Another Private “Counter Terror” Organisation

Here’s an item of interest from October:

The 5th Annual Homeland Security Professionals Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, hosted by The Counter Terrorist Magazine, was a complete success. “At a time when there is increasing evidence of home-grown terrorism and viable bombs being sent from Yemen, we were extremely proud that it felt like ‘it was the counter terrorism equivalent of Harvard,’ according to one participant,” said Sol Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International, the publishers of The Counter Terrorist Magazine.

…Security Solutions International (SSI) has helped more than 800 Federal, State and local agencies to prevent prepare and respond to the asymmetrical threat of organized crime, gangs, drug cartels, terrorist organizations, disease and natural disasters since 2004.

Security Solutions International also provides the professional First Responder community with the leading media in the field as the publishers of The Counter Terrorist Magazine, The Counter Terrorist Newsletter, webinars and interactive learning, as well as the Annual Homeland Security Professionals Conference – the central event in the First Responder calendar. The company has been contracted to provide content for the newly established, first in the nation, Homeland Security Network which debuted in October 2010.

The Counter Terrorist Magazine is distributed to members of the ICTOA; according to a 2008 press release:

The ICTOA (International Counter Terror Officers Association) has made the Counter Terrorist magazine a welcomed addition to their quarterly newsletter for all of its members. The magazine like the newsletter will be issued to all existing and incoming members. “We are very proud of this achievement,” says Solomon Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International (SSI) the publishers of the Counter Terrorist Magazine. “The Counter Terrorist magazine is the official journal of the Homeland Security Professional and is privileged to be the official magazine of the ICTOA,” whose members are on the front lines of the war on terror both here and internationally.”

I blogged on the ICTOA last month; the organisation co-sponsored an unofficial “memorial” event near Fort Hood organised by self-proclaimed “ex-terrorist” Walid Shoebat and featuring, among others, William Boykin and Robert Spencer (who kept his involvement low-key). Shoebat and Boykin are both known for their views about Islam’s Satanic role in an apocalyptic conflict with Christianity leading up to the End Times (Shoebat teaches that the Bible predicts a “Muslim anti-Christ”). I noted the ICTOA’s links to the weird “Griffith Colson Intelligence Service”, which is itself a “division” of the Securitas Global Group (SGG).

SSI, meanwhile, has received some critical comment in the past. The Seattle Times reported in 2008:

Some local Muslim community members are upset about a training course for local law enforcement, saying it could promote stereotypes and ethnic and religious profiling.

The program, called “The Threat of Islamic Jihadists to the World” and conducted by a Miami-based company, began Thursday and continues today at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission campus in Burien.

…Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the program appears to be linking an entire religion to terrorism.

…But Solomon Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International, which is conducting the program, said, “I can’t take the responsibility of my course linking their religion to terrorism. I think their religion got linked to terrorism a long time ago.”

The purpose of the course, Bradman said, is to teach officers how to protect people from terrorism. His company has provided training to hundreds of agencies, including the FBI, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

The two-day program covers some of the history of Islam to provide an “understanding of the terror mind-set and reasons for global jihad,” Bradman said. It’s not intended to be an all-inclusive course on Islam.

The SSI website promotes the Clarion Fund’s Obsession DVD, using an endorsement for the documentary from Glenn Beck. Alongside Bradman as CEO, the President is a certain Henry Morgenstern, who, according to his blurb, has

pioneered the Homeland Security training in Israel, a program that has taken more than 400 Homeland Security Professionals to Israel…

An internationally recognized consultant on issues related to counter-terrorism training for law enforcement officials and First Response teams, he has briefed NorthCom and many law enforcement agencies on terror threats. His book, (edited with Ophir Falk) Suicide Terror; understanding and confronting the threat has become a textbook on dealing with Suicide bombers.

Details of the book, which is a serious work published by Wiley, can be seen here. His co-editor, Falk, is with the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. Falk takes a relatively hawkish view on the West Bank, asserting that the Bible is evidence that “Jews have a right to live in Judea and Samaria” but acknowledging that it is also home to the Palestinians.

The SSI’s Homeland Security Network, meanwhile, has a website here. According to its blurb:

This network addresses the needs of more than 3 million Homeland Security First Responders by providing an information backbone that is completely secure (law enforcement sensitive) that offers an efficient, private-industry alternative to the disparate and fragmented sources now available at the Federal, State and Local level. ALL CONTENT WILL BE COMPLETELY FREE. Private industry with products and services designed to make the difficult mission of the First Responder easier and more efficient will support the Network.

According to a list of press releases, the network has made links with a number of organisations: Homeland Security Television (“HSTV currently supports two major Department of Homeland Security training and education efforts through its relationship with Total Security Services International Inc.”); Alert Publishing Inc. (“From communications to defensive tactics and on up to the use of lethal force, ALERT Publishing uses expertise and experience to properly train police officers”); Armed Response Training (“The Armed Response Video Training Series by David Kenik and Ralph Mroz is by far THE most comprehensive and complete resource available!”); Richard A. Ganey II (“Ganey is well-known throughout the Homeland Security sector at the Federal, State and local levels.  As a person who has worked at the level of elite units both here in the US and in Israel, Ganey brings expertise”; he also heads Blue Diamond Consulting and Training); Line of Duty Learning (“vast Streaming Video Library and E-Learning Courseware”); S2 Online Inc. (“S2 has developed highlyspecialized, multimedia training programs that it offers via the Internet to students who are in the military, the private security industry, and law enforcement”); and Emergency Film Group.

(Some links H/T Right Web)