On April 30, 1980, about 44 years ago a group of six terrorists stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and took the diplomatic staff and several bystanders hostages.The hostage-takers were members of an obscure Arab terrorist organization who opposed Ayatollah Khomeini and wanted Iran to give autonomy to Arabistan, or Khuzestan Province, a small but oil-rich province in southwest Iran.Their intrusion would end five days later with a spectacular raid by the UK's top special-operations unit, the Special Air Service (SAS) — turning the now legendary unit into a household name.The message that rocked the world, was this — the SAS shoot to kill, and they don't miss.I bring this up on the heels of an article I read today in The Hub, from former CSIS agent Andrew Kirsch.Kirsch's take was interesting, and so were his concerns.Like many Canadians, Kirsch was stunned by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and senior officials at the foreign interference inquiry hearings say under oath, repeatedly, that they don’t often read CSIS briefs, that they take the intelligence reports with a huge grain of salt, that they don't think CSIS's findings are worth following up on.“There is a certain degree of — I would not say skepticism — but of critical thought that must be applied to any information collected by our security and intelligence services,” explained Prime Minister Trudeau.Says Kirsch: "There has always been a naiveté and complacency about the threats we face in an increasingly dangerous world. Canadians just don’t think much about our security. There is a general attitude of: 'What does anyone want with us?' ""The reality is that our national security is not an accident. It is the result of thousands of men and women in our intelligence community, military, law enforcement, and corporate security, getting up each day and going to work. The safety we enjoy is on some level proof that the system is working. This also means our security is not guaranteed to continue."The threats CSIS is being asked to monitor today are far more nuanced and less visible, said Kirsch, who served a decade as an intelligence officer, leaving in 2016. They involve espionage and sabotage, foreign interference, terrorism and subversion. With the growing belligerence of China and Russia, these threats are greater with each passing day.."During this period when threats are evolving, our security apparatus is left to contend with a political leadership that is hesitant to listen to our warnings and seemingly content with avoiding having to deal with them," he said."Today, I fear that, at a time when their job is more difficult than ever, we may be losing our will to support those who are working to keep us safe. This is a dangerous direction to be going in."Dangerous direction indeed.The latter was all too obvious when the advent of international terrorism as a form of political pressure pushed the SAS, and other similar agencies, to shift focus from direct-action and reconnaissance to counterterrorism and hostage rescue.One only has to look at what is going on in Israel and Gaza, Yemen and Syria, to see the growing risks we face.With a PMO ignorant of intelligence, how long before we too, fall victim to international terrorism. I fear it is only a matter of time.When President Clinton was in the White House, he had an intelligence briefing every day on Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. That was stopped abruptly when President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice took over.The work of CSIS agents who are protecting Canada should not be downplayed, marginalized or worse yet, ignored.Thankfully, SAS was up to the task in 1980.According to a detailed report in the Business Insider, within minutes of the terrorist attack in London, the SAS had been notified and spun up.With the motto "prior planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance," or the Seven Ps, the SAS operators got to work.Red Team was deployed next to the embassy in case they had to go in immediately. Blue Team was stationed in the nearby Regent's Park barracks and could reinforce their teammates if needed.On the fourth day, the SAS managed to pinpoint the location of the hostages on the second floor of the embassy and also locate a definite entry point into the building. Negotiations at this point were still taking place through a talking window.To buy more time, the British government had agreed to broadcast the terrorists' demands on the BBC, the Business Insider reported..Then, as negotiations went on, the terrorists killed one hostage and threw the body on the pavement outside the embassy, threatening to continue executing one hostage every 30 minutes until their demands were met.The executions changed the rules of engagement — the SAS had their green light. Go in, and kill them all.The plan was to breach four entry points simultaneously and flood the building with operators.But on the back of the building, as the SAS operators were rappelling into position, the team leader's zip line became stuck, and another operator accidentally broke a window trying to help him.The noise alerted the terrorists, and the SAS operators were forced to adjust on the fly and storm the second floor without waiting for the other two teams.However, the curtains were lit on fire by the flash-bang grenades and the breaching charges, and the stuck team leader suffered some minor burns. Despite the inconvenience, he still led his team into the breach.The terrorists had barricaded themselves, and once they heard the commotion from the SAS, they started shooting at the hostages, killing one and wounding two.The SAS operators stormed the room and neutralized most of the terrorists.One terrorist disguised himself as a hostage and planned to detonate a grenade in the crowd. A real hostage alerted the SAS operators, however, and they spotted and killed the imposter.The hostage-rescue operation was over in just 17 minutes.Five terrorists were killed and a wounded one was captured. The SAS suffered only one wounded.Operation Nimrod was a success, and because much of it was caught on live television, it propelled the SAS into the public spotlight.While Canada's JTF2 is of the same calibre of Delta Force, SEAL Team 6 and SAS — equivalent counterterrorism and hostage-rescue Tier 1 units — we cannot, and must not, rest on our laurels.There is a warning sign on the road ahead, and former CSIS agent Kirsch did his best to send us a wake-up call.Note that the public inquiry was the result of political pressure caused by the leaking of sensitive information to the media on the growing threats and their continued inaction on foreign interference. Leaks are not a good thing in the intelligence business, but one can only hope that our political leadership will take note, and do the right thing.It's nice to sit back and enjoy the Stanley Cup Playoffs from your couch, my friends. But just remember, that freedom and safety does not come without a cost.One day, I fear our naivety will be shattered.Kirsch's memoir "I Was Never Here: My True Canadian Spy Story of Coffees, Code Names, and Covert Operations" was a national bestseller.— with files from Business Insider & The Hub
On April 30, 1980, about 44 years ago a group of six terrorists stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and took the diplomatic staff and several bystanders hostages.The hostage-takers were members of an obscure Arab terrorist organization who opposed Ayatollah Khomeini and wanted Iran to give autonomy to Arabistan, or Khuzestan Province, a small but oil-rich province in southwest Iran.Their intrusion would end five days later with a spectacular raid by the UK's top special-operations unit, the Special Air Service (SAS) — turning the now legendary unit into a household name.The message that rocked the world, was this — the SAS shoot to kill, and they don't miss.I bring this up on the heels of an article I read today in The Hub, from former CSIS agent Andrew Kirsch.Kirsch's take was interesting, and so were his concerns.Like many Canadians, Kirsch was stunned by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and senior officials at the foreign interference inquiry hearings say under oath, repeatedly, that they don’t often read CSIS briefs, that they take the intelligence reports with a huge grain of salt, that they don't think CSIS's findings are worth following up on.“There is a certain degree of — I would not say skepticism — but of critical thought that must be applied to any information collected by our security and intelligence services,” explained Prime Minister Trudeau.Says Kirsch: "There has always been a naiveté and complacency about the threats we face in an increasingly dangerous world. Canadians just don’t think much about our security. There is a general attitude of: 'What does anyone want with us?' ""The reality is that our national security is not an accident. It is the result of thousands of men and women in our intelligence community, military, law enforcement, and corporate security, getting up each day and going to work. The safety we enjoy is on some level proof that the system is working. This also means our security is not guaranteed to continue."The threats CSIS is being asked to monitor today are far more nuanced and less visible, said Kirsch, who served a decade as an intelligence officer, leaving in 2016. They involve espionage and sabotage, foreign interference, terrorism and subversion. With the growing belligerence of China and Russia, these threats are greater with each passing day.."During this period when threats are evolving, our security apparatus is left to contend with a political leadership that is hesitant to listen to our warnings and seemingly content with avoiding having to deal with them," he said."Today, I fear that, at a time when their job is more difficult than ever, we may be losing our will to support those who are working to keep us safe. This is a dangerous direction to be going in."Dangerous direction indeed.The latter was all too obvious when the advent of international terrorism as a form of political pressure pushed the SAS, and other similar agencies, to shift focus from direct-action and reconnaissance to counterterrorism and hostage rescue.One only has to look at what is going on in Israel and Gaza, Yemen and Syria, to see the growing risks we face.With a PMO ignorant of intelligence, how long before we too, fall victim to international terrorism. I fear it is only a matter of time.When President Clinton was in the White House, he had an intelligence briefing every day on Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. That was stopped abruptly when President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice took over.The work of CSIS agents who are protecting Canada should not be downplayed, marginalized or worse yet, ignored.Thankfully, SAS was up to the task in 1980.According to a detailed report in the Business Insider, within minutes of the terrorist attack in London, the SAS had been notified and spun up.With the motto "prior planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance," or the Seven Ps, the SAS operators got to work.Red Team was deployed next to the embassy in case they had to go in immediately. Blue Team was stationed in the nearby Regent's Park barracks and could reinforce their teammates if needed.On the fourth day, the SAS managed to pinpoint the location of the hostages on the second floor of the embassy and also locate a definite entry point into the building. Negotiations at this point were still taking place through a talking window.To buy more time, the British government had agreed to broadcast the terrorists' demands on the BBC, the Business Insider reported..Then, as negotiations went on, the terrorists killed one hostage and threw the body on the pavement outside the embassy, threatening to continue executing one hostage every 30 minutes until their demands were met.The executions changed the rules of engagement — the SAS had their green light. Go in, and kill them all.The plan was to breach four entry points simultaneously and flood the building with operators.But on the back of the building, as the SAS operators were rappelling into position, the team leader's zip line became stuck, and another operator accidentally broke a window trying to help him.The noise alerted the terrorists, and the SAS operators were forced to adjust on the fly and storm the second floor without waiting for the other two teams.However, the curtains were lit on fire by the flash-bang grenades and the breaching charges, and the stuck team leader suffered some minor burns. Despite the inconvenience, he still led his team into the breach.The terrorists had barricaded themselves, and once they heard the commotion from the SAS, they started shooting at the hostages, killing one and wounding two.The SAS operators stormed the room and neutralized most of the terrorists.One terrorist disguised himself as a hostage and planned to detonate a grenade in the crowd. A real hostage alerted the SAS operators, however, and they spotted and killed the imposter.The hostage-rescue operation was over in just 17 minutes.Five terrorists were killed and a wounded one was captured. The SAS suffered only one wounded.Operation Nimrod was a success, and because much of it was caught on live television, it propelled the SAS into the public spotlight.While Canada's JTF2 is of the same calibre of Delta Force, SEAL Team 6 and SAS — equivalent counterterrorism and hostage-rescue Tier 1 units — we cannot, and must not, rest on our laurels.There is a warning sign on the road ahead, and former CSIS agent Kirsch did his best to send us a wake-up call.Note that the public inquiry was the result of political pressure caused by the leaking of sensitive information to the media on the growing threats and their continued inaction on foreign interference. Leaks are not a good thing in the intelligence business, but one can only hope that our political leadership will take note, and do the right thing.It's nice to sit back and enjoy the Stanley Cup Playoffs from your couch, my friends. But just remember, that freedom and safety does not come without a cost.One day, I fear our naivety will be shattered.Kirsch's memoir "I Was Never Here: My True Canadian Spy Story of Coffees, Code Names, and Covert Operations" was a national bestseller.— with files from Business Insider & The Hub
