In my last SMT Editor’s View, I finished that particular discourse with a reminder of what happened on September 11 2001. Given that I was writing on the seventh anniversary of that awful day, I felt it to be wholly appropriate and make no apologies for doing so. In a similar vein, I make no apologies for carrying on the theme by way of beginning this current polemic.
A few years back, I remember watching a couple of fascinating programmes on Channel 4. No, I’m not talking about Countdown or Brookside, but two documentaries that left me both angry and extremely sad in equal measure. Both were on the subject of the Twin Towers attacks.
One involved discussion with the original structural engineers for the building, one of whom was virtually in tears as the questioner was attempting to make out it was his fault the buildings collapsed. What a ludicrous suggestion. The guy should be given a medal. How many buildings do you know would have withstood such an attack without collapsing immediately?
Anyway, back on topic. The second documentary ran as ‘The Man Who Predicted 9/11′. I have talked about this programme many times since at conferences, The Security Institute’s Members’ Evenings, at IFSEC and with colleagues in the office. I’ve never written about it, though, and having finished putting pen to paper on the September print edition of SMT I felt I needed to correct that situation.
The veteran of Vietnam
The hour-long programme was all about a man by the name of Rick Rescorla. A Cornishman by birth – his home town was Hayle – Rick developed a love for the US when, during his early years, GIs set up camp in Hayle while preparing for the D-Day landings. Rescorla eventually enlisted for the US Army, serving as a platoon leader during the doomed Vietnam conflict.
He retired from the forces in the late 1960s, and then followed the same career progression route favoured by so many ex-military types. In other words, he accepted a job in the private security sector.
Not just any old job, mind. Rick became director of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (previously Dean Witter), based in their offices at the World Trade Centre.
Rescorla was a brilliant tactician with an uncluttered mind. Speaking in an interview back in 1998, his words were so prophetic. “Terrorist factions can tie up conventional forces and bring them to their knees. Just one man willing to give his life for what he believes in will choose the time and place to do so, and there’s no way that any soldiers can possibly be alert.”
Alert is one thing Rescorla most definitely was. As far back as 1990, he’d asked old Army colleague Dan Hill to evaluate the security risks posed to the Twin Towers. The basement garage was pinpointed as a weak area, but no official response to Hill and Rescorla’s report was ever forthcoming. As you all know, a couple of years later a van packed with high explosives was detonated… Just 30 feet from the spot which Hill had said was the “point of vulnerability”.
Not wishing to let the matter die, Rescorla pressed his company’s Board to move Dean Witter out of the World Trade Centre lock, stock and barrel. He had an inkling the next terrorist attack on the buildings would come via the skies. He wasn’t wrong…
On any other day
Fast-forward to That Day. Rescorla was supposed to have been on holiday, preparing for his step-daughter’s forthcoming wedding in Tuscany. Instead, he stayed behind to cover a shift belonging to one of his deputies. There was also the small matter of a lunchtime meeting to discuss the lawsuit then being filed by Morgan Stanley against the Port Authority in relation to security lapses leading to the aforementioned 1993 attack.
We all know what happened next, but the event (and its aftermath) is worth reiterating time and again until the message sinks in. At 8.46 am, American Airlines Flight 11 struck Tower 1…
For years, Rescorla had security and evacuation drills in place for his company. More importantly, those drills were practised EVERY WEEK. There was no lip service here. The plans were acted out EVERY WEEK. Rescorla knew what he was doing alright, so much so that he completely ignored building officials’ advice to stay put in the not-yet-stricken Tower 2 and swiftly began the orderly evacuation of Morgan Stanley’s 2,700 employees who worked across 20 floors (not to mention the 1,000 or so workers in World Trade Centre 5).
Rescorla reminded everyone to “be proud to be an American” (it’s a pity some of the US Ryder Cup Team and many of the home spectators let the side down with their disgraceful behaviour at Valhalla last weekend) and said that: “Everyone will be talking about you tomorrow”. He even sang ‘God Bless America’ over his bullhorn in a bid to keep evacuees calm as they left the building.
By the time United Airlines Flight 175 hit Tower 2 at just after 9.00 am, Rescorla had escorted all but six of Morgan Stanley’s employees to safety. Four of the six included Rick and three of his deputies – Wesley Mercer, Jorge Velazquez and Paul Godwin.
Rick being Rick, he returned to the building to help others from other companies and other floors. He was seen as high as the 72nd Floor of Tower 2, evacuating people, clearing the floors…
Rescorla was last spotted heading up the stairs adjacent to the tenth floor of a building that had just begun to collapse. Rick’s remains were never recovered…
A salutory lesson for all
The story of Rick Rescorla’s bravery and selflessness has since touched thousands. Not only those he helped to save, but also their loved ones and people like myself who watched his story unfold on television.
Unlike some of last weekend’s ‘patriotic’ golfers and the hollering, whooping, demented – and, if you believe Lee Westwood, abusive – types who followed them from tee to green, Rescorla embodied the very best attributes of the country in which he lived. Most certainly, his bravery was without question.
What Rescorla did on 9/11 should – no, make that MUST – be a salutory lesson for every serious company and security manager in this country. If ever there was an advert for immaculate security and safety conception this incident is it and, for my money, all heads of security and Boards of Directors must be forced to watch Rescorla’s story (just type in the programme name on YouTube and you can) and to read about it.
He warned of such a disaster and, time and again, was largely ignored by his paymasters. That is the real tragedy of 9/11, and a sad indictment of every organisation in this country that continues to ignore the overriding requirement for professional security provision and business continuity planning.
What about the ‘crackdown’ we were promised?
Continuing the terrorism theme, albeit for a brief moment, it has emerged this week that only ten terror suspects have been sent packing from Britain three years after (then) Prime Minister Blair promised us all a “tough crackdown” on those who wish to do us poor innocents – and our morally redundant society – all manner of harm.
Do you remember ‘our Tony’ famously declaring – in the wake of the 7/7 bombings – that he would deport extremists who encouraged or otherwise advocated violence or fostered hatred within the UK? Well I do, but since that momentous address to the nation only one miscreant has been banished under the so-called ‘unacceptable behaviour’ rules, while a mere nine have been thrown out on the grounds of national security (the most recent of them over 12 months ago).
If we are to believe what we’re told and MI5 really is tracking somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 active terrorists or supporters (a “significant number” of whom are non-UK citizens and involved in “dozens of plots”), are we also supposed to believe that less than ten of them are in any way dodgy? If that were the case they wouldn’t have a 24/7-365 ‘trace’ on them, would they?
The Home Office has indeed tried to strengthen its ability to send dangerous extremists back to nations with dubious records on Human Rights, mainly by signing Memorandums of Understanding. Nation states like Libya and Jordan have been in the frame here. Assurances have been received by Government that the overlords in these countries and others will not torture the deported or subject them to any form of maltreatment.
Memorandums of Misunderstanding
What’s happened in the real world is that our ‘finger-on-the-pulse’ judicial system has pretty much dismissed any of these promises and, not to put too fine a point on it, driven the proverbial coach and horses through these Memorandums. In the eyes of the Courts, these Memorandums appear to be akin to footballers’ contracts in the Premier League. In other words, not worth the paper they’re printed on.
The Government launched its anti-terror initiative to great fanfare, but the statistics produced ever since completely undermine all of the ministerial bluff and bluster we’ve heard from Blair, Gordon Brown and a succession of – to put it as politely as I can – ineffectual Home Secretaries.
True, the Government’s policy has prevented at least some far right extremists and those advocating violence to underpin their religious beliefs from entering the UK, but far too many judges have obviously taken the easy way out and quoted ‘complications’ with the European Convention on Human Rights.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to the conclusion that although the Human Rights Act was designed to protect the innocent, all it really does – with a little push from legal types seemingly bereft of a conscience – is provide a smoke screen behind which the guilty can hide.
Credit where credit’s due
Having attended numerous conferences over the years and cross-examined ACPO representatives to give us the real deal on Police Community Support Officers (rather than the PR spun figures with which the Government has fed the national press), I still remain to be convinced of the genuine worth of Blunkett’s Bobbies.
Every now and again, though, a mild success story emerges. Yesterday evening, I read about the residents of Alresford in Essex, who felt obliged to fork out GB pound 13,000 of their own money to pay for a PCSO (in this case a former air hostess by the name of Louise Cox) in the battle to beat nuisance youths plaguing their quaint village.
Subsequently, Cox has been credited with helping to jail members of a family heavily involved with drugs. The PCSO has also implemented a zero tolerance policy on underage drinking. Cars are no longer smashed outside the Village hall, and lamp posts and fences tend to remain upright these days. Good news all round then.
It’s just a bit of a shame that residents already forking out for a police service by way of their Council Tax and/or Income Tax have had to pay twice over in order to guarantee that anyone resembling a police officer passes by their door now and again. Maybe the ‘real police officers’ in the area are simply too busy filling in forms back at the nick. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard that one, would it?
The most worthwhile job in security…
Speaking of paying for security, on the way in to Blackfriars this morning I picked up a copy of Metro to read up on last night’s Carling Cup games (and potentially discover what else the footballing authorities have lined up to chuck at my beloved West Ham United FC, aside from the kitchen sink, in the wake of the Carlos Tevez Affair).
Unfortunately, in my haste to reach the sports section I stumbled upon page 62. Recruitment. More specifically, the Security Appointments. “I know that building,” I thought to myself as I scanned the 4-colour ad at the head of the page. “It’s the MI6 headquarters.”
Indeed it was. Under the banner ‘The Most Worthwhile Job in Security’, the Secret Intelligence Service is advertising security officer posts. The advert talks about “the most prestigious job in the business” and wanting people who are “professional and committed to a career in security”. It then says: “You’ll be helping to protect the people who, in turn, safeguard the security and prosperity of the nation.”
There’s 25 days’ annual leave, a subsidised restaurant, a gym, a “good pension” and “opportunities for overtime”.
All looking pretty favourable, then, until you see the salary. The basic is GB pound 19,283 per annum.
You must be joking. Is that really the value the Security Services place on someone tasked with ‘safeguarding the security and prosperity of the nation’? To say I was stunned by this apology of a remuneration is something of an understatement.
I’m not in the least bit surprised, though. I’ll not be surprised, either, if the potential applicants for these positions choose instead to go and flip burgers for a living because it’s more lucrative. Not to mention less demanding than literally having to work God knows how many hours of rostered overtime every week to earn just shy of an additional GB pound 5,000 each year by way of a ‘reward’. How far does that go when divided by 12 and shorn of Income Tax and National Insurance payouts into the bargain?
“Working as a security officer for MI6 isn’t about brawn,” states the ad. “It’s about people skills, polite assertiveness, attention to detail and – above all – integrity.”
Exactly how much ‘integrity’ does MI6 think 20 grand buys you in this day and age?
Until next time.