The recent hostage drama in Algeria that involved the kidnapping of hundreds of foreign and local workers at the BP Amenas gas plant reminds us not only of the mindset of extremists but also how our situational awareness these days needs to extend to changing regional events. Ibn Warraq said, “Americans tend to think that deep down we all have the same values. Americans believe that all these terrorists, if you scratch beneath the surface, are looking for religious equality and justice. That’s complete and utter nonsense. Americans can’t face the reality that different people have different values.” – (Ibn Warraq; Why I am Not a Muslim. 1995)
It also highlights how unconventional threats can get inside our Observe – Orient-Decide-Act Loop very quickly to destroy all previously held assumptions and frameworks we had established to protect our staff and assets. The OODA Loop was devised by United States Air force pilot, Col. John Boyd (1927 – 1997). He developed the concept to assist fighter pilots in directing their energies to the defeat of an adversary and survival. While in antithesis to Western democratic rules such as the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, the Algerian Government’s response was a good example of how difficult cultural responses to threats need to be factored into security planning for large scale emergencies. The Algerian Government knew exactly how to get inside the kidnappers own OODA Loop.
While the current climate in the your particular project area may be benign for now events in neighbouring countries or other hotspots around the world can ignite local extremists looking for a cause and therefore shift the security preparedness for those who travel and work to foreign countries.
France’s military assault on the Islamic extremists in Mali, who have direct links with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM), Ansar Dine the Tuareg insurgency and a group calling itself the Movement For Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) should have set off a warning light on the dashboard of the security operations across all Western businesses in the region. Companies such as BP who operate in Algeria, Chad, Libya, Nigeria, Morocco
and other neighbouring countries should not have assumed their long term presence and social licence to operate would protect them from jihadists. This has nothing to do with indigenous rights or arguments over the value of land and a company’s corporate social responsibility programs mean little to the minds of extremists.
That said, even though there looks like a direct link between the military attack by France on the jihadists in Mali, the sophistication and scale of the Algerian attack, knowledge of the facility and employees travel indicates that this may have been planned well before… To read the whole article, subscribe today or use our retail finder to purchase a copy from your closest store.
