TERRORISM AIMED AT MULTINATIONALS MAKES RISK CONTROL GROWTH INDUSTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100060003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 15, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
15 April 1985
TERRORISM AIMED AT MULTINATIONALS MAKES RISK CONTROL GROWTH INDUS
BY LEON DANIEL
WASHINGTON
R000100060003-4
Corporations increasingly are turning to security consulting firms that
specialize in risk control for protection against international. terrorism.
Multinational firms spend big money to protect their executives from
assassins, kidnappers, extortionists, bombers and hijackers.
Risk control became a growth industry during the 1970s when kidnappings
prompted multinationals to buy ransom insurance. In turn, insurance firms paid
consultants to teach corporations how to avoid becoming victims.
Consulting firms formed by former intelligence agents now operate throughout
the world providing ris analysis, protection of personnel and property and
even hosts a recovery services. some of them provide bodyguards n broad
range of courses covering such techniQues as evasive driving.
Spokesmen for these companies say some of the Latin American countries are
now among the world's most dangerous places to do business.
Lebanon is the highest-risk country in the Middle East, where the consultants
say terrorism has increased along with the resurgence in Islamic fundamentalism.
In Western Europe, militant Marxist groups are a worsening threat to
companies with contracts to supply weaponry to member countries of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization.
in South Africa, where apartheid policies have triggered violence and
prompted calls from abroad for disinvestment., the consultants expect terrorism
to increase.
No place in the world is immune to politically inspired terrorism. Kidnappers
of expatriate executives can be Moslem fanatics in Beirut or Tamil separatists
in Sri Lanka.
There is a growing tendency for kidnappers to grab middle-level as well as
top executives because the former are not as well protected. Increasingly,
potential victims include missionaries., teachers and journalists.
There also has been a rise in extortion cases, such as when terrorists
threaten to contaminate products unless manufacturing firms pay a ransom.
The security consulting field is dominated by two firms -- Control Risks Ltd.
of London, and Ackerman and Palumbo Inc. of Miami -- but the surge in terrorism
has spawned a dozen or so smaller ones.
Peter J. Goss, director of the Washington area office for Control Risks,
still looks for all the world like what he was -- an officer for 30 years in the
British Army who once headed military intelligence in Singapore. His colleagues
in the firm include former members of the secret British. commando unit known as
the Special Air Service.
Continued
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1-77.
Goss has the direct gaze of a man who is accustomed to asking tough questions
and getting correct answers.
''Certainly there is an increase in terrorism affecting corporations,'' Goss
said in an interview in his office in suburban Bethesda, Md.
His firm has a reputation for handling kidnappings successfully by dealing
with the kidnappers, advising on how to handle ransom demands, working with
police investigators and even dealing with the press while the victim is held.
''We've dealt with more than 150 major extortions,'' said Goss, whose firm
charges about $1,400 a day for a negotiator in such cases. ''Over 90 of these
were long-term kidnappings.. In most cases the victims return alive, although in
some 10 percent of incidents worldwide the victims may be harmed or killed.''
E.C. ''Mike'' Ackerman of the Miami-based firm also claims expertise in
recovery of hostages. But, like Goss, the former CIA operative emphasizes
preventive measures to preclude terrorist acts.
''Our thrust is predictive,'' said Ackerman, whose firm serves more than half
of America's ''Fortune 500" companies.
Rpth Control Risks and Ackerman & Palumbo offer clients regular assessments
on terrorist activities throughout the world. The assessments are based on
intelligence gathered in various countries from experts, as well as on
information in the pubic domain, such as press reports.
We follow communiques issued by the terrorists themselves,'' Ackerman said
in a telephone interview. ''We find terrorists often do exactly what they say
they will do.''
Ackerman's firm has begun working with architects in the field of ''security
design.
''Security needs to be built into a building,'' Ackerman said. ''If you're
trying to protect a plant in Lebanon, you would need a moving barrier to protect
against a suicide truck bomber. But you don't need that for a plant in
Connecticut.''
Corporations pay firms like his, Ackerman said, ''because security affects
their bottom line.''
Eugene Mastrangelo, an analyst who tracks data for Risks International Inc.
of Arlington, Va., a suburb of Washington, offers statistical evidence that
there has been a significant increase in international terrorism, particularly
in acts targeting businesses.
His figures show 3,525 terrorist incidents worldwide last year, compared to
2,838 in 1983. Last year, businesses were targeted 1,205 times, compared to 760
such incidents the previous year, Mastrangelo said.
He said Chile led the top 10 countries in terrorist incidents, followed by
Peru, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, India, Lebanon, Spain, Northern Ireland
and Sri Lanka.
ContDU
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Mastrangelo said 63 percent of the 22,171 incidents he has recorded since
1970 have occurred during the past five years.
He acknowledged many incidents are not reported but said his statistics can
disclose patterns in terrorist activity.
'You can establish a track record for terrorist groups,'' he said.
''Knowledge is power."
Mastrangelo and other security consultants say there is a trend for
terrorists to shift their attacks from government and military installations to
business targets.
"Companies are cranking the terrorism factor into the cost of doing
business,'' Mastrangelo said.
''We are now dealing with a more sophisticated, better armed, more seasoned
group of terrorists. These people are willing to take risks. They are not just
leaving unattended bombs now. They are willing to come onto the scene, to throw
the bomb. They are willing to fight it out with security forces.
''They are dedicated. The average age of terrorists in West Germany now is in
the 30s. They are veterans who have been at their trade for over a decade. Now
they are beginning to recruit a new generation.
''What this means is that the inept ones are in jail but the good ones are
still on the street. The veterans don't engage unless they think they're going
to win. They do a lot of reconnais.ance."
Mastrangelo said that if experienced terrorists observe that a targeted
person continually varies his movements and is protected by bodyguards they may
not strike.
''The frustrating thing in this business," he said, ''is that we never know
how many attacks are thwarted.''
.Mike Ackerman knows about frustration. In 1975, after 11 years of CIA work
took him to 20 countries throughout a in America, Europe and rica, e
resigned in protest against congressional investigation o e agency, claiming
the pra a "neutralized" is ''operational effectiveness.''
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At the firm he founded, Ackerman preaches that the best defense against
terrorism aimed at businesses is " a trained, alert, concerned executive. "
He contends that sophisticated terrorist groups are ''simply not intimidated
by small bodyguard complements. They can always muster sufficient firepower to
overcome .them,"
Ackerman and other consultants agree that terrorists tend to select their
targets from among the more visible individuals and companies.
They urge their clients to blend into their surroundings, avoid publicity and
to be as unpredictable in their movements as possible. Regular pursuits, such as
jogging, are discouraged.
Executives, their staffs and families are taught how to recognize when they
are under surveillance.
Despite such efforts, there still is a worldwide proliferation of kidnappings
and much disagreement on how to deal with kidnappers.
The U.S. State Department will not help in ransom negotiations on the ground
that paying the kidnappers off only leads to more kidnappings.
Some foreign governments simply concentrate on trying to kill the terrorist
culprits to preclude thier using ransom money to buy arms -- a strategy that
puts the kidnap victim in grave danger.
Once an executive is kidnapped, the process becomes a deadly game of nerves,
with the kidnappers often threatening to kill the hostage unless a ransom is
paid.
Kidnappers sometimes send tape recordings of the hostage pleading for his
life, a tactic that might prompt his shaken colleagues to offer to pay up to end
the ordeal. Then the kidnappers might simply double their demand.
Higher than usual ransoms in a particular area can prompt a wave of
subsequent, kidnappings.
Although hostages usually are recovered, most kidnappers are not apprehended.
In the field of risk control, the goal is prevention of terrorism.
That is why Ackerman, who still talks like the CIA operative he was, says
things like, "Our thrust is predictive.''
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