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This job was typical of one, which takes place in regions
of few resources, and little or no idea of Western standards
or expectations. I looked at probably 12 - 14 vehicles
before I found the ones we needed which were remotely
suitable. Even then the stretched limo you can see in
the accompanying photo, blew its engine on a long, unplanned
and steep mountainous climb. This necessitated transferring
the boss to the Kazak Oil Minister's vehicle, on an
icy road in the middle of nowhere, with a boss who was
not in the best of health. Again, typically, the detail
planning of the places to be visited and that we had
recced, went completely out of the window, as the minister
and his cronies essentially hijacked the convoy and
diverted it, first to an unfinished shopping centre,
and then by over 20 kilometres to an unfinished ski
resort in the mountains, both of which they wanted the
principal to invest money in so they could get them
finished.
Going back to the text
book requirements, the object of the advance is as follows:-
- To arrange all accommodation
- Transport arrangements
- Special event arrangements
- Security/Police liaison
- Assessment of emergency/evacuation
services
- Public relations during all
of the above
Always remember that in this preparation stage you
have a trade-off in the conflict of having to disclose
the identify of your VIP. Often you will not get the
best of what is available, particularly with hotels,
unless they believe that the person coming is truly
a VIP If the company you are working for has an operation
on the ground, you will be working in close liaison
with them, which in the majority of cases will be a
positive experience. On occasions, however, their imperatives
in organising affairs can be in direct conflict with
our requirements, both in terms of security and also
in what is possible to achieve in a trip of only a few
days. We know from bitter experience that we need to
be firm, to the point of taking matters our of local
corporate hands if they are completely at a tangent.
The Advance evolves as follows:-
- Pre-departure preparations
- Initial duties on arrival
- Transportation arrangements
- Site surveys and route recces
- Emergency services
We do not have enough space here to go into the fine
detail of the work which goes into the 5 areas above,
save to give an overview, but all the fine detail is
available in 'The Modern Bodyguard'. I wrote this book
to do two things, first to accumulate all the formal
pro-active procedures and reactive drills that have
been developed over many years, but second, and more
importantly, to show clearly how to amend and adapt
these procedures to the real world; where time constraints,
budgets, lack of resources and client imperatives have
far more impact on how we are able to do the job than
the threat ever does.
With the Pre-Departure Plans
we have 3 broad areas of world to do:-
Collect Information - itineraries,
dates, times, type of visit etc. Numbers in party, names
and details, special VIP requirements, special medical
requirements, proposed transportation and accommodation,
Prelim Threat Assessment and threat category, visa requirements,
immunisation needs, language, account billing, etc.
Contacts by Telephone - Corporate, either multi-national
or local, security company. Accommodation - hotel or
residence. Transportation - ground, air or other. Police/Security
and the Regional Security Officer (RSO) at the U.S.
Embassy or the Chief Security Officer at the British
Embassy. Vehicle rental, etc.
Your should endeavour to make as many appointments
by phone before you leave with all of the above, or
at best get the names of the people you will need to
see when you get on the ground. Remember that in many
Third World countries it will prove more difficult to
speak to the RSO on a local land line, when he may be
only one mile from your hotel, than it is to speak internationally
when you are over two thousand miles away, so if you
know the local communications infrastructure is naff,
then make the appointments from the U.K.
Plan itinerary for the Advance:-
- Prioritise your tasks - time/threat
- Prepare your Survey Itinerary - Hotel etc.
- Prepare a checklist of all your questions, queries,
intelligence required etc.
The above is only a very sketchy
outline of the tasks in one area of Advance work and
limited. The other four areas are the meat of good advance
work and again, they are given in detail in 'The Modern
Bodyguard'. What I would say here, from bitter experience,
is never, never believe anything anyone tells you about
how something will happen, without interrogating people
in detail about the procedure. In Russia and other far
flung countries, people will tell you what they think
you want to hear as an answer to a question and, more
critically, will give you any answer to a question,
knowing full well that whenever it doesn't work, they
won't be on duty anyway.
The Kazakhstan job was again classic as an example
of this. Given the very high-level nature of the visit,
we had arranged approval to take all the vehicles airside,
at Almaty airport, (practically unheard of) and they
would allow the vehicles to draw up to the plane after
it had taxied, complete immigration and customs procedures
on the plane (completely unheard of) and then the whole
convoy would drive out of the airport without any transfers
to vehicles at the terminal, as would be the case normally.
The problem, however, was ensuring that; 1. the security
guard who would be on duty at the date at the time knew
this was to happen and 2. he would actually have the
key to perform this simple but critical task. Only through
bitter experience of how such a basic and, one would
assume, relatively unimportant function can go wrong,
was I not prepared to accept anyone's word about how
it would happen - even though the person who was reassuring
me was the head of airport security.
He reached a point of infuriation about my not simply
accepting that someone would open the gate when we arrived,
but as it transpired when we did dig into the procedure
in detail, there was no procedure in place to brief
the guard who would be on duty and, more importantly,
the guard in question was new and didn't know where
the key was kept.
You may think that such detail is unnecessary, but
let me assure you it isn't. The next day when the plane
landed, we drove the cars out to the plane. Kazakhstan
border guards entered the plane with customs and immigration
as planned and then nothing. We waited and waited and
still nothing and despite enquiries as to the reason
for the delay, we got no suitable answer. All the good
work that had gone into the planning was being lost,
as the boss sat and fumed on the plane. Eventually,
they had the courage to tell me what had caused the
delay. One of the customs people was off-duty and he
had locked the inkpad that they needed to ink the stamp
for the passports in his desk - and you thought I was
paranoid about the key!
By contrast there are jobs, mainly in Europe to be
fair, which go off without a hitch, but it is because
we leave no stone unturned in brainstorming what could
go wrong, however remote, and then putting in place
a contingency arrangement. It is the contingency planning
that is so critical.
Doing a route recce in Madrid on a Sunday gives no
impression as to what traffic is going to be like on
Monday at 0830hrs. The photos show the problem. We recced
a de-bus at a bank on a Sunday, but on the Monday we
had to do the de-bus in the middle of a very busy street,
with cars parked two deep. Fortunately, we had anticipated
how it would be, and were prepared.
Kit
There is only one rule: Keep it Light! Over the
years I've tried every combination of luggage and personal
kit, but I'm no happier with the result than I was years
ago.
I travel casually, even in Club Class, preferring to
carry suits and jackets in a suit carrier. I would hope
to get them on the plane with a carry-on bag, but it
may be that the carrier will be consigned to the hold.
For any EP work that will be longer than just a couple
of days, and with the advance work, this will be unlikely
I travel with a smallish suitcase, a suit carrier and
soft black nylon holdall, which goes on board with me.
For a couple of days, I'll try and dispense with the
suitcase, but this means that I'll be unable to take
any gym kit with me, which I find difficult. Its difficult
on an EP detail that lasts a few days to get away with
one suit and I'll probably take two plus a jacket, two
pairs of casual trousers and an assortment of shirts
and tops. The black holdall will be with me when we
are in the vehicles and I may have to take abroad a
sizeable first aid kit.
The more remote the region the more problems you face
as, ideally, you would wish to travel very light and
consign nothing to the hold, but when you get to the
hotel you may find that laundry and dry cleaning arrangements
are non-existent, unlike in most Western chain hotels.
If you know a hotel has a good service then you can
cut back on a lot of shirts and even a suit.
The less you take, the less you have to lose. I've
had luggage go astray a few times, but only once on
an outward trip when it went astray in transit from
Cyprus to Israel. It took 3 days to reach me in Tel
Aviv, but fortunately, the job was not an EP one and
I could get away with replacing some casual gear. If
I am on a very tight deadline for the advance and would
have no time to replace lost clothes, I will travel
in a suit, just in case.
Personal Security
Your own security doesn't just start when the boss
steps off the plane. If you are going out to do the
Advance work you too are at risk the moment you leave
the Arrivals Hall. To someone with criminal intent,
you are simply another Westerner with too much money
and too little sense. If possible, get your local security
people to arrange the VIP facilities for you and to
meet you there. This tests their capabilities in this
area and gives you the opportunity to see how things
are organised and arranged. You are as much at risk
as the next person if you are left stranded at a potentially
hostile airport.
You should be switching on at all times and be gathering
a comprehensive, situational appraisal of everything
that is going on around you. Often this is completely
at odds with what you are being told. The worst people
for doing this are usually the company's local management.
They have always played down any socio-political problems
to corporate HQ and usually also manage to hide from
them the fact that they are being threatened, extorted,
have Russian mafia partners, and have employees planted
by organised crime groups. They will also have told
HQ that no outside security is necessary and that their
country is one of the most peaceful in the world. They
are paranoid you will say anything different than the
local party line and worry everyone at head office into
some reactionary activity - like closing the operation
down. Often, because of this, they may be very anti
your activities and I've learned to accept their co-operation
as a bonus, not something we actually need.
So you need to be able to sense for yourself how the
land really lies, as much for your on safety as for
your people.
FORTHCOMING
Travel Security from the point of view of the business
executive, who may not always enjoy the personal protection
of a close protection operative.
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