Some of you may be aware that some years back, I worked on an Emergency Response (Bodyguard) team for the Italian Oil Company ENI, doubling as the Lead Paramedic in the Az Zubayr area of Iraq, close to Basra. One particular day in December 2010 stood out for what can stretch you mentally, far beyond what you could you ever imagine.
The story picks up as our three vehicle convoy was heading south on a highway through the desert that straddled the main Baghdad to Umm Qasr road. Our chosen route was quiet. This can be good thing, but if it’s too quiet, this can be ominous and one learned to look for tell tale signs of a potential trap being set. This could be something as simple as an abandoned car with the bonnet (hood) up signalling to a concealed trigger man to detonate a massive, road-side device sending chosen targets into orbit. as they cruise by.
On this occasion, after having transited to a point roughly three miles north of the Principal turn off (where 99.999% of traffic would have), we decided to cut across an unpaved desert track between the two main north/south highway routes and link up to the more easterly route, which would involve a 5 mile scramble across the dusty desert.
I was sitting in my usual rear facing position in the middle, 2nd vehicle as we traversed between some berms and into relatively open space when I noted a call in my earpiece from the Team Leader who would give a running commentary of what was appearing in front of that was of note the following; ‘vehicle approaching from 11 O’Clock, unmarked, looks like 4 pax (men inside)…Caution Lads, it’s moving at speed towards us…’ I’d heard this type of call before so wasn’t unduly alarmed although the tension increased still further when Pete the Vehicle Commander, with his back to mine, uttered ‘I dont’ like the look of this….’ which was rapidly followed on the radio with abrupt ‘Stop, Stop, Stop…’ from the Team Leader who was in the lead vehicle, about 70 yards ahead of ours…We then made our weapons ready and re-assessed our appraisal of the situation which was not good…
The car that had approached our lead vehicle had stopped in front of our lead vehicle and four armed men in Iraqi Police Uniforms had briskly surrounded our Team Leader vehicle with three of them pointing weapons directly at him. He had just dismounted the vehicle to speak with the ‘Police Commander’ prior to being aggressively encircled and was informed that he (and all of us) was under arrest for Drug Smuggling. My vehicle was about 80 metres back from his where we had stopped and held firm.
After about 90 seconds, our Second in Command, who was in the last (3rd vehicle) moved up to a point that was about 20 metres ahead of ours, before placing his vehicle broadside in front of ours. This allowed me to de-bus from my vehicle, move up to his and take up a firing position principally to box in the group, who were threatening our Team Leader, and also us.
Now, in a normal developed country, this would be quite resolvable, but this was a country, that had only recently emerged from a Civil War and that whilst improved, was still highly volatile and still had insurgent action taking place against sitting US troops with private contractors being occasionally targeted. Moreover, there had been several incidents of American Troops and Private Contractors being targeted by Iranian Quds Force (Revolutionary Guards) operatives. Only three years prior, a team of UK Close Protection Operatives had been abducted by a force of approximately 100 Iraqi Ministry of Interior Officials who were in fact, Iranian Revolutionary Guards Operators that were targeting the team, and their client who was installing software to track siphoned off aid money. The ruse that had seen the team willingly go with said force that there were apparently irregularities with their paperwork.
Could this have been an Iranian Snatch Squad? We were not too far from the Iranian Border and it wouldn’t have taken much time for a kidnapping squad to have had us in Iran, given half a chance and the locals were Shi’a Iraqis who in some cases, were broadly sympathetic to Iran, in spite of the eight year war between both countries.
After a brief period, Rick came on to the radio to re-assert that they were attempting to ‘arrest us on suspicion of drug smuggling’ to which he replied, ‘we are a protection team for ENI and will be going nowhere with you…’ The situation was clearly not improving and we were faced with the dilemma of ‘should we continue to attempt to negotiate our way through this’ or should we ‘drop the whole ‘police’ team and scoot towards Kuwait which was only 8 miles away. We were still in a strong position to win a fire-fight but if they had covertly called up a gun-truck with a 50 calibre heavy weapon mounted on the back, we would be screwed.
‘Let’s get this done now before it’s too late’, I said to myself as I could feel the tension rising internally. I was keeping my breathing well controlled, deep, slow breaths, but could feel my heart rate increasing and that mild tension in my legs as I leaned over the bonnet, to sight up, the three armed men, in blue uniforms, wearing berets, that were pointing AK47 variant weapons towards our Team Leader…
I checked my finger on the trigger, stroked it slightly and then delicately squeezed it halfway to firing a shot at one of my three targets. Their lives in my hands and they were pushing their luck with this ‘try on’ because I had been in position for about ten minutes and was starting to feel that we were reaching decision point. Do we shoot and escape out of the country, or do stay and attempt to negotiate our way through…. I was starting to lean towards the former option….
I made my decision to take out all three with the Ak’s, I could take two out definitely, the 3rd, if he took cover and didn’t freeze, he may be more difficult, but I was confident. I sighted up the first, ahead of me and slightly to the right, at about 60 metres. I started the process of slowly taking up the tension on the trigger to release the shot…. and I released……….in my mind……….
I shot all three of them dead with six rounds of ammunition, one head shot, one body shot…… as a simulation prior to setting up to actually do it. Stuff it I thought, they were taking liberties, trying to look like Big Men and had tried it on against people that were much better than them. So, I stroked the trigger, took up the tension in the trigger, was half-way through about to shoot, then, with one last through prior to shooting these blokes, and potentially condemning myself to an execution by hanging should they actually be police, and held about 2mm from finishing the first bloke off when a thought came through my head; ‘is there anyway that we can resolve this, without killing these people???…
The three men that I was about to shoot dead, were probably the Men of a household that will have been very poor, they will have had wives, children, and grandparents that will have expected them home that night and I was about to ruin their lives….I had held this thought, and the trigger for just over 30 seconds, when our Team Leader came over the Radio saying, ‘it looks like we may have an option to get through this without an arrest lads….So, Paul, you can relax your posture, and we are going to allow them to conduct a search of the three vehicles to confirm that we are not Drug Smugglers…
I started to walk back to my vehicle, still facing the targets and felt uneasy about lowering the weapon, but slowly did so, as Rick, the Police Commander and his three Constables walked up with him. As I lowered my rifle, I was getting ready to re-lift and fire, lest this be a bluff…… It wasn’t, we allowed them to search our vehicles whilst lifting the lid on the case that had “Drugs” in block capitals on it to show some small ampoules which didn’t matter anyway, because it was a cosmetic exercise….
After a mutual saluting ceremony where we were thanked for helping the people of Iraq, we were safely on our way… What an afternoon, a Mexican Stand-Off, a feature of life in the Third World and whilst it was my debut, friends had had others and it certainly honed my negotiation skills….THE TAKE AWAY FROM THIS?
Never underestimate the power of Language, particularly Mind Bending Language plus the ability to know how to Negotiate. This is a key component of MODULES 4 & 5 OF SIGMA CYBERNETICS METHOD where the key of negotiation is to ‘WIN a little bit more than the other wins, but where they are reasonably happy and can function well, or if dealing with another business, they can still function and profit. An ability for a supplier to still be able to function, as an example, is crucial for if you strike a deal with a cement factory to supply said product at a ridiculous rate in your favour, then don’t be surprised if they go broke, and you lose as well because you didn’t factor in their needs as well. Show some humanity.
This is at odds with the macho idea that you need to crush your opponents mercilessly. During the Northern Ireland Troubles, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) launched a mini Tet-Offensive in the mid-late 1980s in an attempt to clear ‘liberated’ zones in the Northern Ireland countryside areas of Tyrone, Armagh and Fermanagh. The Defence establishment of the government of Margaret Thatcher gave Britain’s Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) along with other UK agencies authorisation to set ambushes against forthcoming attacks to send a message to Irish Volunteers. More than 25 of the Irish Republican Movement’s Prized assets were struck down. The result? The ‘War’ intensified still further.
On assuming the leadership of the ruling Conservative Party in the UK, John Major’s government switched the strategy to one of attempting to stop PIRA operations by the use of Surveillance Operations with arrests and (non violent) subtle deceptions to frustrate operations. The result? A significant number of Operations were stopped with many lives being saved. In the words of one Irish Republican leader ‘the Brits were routing us’ (not by killing us, but by frustrating us). The 1994 ceasefire mostly came about owing to a realisation that the military campaign couldn’t continue. Instead of hatred of the British state in (aggressively pro-United Ireland) Republican areas, the mood was more of bemusement and whilst the political desire to unite with Dublin was still as strong as ever. The desire for ‘blood’ was not at the same level as before. Major’s strategy had worked in a way that Thatcher’s hadn’t. A small, but potent mini-insurgency which lasted 30 years’, was now largely over.
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