The SAS+ Security Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Yourself Safe at Home & Abroad

Contents

The new and fully updated and expanded edition of the bestselling security classic

About Andrew Kain

Introduction

SECURITY IN THE HOME

SECURITY IN THE STREET

SECURITY IN THE CAR

SECURITY ABROAD

BUSINESS SECURITY

SECURITY IN HOSTILE REGIONS

Warranty and disclaimer of liability

PUBLISHING INFORMATION

The new and fully updated and expanded edition of the bestselling security classic

Written by renowned ex-SAS security expert Andrew Kain, this handbook provides the most reliable, authoritative and respected security information on the market. Don’t leave home without it on your smartphone, laptop or ereader!

Andrew Kain served in the SAS for 11 years, leaving in 1990 to set up AKE Group, a world leader in its field of risk mitigation. In this fully updated edition he shares his much sought-after security experience, knowledge and techniques – preparing you for anything, anywhere in the world.

In The SAS + SECURITY HANDBOOK the insight and expertise that has made the SAS respected throughout the world has now been applied to every aspect of personal security:

SECURITY IN THE HOME

SECURITY IN THE STREET

SECURITY IN THE CAR

SECURITY ABROAD

GAP YEAR TRAVEL

TERRORISM

BUSINESS SECURITY

SECURITY IN HOSTILE REGIONS

Whatever your security concerns, The SAS + SECURITY HANDBOOK will ensure you get the basics right.

Featuring valuable case studies and security scenarios, it teaches practical lessons that will reduce your chances of becoming a victim, to help you reassert control over your life.

About Andrew Kain

Andrew Kain joined 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment - 2 Para - in 1973. Five years later, he passed SAS Selection, going on to spend the next eleven years as a Special Forces soldier. He saw active service in theatres as diverse as the Falklands, Northern Ireland and Middle East; he was an instructor on the SAS counter-terrorist team and also worked with other government and law-enforcement agencies, developing specialist techniques still in use today. His skills also helped to save lives and he has a testimonial from the Royal Humane Society in tribute to his work.

After leaving the Special Air Service, Andrew worked as a security consultant and later founded AKE Ltd in 1991, providing security services and advice based on SAS methods to clients ranging from small NGOs to industrial giants. In 1993 he designed and delivered the world’s first Safety in Hostile Regions course for journalists operating in war zones.

www.akegroup.com

The SHR course celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2013 and has grown to become the benchmark for training that has now become mandatory for the industry. In 1996, the SHR (Surviving Hostile Regions) course proved its worth when video footage in Zaire captured a correspondent from TV4 Sweden saving his colleague’s life under gunfire.

In 1998, Andrew was able to demonstrate to specialists within the insurance industry that training could diminish the risk to people operating in high-risk environments and war zones. In the same year, he began working with insurers from the floor of Lloyd’s delivering political risk intelligence. He also designed and delivered the first safety course for journalists operating in war zones delivered on behalf of BBC World Service and The Freedom Forum to Albanian journalists in Tirana just prior to the Kosovo war, and trained Radio B292’s Serbian journalists in Montenegro under the noses of Milosovic’s Serbian military.

In the immediate aftermath of the NATO Kosovo campaign, Andrew and AKE took the lead - and were successful - in tracking down and safely returning two engineers who had gone missing.

From 9/11 and its aftermath, which saw Andrew and AKE supporting CNN in Tora Bora, Afghanistan in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, right up until today, he has demonstrated that the basic principles set out in this handbook, developed with their foundations in the SAS, do work and can save lives. They are as applicable in business, travel and the home as in conflict - from Afghanistan, through Iraq, Somalia and to the Arab Spring, the principles apply and can bring advantage. Most importantly, they can invest you with confidence and empower you in dealing with your fears.

Andrew Kain lives with his wife Bethan and daughters Madeleine and Charlotte, and they split their time between the island of Mull and Hereford.

Introduction

The civil war in Zaire is raging. The Rwandan border guards in Gisenji have refused permission for vehicles to be taken across the border into the Zairean town of Goma.

At 9am on November 2 1996, a group of around 20 international journalists cross the border and head into Goma. Civilians at the deserted border post on the Zaire side tell them that the Army left in panic hours earlier.

Despite the noise of gunfire in the distance, civilians do not seem alarmed as they head for the border.

Towards the middle of the group are two Swedish journalists, cameraman Bengt Stenvall and correspondent Stefan Borg. They have now gone about 500 metres into Goma.

At a small side street, they see three civilians walking towards them; they wave, and Stefan, Bengt and two American journalists stop to talk to them. The rest of the journalists continue further into Goma. The sound of gunfire is in the distance and poses no immediate threat.

Bengt has the camera rolling; Stefan begins the interview. Suddenly a hand grenade explodes behind the interviewee. Instinctively, they all run for cover. Bengt’s camera is still rolling as he rounds the corner to the sound of gunfire. He feels a hit in his leg and falls to the ground.

The firing intensifies. Stefan and Bengt communicate with one another. Bengt is wounded; he’s bleeding. After a brief camera blackout, Bengt realigns the camera from the ground and sets the automatic focus. The viewfinder catches his leg and Stefan as he prepares to run to Bengt’s aid.

As the camera keeps rolling, Stefan runs across, stumbling slightly as a bullet whistles by.

Stefan kneels by his colleague and begins to cut away the blood soaked trousers. They all now have some degree of cover by a wall as the firing continues from two sides.

Having cut the trousers away, Stefan has exposed an exit wound the size of half a tennis ball. Bengt has lost a lot of blood and is still bleeding heavily. Stefan applies an improvised tourniquet above the knee and covers the exit wound.

A rebel is now advancing along the wall from the East, firing as he comes. One of the Americans starts yelling, Journalists! Journalists! – but if anything, the firing intensifies. Stefan decides they have to move.

There has been no firing from the south for a couple of minutes so they begin to run back towards the border. Adrenaline assists Bengt for the first 50 metres - then he is carried.

It has been just five intense minutes since the grenade went off.

Within 35 minutes of injury, Bengt is receiving some treatment in the local Hospital in Gisenji. Forty-eight hours after the incident, Bengt is in hospital in Sweden and Stefan is getting some real sleep.

A couple of things made this incident unique.

First, it was recorded on film, capturing for all time the intensity of those five minutes.

Second, Stefan and Bengt had attended a course with AKE in June that year, which prepared them to be able to deal with the worst-case situation.

Without AKE’s training, said Stefan Borg, I’m convinced that Bengt wouldn’t be alive today.

www.apostrophebooks.com/SAShandbookFootage

Password to view this footage: plus

Filmed by: Bengt Stenvall. Interview by: Stefan Borg. Reproduced by kind permission.

Stefan remained in control of the situation, despite the dangers, and it is this ability which is fundamental in all aspects of security. Being in control of your environment substantially reduces the risk to you.

Although at the extreme end of the scale, the incident with Stefan and Bengt is directly related to personal security in all situations, and the level of control you have over your circumstances will define the risk towards you and your family - and your chances of survival in the event of serious incident.

The more control you have over events and situations involving you, the less risk there will be towards you. However, we have to be realistic. Life is full of risk and it would be boring if it were not so. What we are trying to do is increase our awareness, understand risk and, where possible, take control of our lives.

Sometimes we take the decision to go with the flow and damn the risk – or, more likely, we are too scared to show that we are scared.

During 1999, for example, a colleague and I were about to board an aircraft at Brindisi, Italy, bound for Tirana, Albania. Everything said not to get on. We already had been halfway round Europe in an effort to find an airline that would leave on time and connect with something going to Albania. This was the last option available which would get us there in enough time to conduct the safety course we intended for local Albanian journalists.

We did not want to let the Albanians down and we were knackered, and therefore our self-preservation instincts were probably not what they should have been. As we walked up the steps to enter the body of this flying antique, we paused at the top step. Our eyes were drawn to the right and the aircraft’s wheels. Although neither of us was a qualified aircraft engineer, the amount of what appeared canvas instead of rubber visible on the tyres seemed excessive.

We looked at each other in horror, abdicated control and stepped into the aircraft. The vision conjured up in our minds of a blowout on takeoff was made worse by the prospect that it took off safely and therefore we had to look forward to a blowout on landing, which we both judged to be much less survivable.

The in-flight safety briefing was not reassuring in its brevity. Whereas I usually read the paper with confidence throughout the briefing, this time I wanted them to talk to reassure us personally.

There were no obvious signs for oxygen, and it didn’t seem to feature in the safety brief - and I mean brief. There were very few passengers.

Needless to say, we survived the experience, despite a rapid change of altitude making my seatbelt snap open and a river of passenger vomit flow along the aisle.

It is a good example, however, of the type of situation over which, once you commit, you have no control whatsoever. Someone else is in control.

With the explosion of social media, the world today is a much smaller place, and in many respects the perception exists that it is a much more dangerous place. The fear of crime and terrorism blights the lives of millions throughout the world, while the mechanisms of law and order seem more and more to favour the criminal and be unable to deal with terrorism.

What this handbook aims to do is to show you how, by adapting some very basic principles, you can regain, or achieve greater control of, your life and put risk into perspective.

First though, we have to put things into context. It is easy to become paranoid about danger, crime levels and terrorism. Many people live with a perception of crime out of all proportion to the actual dangers. Yes, there are areas of high crime and danger in most cities. Yes, there are more small, ugly civil wars now than in the past. Yes, there are countries which are particularly more dangerous than others. Yes, there will be more terrorist attacks and the public will be outraged. Unfortunately, one of the negatives of 24-hour news and social media is that it tends to enhance the idea that danger is everywhere.

Everyone watching the Boston Marathon on 15 April, 2013 felt close to the dangers as those interviewed gave their accounts to a background of iPhone and other mobile video accounts of the bombs going off. We can actually feel that we are at the scene of events worldwide and experience up close the stress and fear of those directly involved.

But you can become more aware and put the dangers into proper perspective; you can train yourself to deal with any situation and, most importantly, you can take control of your life.

I started AKE (Andrew Kain Enterprises Ltd) in 1991 as a specialist security company, the aim of which was to solve clients’ problems based on principles I adopted from my 11 years with the SAS.

In 1993/94 we became the first commercial company in the world to design and deliver a safety course for journalists operating in remote and hostile regions. Since then we have trained thousands of journalist from around the world. Our clients include CNN, BBC, CBC, Financial Times, and many others. At AKE we set and continue to define the standard for this training, which has now become universally accepted and copied.

The example at the beginning of the book is the most graphic endorsement of how the training has saved life. There are many more from around the world, with perhaps the best, from our viewpoint, being one which attributes the lives of two children to the course.

As well as journalists, we train many companies who operate in hostile environments, with each course designed for their particular requirement. Whether it is basic security in the home for a family in rural England, energy companies in Africa, or survival in a war zone, the principles are the same. We have operated continuously in Afghanistan from chasing down Osama Bin Laden with CNN in Tora Bora immediately after 9/11, in Iraq since 2003, and North Africa since beginning of the Arab Spring.

The eleven years I spent in 22 SAS Regt provided the foundation for the principles outlined in this book. Much has been talked about the SAS, and the public image of those within it is largely built on media hype. It is many things to many people, and it has its supporters and detractors. There are those from within its ranks who have tried to blame it for something personal, even those who would bring it down. But the fundamentals established by the founders endure the test of time and trial.

Like all institutions, it is not perfect, and can be affected by personalities. However, by its very nature, in a rapidly changing world it has to be continually evolving. It will in one form or another survive, and as long as the firmly held tenets on which it was founded are maintained, then the high standards achieved should never diminish.

1. The unrelenting pursuit of excellence. (My own view is that the point you are satisfied with your standards is the defining point of your decline).

2. Maintaining the highest standards of self-discipline in all aspects of the daily life of the SAS soldier.

3. The SAS brooks no sense of class. All ranks in the SAS are of ‘one company’ in which a sense of class is both alien and restricting.

4. Humility and humour; both these virtues are indispensable in the everyday life of officers and men.

Before the glare of publicity hit the Regiment during and after the Iranian embassy siege in London in 1980, you heard of it through the military grapevine as the pinnacle of soldiering, but you volunteered for something that you knew virtually nothing about. I applied to join the SAS at the end of 1978, after serving 5 years with the Parachute Regiment.

Commitment

The emphasis is on individual strength and character and you have to rely entirely on self-motivation, for you are not encouraged at any time. No one cares if you are there or not. No one says: Eat now. Change your socks now. You’re a bit tired, take a rest. You aren’t even told the required times for each task. You’re simply given an objective and left to get on with it as hard and as fast as you can.

Each time you get to a checkpoint, you don’t know if you’re going to stop, or just carry on and on. On one exercise through deep snow, a tail developed with two or three at the front making a track and everyone else following. As a punishment for taking the easy way out, when we got to the checkpoint that was supposed to mark the end of the march, they turned us around and said, Right, go back again. This didn’t go down well with the followers but was perversely gratifying for those of us making the tracks.

The instructors also order you to carry out tasks like stripping down and reassembling a weapon, which when dog-tired and frozen-fingered can be another ordeal. You get more and more tired and demoralized, but all you can do is force yourself on.

There’s not even any feedback when you finish each day’s test. No one knows if they’ve passed or failed until they get up the following morning, ready for the next one. If your name is not on the list, you go down to the office, get your travel warrant and go back to your unit.

The fittest people don’t necessarily pass; commitment is what counts most of all. On my own Selection, there was one superbly fit guy, with a physique like the proverbial Greek god and no bad habits. He didn’t even drink Guinness. As I was going up Pen y Fan in the snow, saying to myself, Don’t stop, keep going till you get to the top, I looked up to see him coming down. As he walked past me he said, This isn’t for me, it’s too hard. That gave me a big psychological boost - he was out of it, but I was still going – and now it’s not that hard!

Selection starts off in excess of 100 people. As the days pass, your self-esteem increases as the numbers steadily diminish and the drop-off can be quite dramatic. In one Selection, beginning in some very fierce winter storms, 40 out of the 120 disappeared in the first weekend alone.

You learn a lot about yourself, especially when you’re up in the hills in the snow and the mist, cold, tired, no vision, and completely alone. You find that you can push yourself a bit further than you thought - but you also realize how easy it can be to give up. You have much more potential in you than you realize; something that applies to everyone in every walk of life. Until you try or are forced to do things, you don’t realise how much you can achieve.

Endurance

In the final week - the actual Selection process - you go on one march after another, each longer than the one before and with progressively heavier kit, ending with you carrying a fifty-five pound Bergen and a ten-pound rifle. In the old days, you were simply issued with the requisite number of bricks from the SAS quartermaster’s stores; now the weight is made up with rather more useful items.

You have to use your navigation skills (my Selection was well before the days of GPS!) and your compass to find the checkpoints and on one march they take your normal map away from you and just give you a sketch map - a sheet of paper with a couple of points marked on it.

On another march you have to go over Pen y Fan three times in four hours from three different points, though when you set off, you’ve no idea how many times