptied via ATM machines etc.

One classic example of an express kidnapping that I know of happened to a businessman
visiting a Central American country. When he arrived at the airport he went to the taxi rank and
got a taxi to take him to his hotel, about 10 minutes into the drive the taxi pulled over and in
jumped two men with guns. The victim was handcuffed, threatened and robbed to start with. He
was driven to numerous ATM machines until he could not take out any more money on his bank
cards. As he was being driven around one of the kidnappers was making phone calls trying to
sell him to other groups, luckily for him no one wanted to buy him. The criminals had his
passport and took his picture on a cell phone, then told him if he reported anything to the police
they would find out, as they worked with them, then they would come and kill him. The man
went to his Embassy and they told him he was lucky, everything he lost could be replaced and
not to report the incident to the police.

The chances are that the fact this man was a foreigner could have saved him from being sold
on and into a ransom situation. These were not sophisticated criminals who had the skills and
resources to be able to handle a high profile kidnapping. As I have stated before criminals don’t
want attention and the kidnapping of foreigners usually brings attention from the international
media and the Embassy of the victim, which means embarrassment for the government and
pressure on local law enforcement to do something.

Express kidnappings are safer and more convenient for criminals, who do not need to be highly
skilled and connected to pull them off. In a typical kidnapping the criminals will usually go to a
wealthy area and look for a suitable target, someone who looks like they have some money and
then snatch them. Once they have the victim they’ll be robbed, taken to ATM’s, sexually
assaulted etc. If the victim has a cell phone the criminals may use it to contact their family for a
ransom, the amounts requested in express kidnappings tend to be low. This is where locals
make better targets than visitors; In say, Venezuela it would be easier and quicker for a resident
businessman in Caracas to get and deliver a ten thousand dollars ransom to kidnappers than it
would be for the family of a kidnapped student who may live in Helsinki.

The main problems with express kidnappings are that the kidnappers are generally not what
could be classed as high end criminals. This means they tend to be more violent and
unpredictable than groups that target higher profile victims for large ransoms.

One tactic that criminals are using throughout South America is to contact the families of people
who they have just stolen cell phones from or they know to be in places like cinemas etc. where
cell phones are usually turned off. The criminals then claim to have kidnapped the owner of the
cell phone or the person in the cinema and demand a ransom of a few thousand dollars, that the
family needs to pay within a couple of hours. Now consider how you would react if you received
a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped a close family member and telling you
to drop off two thousand dollars at a location in two hours or they’ll be killed. You would want to
contact your family member but if they don’t have or are not answering their cell phone, what
are you going to do?

If you have any questions on kidnapping prevention feel free to contact me!

Regards,

Orlando Wilson
Risks Incorporated
E-mail: wilson@risks-inc.com
Website: www.risks-inc.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/risksinc

The Book: International Security risks-inc.com

The Book International Security Personal Protection in an Uncertain World by Orlando Wilson covers personal security - counter terrorism - self defense - travel security and kidnapping...

Events: U.S. House of Representatives. Committee on Homeland Security

http://homeland.house.gov/legislation/schedule

Event Schedule

Subcommittee Hearing: Access Control Point Breaches at Our Nation's Airports: Anomalies or Systemic Failures?

May 16, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

Subcommittee Hearing: Department of Homeland Security: An Examination of Ethical Standards

May 17, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

Subcommittee Hearing: Terrorist Financing Since 9/11: Assessing an Evolving al Qaeda and State Sponsors of Terrorism

May 18, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

Subcommittee Field Hearing: Stopping the Flow of Illicit Drugs in Arizona by Leveraging State, Local and Federal Information Sharing

May 21, 2012 in Phoenix, AZ

11th Anniversary of Terrorist Attacks of 9/11

Sep 11, 2012

Safety: Pull over to a well lit, crowded place before stopping

Police: Phony officer could be killing Mississippi drivers

By Lateef Mungin, CNN

(CNN) -- Someone who may be posing as a police officer is pulling cars over on Mississippi highways and then shooting drivers dead, authorities said.

After two such shootings this month, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is asking for the public's help to find the person.

"There are some similarities between the two incidents, mainly the fact they happened alongside a Mississippi highway," said MBI Director Lt. Col. Larry Waggoner on Monday. "The concern is that someone is posing as a law enforcement officer and that is how these vehicles end up on the side of the road."

The first shooting occurred on May 8. Thomas Schlender, 74, was found dead in his car in the median of southbound Interstate 55 about 1:30 a.m.

On May 11, Lori Anne Carswell, 48, was found dead outside of her car on the shoulder of Mississippi State Highway 713 about 2:15 a.m.

The shootings took place about 55 miles apart and the victims did not know each other, authorities said.

Authorities are asking citizens to be careful if they are pulled over and feel uneasy. They advise drivers to call 911 and verify that a legitimate officer is pulling them over or drive to a well-lit, crowded place before stopping.

CNN's Rick Martin contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/15/justice/mississippi-highway-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t3