Surveillance Countermeasures: A Serious Guide to ... - Paladin Press

CONTENTS1Introduction toSurveillance Countermeasures 12SurveillanceCountermeasures Overview 53Surveillance Principles and Tactics 114Observation 335Passive PhysicalSurveillance Detection 476Active Physical SurveillanceDetection Overview 777Active Stakeout and ObservationPost Detection Measures 878Active VehicularSurveillance Detection 1019Active FootSurveillance Detection 11510Countersurveillance 127V

11Technical Surveillance Detection 13912Physical Antisurveillance 15513Antitechnical Surveillance 177VISurveillance Countermeasures

C H A P T E R 1INTRODUCTIONTOSURVEILLANCECOUNTER-MEASURESThis book was originally publishedduring the last decade ofthe 20th century. Since that time,there has been an unanticipated proliferationof hostile covert elementsthat has significantly increased thethreat to citizens, businesses, andnational security interests of theUnited States and other democraticnations, both at home and abroad. Forthis reason, this book’s applicabilityhas broadened significantly from theoriginal target audience of a smallcore of security professionals to virtuallyeveryone.The techniques in this work weredocumented shortly after the conclusionof the Cold War and were in largepart intended as a tribute to the legacyof the cloak-and-dagger intrigue thatcharacterized that era. In those bipolardays, adversaries generally exercisedmutual protocols in a highstakesgentlemen’s game of spy versusspy. Even in the world of internationalterrorism during the previous era,there was a relatively rigid distinctionbetween what were considered “legitimate”targets and off-limit targets(such as innocent civilians) thatwould result in negative sentimentstoward the terrorist cause.Today, terrorist and espionageoperatives are less discriminate aboutthe individuals they target, and criminalorganizations have become lessrestrained in order to compete in theincreasingly unscrupulous globalcrime market. These factors, coupled1

with the dynamics of globalization, are responsible for a muchmore dangerous world for many more people. As a general rule,there are no rules, and no one is exempt.The new reality of the contemporary environment is characterizedby a wide range of unconstrained and asymmetric threatsthat act with relatively less regard to consequence. In the past 15years, we have experienced the development of a much more pervasiveand dangerous “underworld”—one that threatens a muchbroader stratum of society. Now there is a plethora of acutethreats to the personal privacy and security of average citizens,including common criminals and stalkers, private and corporateinvestigative elements, international crime and terrorist organizations,government-sponsored espionage agencies, and, ofcourse, radical Islamic terrorists who view all nonbelievers ofIslam as infidels and enemies and therefore legitimate targets.In virtually all cases, the elements that threaten individual,corporate, or national security conduct surveillance operations tofurther their objectives or as the primary means to an end. Intoday’s hazardous environment, security professionals mustunderstand the threat and be able to advise clients regarding theappropriate countermeasures to protect against a hostile surveillanceeffort. The average citizen, too, has a vested interest inunderstanding the concepts of surveillance countermeasures thatcan enhance personal security.At the most basic level, criminals will “case” potential targets todevelop information to maximize their probability of success incommitting a crime. Sophisticated criminal organizations will conductmore extensive surveillance efforts to develop information onindividuals they intend to intimidate, exploit, or terminate.Terrorist organizations conduct comprehensive preoperational surveillanceto maximize the probability of successful attacks. Inpreparation for criminal or terrorist acts, surveillance is employedto determine when and where the target is most vulnerable.Methods of international espionage have become much moreaggressive toward nonmilitary and nongovernment targets. To alarge degree, the intelligence services of foreign countries, bothfriend and foe, are competing in a global war based on economics.With less emphasis on military advantage and more on economicstrength, the number of individuals who are vulnerable to espionage2 Surveillance Countermeasures

ecause of business affiliations is vastly increased. This expandingthreat is further compounded by the ever-increasing practice ofindustrial espionage conducted between competing businesses.Criminal, terrorist, and espionage organizations also employ surveillancein support of efforts to recruit or coerce individuals to provideinformation or other types of support. To this end, surveillanceis employed to develop exploitable information on unwitting individuals.Those confronted with exploitable evidence developedthrough surveillance may be forced to cooperate rather than riskhaving the information disclosed to their families, employers, or thepublic. Attributes and vices such as infidelity, homosexuality, alcoholism,and drug abuse are some common examples of the limitlessoptions possible for such blackmail operations. As a corollary, themajority of surveillance activities conducted by private investigativeagencies are undertaken to confirm or deny whether an individual isconducting similar types of activities. Even individuals with noreadily exploitable attributes can be manipulated into compromisingsituations to develop the leverage necessary for coercion.Regardless of the nature of the threat, surveillance can bedetected and defeated through the effective use of surveillancecountermeasures. This book addresses the principles that havedeveloped into time-proven methods of countering the mostsophisticated surveillance techniques. Importantly in this age ofterrorism, the very same surveillance countermeasures that areapplicable to the detection of preoperational surveillance canprove critical when hostile elements are actually in the act of acrime or attack. This is the point when operators must exposethemselves and are consequently most vulnerable to detection.Proficiency in the techniques of observation and surveillancecountermeasures is an effective means to prevent the act orenable individuals to avoid the threat when in harm’s way.Surveillance countermeasures can be categorized as either surveillancedetection or antisurveillance. The former is employed todetect the presence of a possible or suspected surveillance, whilethe latter is employed to elude a suspected or detected surveillance.Both methods are further categorized into distinct disciplines.In general terms, surveillance can be categorized as either physicalor technical. Accordingly, surveillance countermeasures can beeither physical or technical, based on the nature of threat. PhysicalIntroduction to Surveillance Countermeasures3

surveillance requires the direct involvement of the human element,which simply means that it must involve physical observation of thetarget by an individual or a team of surveillants. For this reason,physical surveillance assumes a degree of exposure of the effort tothe individual under surveillance. Surveillance countermeasures areemployed to maximize this exposure or to force surveillance operatorsto terminate contact in order to avoid exposure. Technical surveillanceuses such equipment as remotely monitored video cameras,listening devises or “bugs,” telephone monitors or “taps,” andmotion-monitoring beaconing devices to observe, monitor, orrecord the target’s activities. Technical surveillance devices are vulnerableto both physical inspection and technical detection.While the technical-surveillance concepts detailed in thisbook are still largely relevant, based on the emergent threat environmentthe physical surveillance countermeasures addressedherein have become invaluable. Many elements that conduct surveillanceactivities are either unable or unwilling to rely heavilyon technical surveillance means, primarily because of the sophisticationof technical detection capabilities and the unacceptablerisk of compromise. For this reason, the majority rely exclusivelyon the time-tested physical techniques that involve human operatorswho can think, react, and terminate the surveillance if necessaryrather than compromise an operation.Again, based on the new reality, the techniques documented inthis book are more widely applicable to security professionals andvulnerable citizens than when originally presented in 1994. In fact,the U.S. National Intelligence Council’s 2020 Project, titled“Mapping the Global Future,” predicts a steady increase in threats toa wide range of individuals based on the disturbing trend of “pervasiveinsecurity”—one that is expected to continue well into the secondquarter of the 21st century. As a parting and practical example,in May 2000, an al Qaeda terrorist organization training manual wasseized in a safe house in Europe. One of the manual’s chapters is dedicatedto covert surveillance and addresses the development and utilizationof exploitable information as a primary method of coercingindividuals into support of the cause. As a testament to the enduringrelevance of this text, each of the surveillance techniques addressedin the terrorist training manual are detailed in this book, with correspondingand exacting countermeasures.4 Surveillance Countermeasures