Assassination attempt on Trump and the farce of VIP Security

On October 12, 1984, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded a powerful bomb in a Brighton hotel where Margaret Thatcher was to address a party conference. The explosion caused six floors of the hotel to crash. Thatcher survived miraculously as she had left the bathroom of her suite seconds before the explosion. Five persons were killed and 30 injured.

The Fundamental Truths of VIP Security

“We were very lucky,” Thatcher said after the attack. In response, the IRA sent a chilling message read out on TV, “Today, we were unlucky. But remember, we only have to be lucky once; you have to be lucky always.” To this, I must add “The Basic Principle of VIP Security” enunciated by me, “If someone is really keen about killing you, has made adequate preparations and is not bothered about getting away alive, he can indeed kill you, in spite of all the razzmatazz that your minions might be doing in the name of VIP security.”   

Assassination Attempt on Trump

This Basic Principle was validated once again on July 13 when sheer luck saved Donald Trump’s life. A rifle bullet, aimed at his head, wounded his right ear as a head-tilt saved him. The attacker Crooks had fired from a distance of about 125-140m from a rooftop. He was subsequently killed by counter-sniper teams The USSS (US Secret Service) chief blurted out that the building on the rooftop of which the attacker was perched, was secured from inside and “There’s a safety factor that would be considered…we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.”.

Since most people do not have any idea of VIP security, all sorts of accusations, jokes and videos have flooded the social media. It has been alleged that the assailant was spotted some 30 minutes before but permission to shoot him down was not given until he fired.

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Sexist jokes are doing round that the sloppy performance of the USSS is due to the presence of a female director and agents. One of the videos shows a female agent fumbling in holstering her pistol. Elon Musk also demanded resignation of director Kimberley Cheatle and pointed out that before taking up that post, she was just the security chief of PepsiCo.

It is claimed that a policeman had actually confronted Crooks but was shooed away by his rifle muzzle! Besides the ubiquitous excuse of lack of coordination, it is being said in defence of the USSS that perhaps they mistook the attacker for some colleague from another agency!

Intellectual Bankruptcy of Security Planners

The entire business of VIP security, executive protection, close protection, personal protection etc. abounds with sheer stupidity as the ignoramuses who plan the security refuse to accept fundamental truths to keep their jobs in the first place, and to fool their employers.

The job of a bodyguard is a lowly one; a completely de-intellectualized one. Historically, the dumbest of the men, have been found to make the best bodyguards. The business of VIP security, therefore, thrives on excellent salesmanship, capitalizing on the inherent gullibility and ignorance of their employers.

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It is all show and no substance, what with the bodyguards’ bespoke suits, swank goggles, a trademark zombie-like expression, fancy guns, white loose trousers, knee pads, earphones/mouthpiece—the works. Of course, if you are Col. Gaddafi type, you could surround yourself with all-female white-skinned bodyguards from Bulgaria, Poland, Italy etc. wearing makeup and high-heeled combat boots also!

Quite often, they are found heavily armed with submachine guns, rifles and PDWs (Personal Defence Weapons: compact submachine guns designed to fire rifle-like cartridges). These guys think that the only way the VIP is going to be attacked is with bullets. Most of them have no idea of the novel methods of attack already used in the world.

Most security planners are unable to think beyond the last method of attack. That is how the media is flooded with suggestions from self-styled experts about strict access control, securing all vantage points, utilizing drones, and that a hit or un-hit VIP should be pinned to the ground, etc. What they fail to understand in their limited intellect is that even if all such loopholes were to be plugged, it is still possible to kill someone. These people are demanding that there should have been 500 agents and 30 counter-sniper teams! Trump should rather have sat in a bulletproof glass bubble!

Flummoxed by the fact that the assailant in Trump’s case was operating alone and had no criminal record, some are found lamenting that nothing can be done about ‘Lone Wolf’ operations. 

Some Novel Techniques Terrorists Have Employed

The novel ways in which terrorists could attack are limited only by their imagination. Unfortunately, the unimaginative security systems almost always fail to learn from history. 

Firing of NLOS/Non Line of Sight weapon: The most instructive example is the firing of the Mark 10 improvised mortar by the IRA on 10, Downing Street on February 7, 1991. The mortar was made from acetylene cylinder and was mounted on a Ford Transit Van. They fired three shells carrying 40 pounds of Semtex each from a range of 250 yards and successfully got away. The PM was obliged to vacate the residence for several days.

Assassination of MP Neelan Thiruchelvam in Sri Lanka: In this, the LTTE suicide bomber took advantage of a turn where the motorcade would slow down and threw himself on the car and exploded.

Assassination of Minister Dassanayake: This LTTE attack was mounted using an improvised directional explosive device (like a Claymore mine but much more powerful) exploded from the side of the road, tied to a tree. The shrapnel hit the bulletproof vehicle with such precision that hardly any blood was spilled on the road! This particular mode of attack was very significant because they could plant the device in a busy area, yet conceal it well, and activate it remotely with great precision on a moving vehicle.

Assassination of Admiral Clancy Fernando and Lt. Gen. Parami Kulatunga: In both cases, LTTE suicide bombers drove explosives-laden motorbikes into their official cars.

Karachi Attack on Benazir Bhutto: There was no suicide bomber and no car bothered to crash through. The explosive was kept in one of the parked cars and a huge quantity was used. It killed over 140 people but Benazir survived courtesy the armoured truck she was in.

A VIP motorcade on a non-urban road (that is, where one does not have roadside barricading) could theoretically be slowed down or forced to brake suddenly and cause confusion by various novel ways, such as by throwing kids in front of it. After that, a proper attack could be mounted using RPGs or explosives.

Stupidities Security Planners Indulge In

VIP security planners indulge in a great deal of stupidities. Some of them include the following:

Armour-Piercing Cartridges: PDWs firing cartridges like the 5.7x28mm (used in Fabrique Nationale P90) and 4.6x30mm (used in Heckler & Koch MP7) are marketed to the gullible as armour-piercing. Question is where on earth are you going to encounter armour-wearing terrorists? Won’t they be making themselves all the more conspicuous? And would they not be leaving their heads still unprotected even if they wore armour under their shirts?

Transparent magazines are pure marketing gimmick. When you are firing in a life-and-death situation in split seconds, can you have time to look at the number of rounds remaining? Then what is the advantage of the range of 200m of these cartridges? In VIP security you do not engage an attacker at such ranges. And, if you are going to engage the attacker at say less than 50m, the PDWs are no better than pistols like Sig Sauer P226.

Carrying Automatic Weapons: Attack on a VIP is most likely to come from within a crowd or behind a crowd. Now, which country’s laws permit that the security personnel could fire into the crowd? You cannot afford to pour in a high volume of fire into a crowd and kill innocent persons! If they have to fire single shot, what is the point of carrying automatics?

Jammers: Jammers are yet another hoax. It presumes that the terrorist bomb shall necessarily be remote-triggered by radio waves and nothing else. Little do they know that there are many other means of triggering bombs that do not use radio waves.

Dumb guys do not know that terrorists have no intention of fighting on their terms. If the security has guns, they would fight with bombs instead! Moreover, they shall not indulge in a fire fight. As a rule, they would attack and try to swiftly get away. If they don’t, they must either be fools, or they must have come prepared with ammunition more than the security detail. 

Bulletproof is NOT Bombproof

Americans take great pride in the BP Cadillac car of their president. Its Windows are five inches thick, and the exterior walls eight inches thick

In Afghanistan, it was common for huge roadside bombs with low detonation velocity explosives (that is, propulsive explosives as against high detonation velocity shattering explosives used in regular anti-tank mines) to throw 20-ton heavy eight-wheeled armoured vehicles in the air. Even as they were not shattered, their throwing up in air was enough to cause casualties by men banging their heads against steel bodies. Where does the US president’s Beast (weighing 6.8 to 9.1 tons) car count then?

You Cannot Prepare For Every Eventuality

In the 1997 Mel Gibson-Richard Gere thriller ‘The Jackal’, Mel Gibson uses a Russian 14.5×114 mm KPV heavy machinegun in an attempt to kill the wife of the American President from over 700 meters with armour-piercing bullets made of depleted uranium. The bulletproof podium which security planners place so very pompously in front of VIPs would simply disintegrate under these bullets leaving the muzzle at over 3264 fps.

Realistically, What Can Be Done?

All the razzle-dazzle of VIP security system lasts only as long its reality is not exposed by an attack. Never forget that even unsuccessful attacks (in the sense that they are not able to harm the VIP physically), if mounted successfully, generate enough media publicity for the attackers and enough furore against the security system. That serves the purpose of the terrorists eminently.

One needs to understand that, in spite of spending billions, no one can create a fool proof system that would defeat every type of attack. Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The best which close protection personnel can hope to do is to try to shield the protected person with their own bodies and get him out of that place as fast as possible. I must emphasize the words ‘try to’ because shielding by body can work only if the attacker has missed with his first shots or is firing for a length of time for reasons best known to him. The reactions of any human cannot be faster than the time in which bullets would reach the body of the target.

There are recorded exceptions like agent Timothy McCarthy who took the fourth bullet fired on Ronald Reagan out of the six fired. However, as a rule, training alone cannot ensure that one shall always go against the genetically imprinted instinct of self-preservation. They must be utterly dumb to do so. Then you need ties of blood, ideology or gratitude.

Hitler’s close protection team called SSBK (Schutz Staffel Begleit Kommando der Fuhrer) had hand-picked men who were firm believers of Nazi philosophy and not converts. Peter Hoffman, in ‘Hitler’s Personal Security: Protecting The Fuhrer 1921-1945’, writes that Hitler was never tired of personally looking after their well-being, making sure that besides generous pay, they were showered with lavish gifts on important occasions in their families, and that their wives and kids were called over for coffee with the Fuhrer, or invited for various functions. Unfortunately, democratic societies are loath to admit this truth.