The Decision Advantage

On December 21, 1988, a plane full of college students, government workers and professionals traveling home for the holidays from London to New York exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. All on board and 11 people on the ground were killed. The investigation spread over hundreds of square miles. The evidence was blown to smithereens.

"Domestic terrorism" is a phrase that has had its fair share of US headlines in the years since 2001 and the Al Qaeda terror attacks. We've all read reports of bombings, mail attacks using fire, biological weapons. And the dramatic death tolls from dozens and dozens of mass shootings.

But domestic terrorism was not hatched in the wake of foreign attacks. It predates online radicalization and the US wars in the Middle East and South Asia.

In fact, a series of domestic bombings, and other actions of radical underground groups were all too common during the 1970s. Those “Days of Rage” and the FBI’s response to them are the subject of Bryan Burrough’s investigation into and retelling a decade of America’s  experience of domestic terrorism, which he published in the 2015 book, Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence.

"Domestic terrorism" is a phrase that has had its fair share of US headlines in the years since 2001 and the Al Qaeda terror attacks. We've all read reports of bombings, mail attacks using fire, biological weapons. And the dramatic death tolls from dozens and dozens of mass shootings.

But domestic terrorism was not hatched in the wake of foreign attacks. It predates online radicalization and the US wars in the Middle East and South Asia.

In fact, a series of domestic bombings, and other actions of radical underground groups were all too common during the 1970s. Those “Days of Rage” and the FBI’s response to them are the subject of Bryan Burrough’s investigation into and retelling a decade of America’s  experience of domestic terrorism, which he published in the 2015 book, Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence.

One of the most memorable images from June, 2019 was that taken by a Dallas Morning News Photographer. It shows a man in a black armored, pocketed vest with a black cap, face covering, green clothes, black boots and a large black gun about to enter the Earle Cabell federal courthouse in Dallas, Texas.  

Another was of sobbing survivors of a mass shooting at the Virginia Beach municipal center hugging each other on a bright, sunny day.

Only the shooter was killed in the Dallas event. 12 people died at the scene of the Virginia Beach event.

In a recent column for Stratfor Worldview, VP of Tactical Analysis, Scott Stewart, noted that while incidents of workplace violence and mass public attacks are a persistent concern, taking security measures ahead of time is a critical step toward avoiding attacks. 

He spoke with Chief Security Officer, Fred Burton.

Brad Thor is the best-selling author of the Scot Harvath series of thrillers. "You can go to Backlash never having read a Brad Thor book before," Thor told Stratfor's Chief Security Officer and host of the Pen And Sword podcast, "And in my book is Scot Harvath, who's American's number one operative...This hostile nation decides 'this guy gets in our way way too often. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna grab him, wring him dry. We're gonna get  all the intel we can get out of him and then we're gonna kill him.'"  Well, needless to say, Harvath is not amused. That's page one. And the action continues right until the end. 

The United States has been militarily engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq for almost a generation. For many Americans, those wars have been defining elements of their lives. For others, events far away that simply do not affect them. In what Booklist has called a “searing, contemplative, and unforgettable memoir… perhaps the finest writing about the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts that has been published to date,” former Marine Elliot Ackerman returns to the places he fought to learn the names of those he fought against.

The United States has been militarily engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq for almost a generation. For many Americans, those wars have been defining elements of their lives. For others, events far away that simply do not affect them. In what Booklist has called a “searing, contemplative, and unforgettable memoir… perhaps the finest writing about the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts that has been published to date,” former Marine Elliot Ackerman returns to the places he fought to learn the names of those he fought against.

We’re continuing this episode of Stratfor Talks to focus on true crime, espionage and mysteries. That’s because Chief Security Officer Fred Burton loves the genre and we can’t get him to read anything else! These episodes have developed a special name, “The Pen and Sword”. On today’s episode: David Austin, the author of the thriller: Tehran’s Vengeance. This is the story of what happens when espionage is TOO effective -- and causes an international incident that explodes into an all-out assault.

We’re continuing this episode of Stratfor Talks to focus on true crime, espionage and mysteries. That’s because Chief Security Officer Fred Burton loves the genre and we can’t get him to read anything else! These episodes have developed a special name, “The Pen and Sword”. On today’s episode: David Austin, the author of the thriller: Tehran’s Vengeance. This is the story of what happens when espionage is TOO effective -- and causes an international incident that explodes into an all-out assault.

In this episode, Stratfor Security experts Fred Burton and Scott Stewart discuss the intricacies of corporate espionage risk and a recent column on security by Stewart. Hostile actors seeking to steal critical corporate information will go wherever that information is located and use whatever tactics needed to obtain it. When a company considers its espionage risk purely on where the information is located, it can lead to security blind spots. That is why, our experts say, corporate security programs must take a global approach to identify, segregate and protect critical data in every corner of the world where it can be found.