This five-day course is essential for any individual or organization
whose area of responsibility is the Middle East and/or
terrorism.
The
seminar will provide a foundation for the students to
understand and interpret events that are currently unfolding
in the Middle East and the missions, operations and
methodologies of the key Middle Eastern intelligence and
counterintelligence services. Also, this seminar will
examine the operations and methodologies of terrorist
organizations that have spawned in the region.
The
first day covers the roots of today’s civilizational
conflict with the Islamist jihad—the political
beginnings of Islam and Islamic doctrine—and how this
political ideology continues to define the actions of Muslim
terrorists today. The next three days cover the intelligence
and counterintelligence services of four key Middle Eastern
countries: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. The course
looks at case studies to understand these services’
operations in and out of their own countries, and especially
in the United States. The final day is a powerful insider’s
look at the kind of tradecraft and operations security
terrorists use in conducting terrorist operations. This
first-hand insight is provided by an individual
with intimate knowledge of secular and sectarian terrorists
organizations.
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Why do you need
to understand Middle Eastern intelligence
services and terrorist organizations?
September 11, 2001 changed the nation’s views of
conflict and threats in a fundamental and
profound way. For 10 years, from the collapse of
the Soviet Union in 1991 to 2001, many elements
of US society viewed the world as devoid of real
danger. All national security agencies
experienced dramatic cuts in their funding and,
as a result, in their professional development
training programs. Despite a number of high
profile terrorist attacks during this period,
the vast majority of the US national
intelligence and national defense communities
were trained and focused on the threats of the
Cold War.
As a result of Congressional investigations of
the US intelligence community in 1975, the FBI
began to manage all terrorist investigations
under its Criminal Division. This required a
criminal predicate to begin an investigation.
This practice continued until the mid-1990s. As
a result, development of expertise on the Middle
East and Islam within the US national security
communities was stunted. This problem was
compounded by the fact that beginning in 1979,
Saudi Arabia began to provide large grants to US
universities to teach Middle Eastern study
programs. The majority of these university
programs provided an incorrect, misinformed, or
biased view of the nature of Islam and the
Middle East in general. Students of Middle
Eastern studies were then hired into the
government, the media, influential think
tanks, and as new university professors. The
result was that when the US was attacked on
September 11, American society as a whole did
not understand why or how to respond to this
“new war.”
A war has been declared against the United
States and Western civilization by individuals
who proudly identify themselves as modern day
Jihadists. This enemy has stated unambiguously
that they fight jihad in the furtherance
of Islamic causes. They have repeatedly declared
unequivocally on film, video, in public
speeches, and on the Internet that their goal is
to destroy our way of life. We are obligated to
respond to this threat, accepting the terrorists
at their word as to motivation and intent, and
acknowledging that their doctrine, even if it is
based on false assumptions on the part of the
terrorist, is a powerful motivator for their
actions.
Why didn't we know?
Jihad vs Education
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Course Topics
© Copyright
The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security
Studies/David G. Major Associates, Inc.
Day One: Introduction to the Middle East and Islam
This
seminar begins with a detailed discussion of the events
surrounding the establishment of today’s Middle Eastern
nations and the root causes of conflicts in the region. Key
to this discussion will be an exploration of the essential
incongruity between ancient Arab/Muslim concepts of ummah
and Caliphate and the perceived artificiality of arbitrary
new national borders and objectives. The course will also
explore the formation of the various religious-based and
secular terrorist organizations operating in the Middle
East.
Between
1918 and 1936, the majority of modern-day Middle Eastern
statal entities, such as the Palestine British Mandate,
Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, and a freer Egypt and Lebanon were
established by Great Britain and France. Most of these
countries were granted independence only after terrorist
operations were directed against Britain and France in the
region. The background behind, the rationale for, and the
importance of Israel are essential to understand the Middle
East today.
The
emergence of the Saudi dynasty began in central Arabia in
1744. That year, Muhammad bin Saud, the ruler of the town of
Ad-Dir'iyyah near Riyadh, joined forces with a deeply
reactionary Muslim cleric, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, to
set about conquering the Hijaz or heartland of the
Arab Peninsula. This alliance formed in the 18th century
remains the basis of Saudi Arabian dynastic rule today.
The
significance of the 1948, 1957, 1967, 1973, 1982 and 2006
wars between the Arab countries in the region and Israel and
their impact on the Islamic world are explained in detail.
These events had a direct impact on the growth of
Islamic-based terrorism in the modern era. The importance of
the various events of 1979, including the Iranian
Revolution, the emergence of Shi’a based terrorism, and the
terrorist organization Hezbollah, is examined and put in
context to understand the full complexity of today’s
Jihadist threat.
An
introduction to the Jihadist mindset and Islamic Doctrine is
essential to understand their influence and impact not only
on the Middle East and surrounding region, but in the
context of international security overall.
Day Two: Introduction to Israeli Intelligence Services
This
segment is designed to provide an introduction to the
origins of the Israeli intelligence services and
intelligence community, their evolution, structure,
leadership, missions, and operational methods, as well as
successes and failures.
To
understand Israeli intelligence, it is essential to
understand that its intelligence services have been at war
with deadly outside threats since before Israel’s formation
in 1948. The role of Israeli intelligence in the four
conventional Israeli-Arab Wars between 1947 and 1973 and the
terrorism war to the present are examined. Grasping these
basics will provide the students a deep understanding of why
“human intelligence is king” in the Israeli intelligence
services and why the motto of the Mossad is “Everything is
Possible.” How Israeli intelligence and counterintelligence
services operate worldwide and recruit support agents to
fulfill high-risk and dramatic intelligence operations is
discussed. The course examines the operational imperative of
Israeli intelligence. Numerous high and low profile
worldwide Israeli intelligence operations are examined to
illustrate the methods of operation and the trademark
aggressiveness of the Israeli intelligence style. The day
attempts to address “How you might see the world if you were
in Israeli Intelligence or were an Israeli citizen, and how
you would respond.”
Day Three: Iraq and Saudi Arabia Intelligence Service
The
Iraqi intelligence Service
- IIS [Mukhabarat]
was also known as the Department of General Intelligence or
the General Directorate of Intelligence (Al-Mukhabarat
Al-A'ma)
Iraq’s
intelligence service operations and cooperation with foreign
intelligence services and Middle East terror organizations
prior to the 2003 launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom will be
examined, including a discussion of the extensive network of
Iraqi spies operating in the US prior to March 2003. The key
role the counterintelligence service played in the rise to
power of Saddam Hussein as well as the function of Iraq’s
Mukhabarat in maintaining iron-fisted domestic control
of a police state will be examined. The broad range of
relationships between Saddam’s Mukhabarat and a
spectrum of international intelligence services (especially
the USSR/Russia’s) will be explored, both for the transfer
of ideology, tactics, and methods from which Iraq benefited,
as well as to appreciate the magnitude of decades of deadly
coordination among them. The integral role of Iraq’s
Mukhabarat in developing, concealing, and transferring
Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction out of Iraq will be
discussed. It is hoped that an understanding of the power
and scope of activity of the Iraq services will provide
insight into some of Iraq’s current-day problems. (1/2 Day)
Saudi
Arabian Intelligence Services
The
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services have been
working closely with the United States against the terrorist
threats posed by Al Qaeda. However, the Kingdom has an
agenda which is often at odds with US policy and their
intelligence services are a key element in pursuing this
agenda. The seminar provides an overview of periods in Saudi
history which have impacted how the security services are
used; the services’ organization and leadership; and case
studies which are used to illustrate the services’ efforts
to advance the Kingdom’s agenda.
The principal
Saudi Arabian intelligence services (Mabahith, Mukhabarat)
Military and SNSC operating against the US, intelligence
services’ organization and leadership are discussed along
with examples of specific cases. (1/2 Day)
Day Four: Iranian Intelligence Services
The
Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) or Vizarat-e
Ettela’at va Amniat-e Keshvar (VEVAK)
We
will examine the origins, structure, capabilities,
methodologies, and operations of the Iranian intelligence
service. Case studies of some of the MOIS/VEVAK’s most
notorious operations will illustrate these concepts.
Beginning with the modern history of Iran and the Shah’s
SAVAK, which viewed many of its own nationals as enemies of
the state, we will discuss how the Shah was overthrown and
Khomeini took power, transforming Iran into a theocratic
Shi’a police state. These events led to a closer
relationship between a rogues gallery of Islamic terrorist
groups (including Sunni groups) and Iranian intelligence.
The segment explores these relationships and implications
for the world today, as well as the efforts by Iran to
control its own increasingly dissatisfied citizens. Iranian
technology acquisitions and collection targets, as well as
targets of influence in the US, the Middle East, and around
the world are also explored with a special view to
infiltration of American academic, government, media, and
NGO communities. The relationship between the nature of
Iran’s clerical regime and its reliance on brutal
intelligence services to maintain domestic control and
project power regionally and internationally will be
discussed in depth. The key role of ideology in the Islamic
Republic of Iran; Iran’s Constitution (with its legal
imperative to spread Velayat-e Faqih); and
coordination among the MOIS, IRGC, Bassij, Ansar-e
Hezbollah and other elements of Iran’s intelligence
apparatus are each covered in depth.
Day Five: Secular and Islamic
Terrorist Organizations Operating in the Middle East
The
last segment is taught by an individual with recent and
detailed insight into Hezbollah. Over
the past thirty years, he has had extraordinary access to a
number of Middle Eastern terrorist organizations and
personalities. He shares direct knowledge of the historic
operations of several of these most notorious Mid-Eastern
“terrorist” groups and personalities and discusses the
details of how terrorists conduct their tradecraft, OPSEC,
and operations. He will explain the differences between al
Qaeda / Hezbollah / other terrorist organizations. He also
provides unique insight into Middle Eastern culture.
Brian
Weidner
"K"