Violence Against Swiss Tourists: Précautions de Sécurité Pendant à Vélo et Camping à l'Etranger

http://www.tdg.ch/monde/faits-divers/proces-suissesse-violee-inde-debute/story/13242161

     Violence Against Swiss Tourists: Précautions de Sécurité Pendant à Vélo et Camping à l'Etranger  (Safety Precautions While Bicycling and Camping Abroad.) This article from Tribune de Geneve describes the trial of a gang in India that raped a Swiss tourist and also assaulted her husband, robbing them both.  They were bicycling in India and camping under a tent.  This incident underscores the need to travel safe and smart, knowing the threats and risks of foreign countries, not that we don't have threats in the US.  Our firm Pierce, Pugliese and Carolla Air Analytics, LLC often is in a position to help you, your company or your travel agent with threat assessments as you prepare to travel,take shore excursions - or make investments or seek to evaluate threats to infrastructure abroad.  Although we cannot assure your safety and security, and can't be liable for any misfortunes we can, however, using our comprehensive international security expertise, augment such sources as the US State Department advisories and present to you threats that might not readily be apparent.  Such advice as being especially vigilant against pick-pockets on trains and in stations in Poland can help you protect your wallet and your person. 

Port Destination Lectures: Go Ashore Securely

     You know when you go off on a cruise and the day before you go sailing into a port the ship's theater has a "Destination Lecture?"   Have you ever learned anything really worth while at one of these?  Now true, half the people going ashore aren't interested in anything but the "Three B's:" booze, beaches, and bargains, but some of us are interested in culture, history and keeping our wallets intact - not for deals and bargains but from pick pockets.  And then there are shore excursions, which to take?
      Well, usually, I have been disappointed. Now, full disclosure here, I'm a former Naval Intelligence Officer and a former civilian Defense Intelligence Analyst and have worked with all sorts of US and international law enforcement operations to keep out of harm's way.  So, I'm pretty demanding, curious and critical about knowing about my destination.  To be honest some rah-rah cruise social director's talk and hint about going to Joe the Beach Bum's Bargain Boutique and telling Joe that you (and 2,000 others...duh?)  that you deserve a bargain because Bob on the M.S. Gargantua doesn't cut the mustard with moi.  As for bargains...let me repeat the old intelligence officer's adage: "If it is too good to be true it is."   On my last Mediterranean Cruise I was appalled at both the delivery technique or lack thereof and the content and lack thereof of the so-called port lecturer who did little more than hand out maps - rather inadequate ones at that - and "recommend" jewelry shops and the like. 
      I was so moved that I wrote various people on the fine cruise line (really the cruise line is a class act and I sailed with them again) volunteering my services after my then approaching retirement, but was pretty well rebuffed.  In my view here the problem is similar to that we find in the airline industry - Customer Service and Security never meet.  As airlines have made avoidance of real customer contact an art form in the era of automatic check-in and ancillary fees to "experience" speaking with a reservations sales agent (good luck with that) it seems to me that cruise lines have excellent and competent law enforcement staff on board and fleet security offices but that there is little interplay with the ashore passenger experience  (other than screening passengers for booze when they return to the ship.) 
     One cruise line about a year or so ago dispatched a bus load of turistas, carrying valuables and passports, into bandit and insurgent infested countryside and was appalled when they got ambushed and robbed.   That incident was, in my opinion, beyond the pale.  Fleet security officers must in the course of their duties have liaison and cooperation with local law enforcement.  Of course, not the subject of this article, but related, your ship's security department is also responsible for the safety of the crew when they are ashore.
     My advice: Do your own due diligence.  Quiz your travel agent (as in the cruise specialty on line agency you deal with) and if they b.s. you or don't know demand answers.  Check State Department warnings and use on-line reviews such as Trip Advisor (Full Disclosure: Under a nomme de plume I'm a Senior Reviewer)  and do your advance reading.  Some lines such as Holland America have excellent destination lecturers - if other lines don't have real historians and the like delivering let it be known to your travel agent and on board officers.  Most importantly, if you have concerns about a destination, request advice from the Ship's Security Officer.  And again, do your research before going --- you don't have to be trained as an intelligence analyst to prepare yourself.

Stormy Skies in the Middle East - and Beyond

     The Arab Spring is turning into the Arab Summer with storm clouds and sand storms across the region from the Maghreb to the Levant.  What has become a civil war in Syria has been joined by strife in Libya and Anti-Western unrest in Egypt.  Americans need to get one thing straight:  The attack on the consulate in Benghazi and the murder of the Ambassador and other three Americans does not represent any swell of Libyan government or indeed popular hatred of the US.  The attack was a classic insurgent tactic to seek to discredit the moderate elected government and to drive a knife into the evolving relationship between Libyans and the US.  There were a lot of nasty people left in Libya after Qaddafi.  Similarly, the extremist demonstrations against the US Embassy in Egypt are in essence Egyptian civil strife with extremists having the same aims as those in Libya.  Despite the goal of extremists of restoring the Caliphate, the unrest in the region does not represent any unified Islamic attack on the West or the United States.  That being said, now is not the time to plan a vacation to see the Pyramids in Egypt or Roman ruins or beaches in Tunisia. 
     The events of the past week are another game changer at least for the region - and also beyond. Travel safety and awareness for airlines and their customers now requires a new set of threat assessment paradigms for airline security professionals.  The immediate, indeed long range, threat to civil aviation is changing.  US flag carriers especially will need to be more vigilant, not only in flights to the region when service normalizes but also in flights originating elsewhere such as Europe, Southeast Asia, and Subsaharan Africa.  The excellent Mideast carriers noted for their outstanding customer service such as Etihad, Emirates and Qatar will need to demonstrate to potentially timid US travellers that they are serious and vigilant about security.  (Note to travellers:They are.)  Security professionals are aware of that, but the average traveller might not be.   Airlines need to review their Safety Management Systems (SMS) and associated Security Management Systems (SeMS) to incorporate current threat assessments and awareness.  This is especially true as airlines automate more and more customer service (on some US airlines that will remain unnamed here almost an oxymoron) functions and avoid personal contact with passengers.  Sure, using online check-in and that kiosk might be convenient, but does it make you any safer or secure?
     Those contemplating or needing to travel to the Arab World should pay close attention to the State Department's web site www.state.gov  for travel advisories for the region.  Operators of business, air charter, and other corporate aircraft into and around the region need to pay close attention to their security support staff , and if they don't have security threat assessment support that is familiar with the region they need to obtain it quickly. There are some travellers - academics, journalists, and business travellers, for example, who will have to travel to the region - again they should check the State web site but also call the State Department directly...and confer with the embassy of the country they plan to visit.  Airlines need to be forthright and honest on their web sites about security issues.
     As stated above, the current situation represents "game change" in the region as long as there is civil strife - that is what this is, not a burst of Anti-Americanism.