Recognize the 'six-stage attack cycle' while at home, deployed

  • Published
  • By Mr. James Mitchell
  • 482nd Fighter Wing Antiterrorism Officer
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. -- --  It was a perfectly normal workday at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., on March 11, 2009. C-130 aircrews were flying training missions and base employees were managing business as usual.

Then, at 4:45 p.m., a driver in a silver sedan arrived at the main gate, parked the vehicle about 50 feet from the guard shack, walked up to the main gate and stated there were "dangerous materials" inside.

Base officials immediately detained the individual, dispatched an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team and contacted police and fire departments to aid in the incident response.

Fortunately, no harm came to Dobbins ARB, but vehicle-borne explosives and other similar attacks have been major threats faced by U.S. and Coalition servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan since the contingencies started in 2001. And as this example shows, we must also remain vigilant here at our home station.

Terrorist attacks and criminal operations - such as car bombs - often require meticulous planning and preparation. Anti-terrorism experts classify attack planning in as a "six-stage attack cycle" that includes: target selection, planning, deployment, the attack, and escape and exploitation.

This malicious cycle begins with selecting a target based on several factors.

Terrorists generally choose targets that have symbolic value or that will elicit the greatest media reaction. One way to guarantee the latter is by killing and maiming a large number of people to generate graphic, provocative images that can be splashed across television screens and the front pages of newspapers. An example is the highly coordinated terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, last year on hotels, a train station, movie theater and a hospital.

Terrorists usually prefer to avoid attacking "hard targets" such as well-defended installations with an effective "Random Antiterrorism Measure" program. Therefore, soft targets with lightly or undefended civilian targets and important symbols are chosen more often by terrorists during this stage of the attack cycle.

During the target selection phase, terrorists research potential targets. Most notably, the Internet has made this stage of the attack cycle much easier.

Anybody can obtain photos, maps, histories and even satellite images of their targets by using any given Internet search engine. The information is gathered electronically, and the plotters conduct "pre-operational" surveillance of targets to determine which are the most vulnerable and "desirable."

And making everyone on Homestead Air Reserve Base a less "desirable" target is exactly what we're striving for every day. Remember to think like a terrorist and consider this six-stage attack cycle to deter the potential for an attack.