The most recent terrorist attack at Istanbul, Turkey’s Ataturk Airport yesterday highlights the vulnerability of people in crowded locations everywhere. Predicting the next horrific terrorist attack is the nearly impossible task faced by intelligence agencies around the world. However, former CIA covert operations director officer and President of Diligence LLC, Mike Baker says terrorists routinely expose themselves to being discovered by authorities.
“Let’s look at Ataturk, for example. The bombers had to choose that site. And they had to select it over other potential sites that they may have been looking at. And at a certain point they had to do surveillance on that target. That’s always, and it’s always been that way, the surveillance point is when they’re at their most vulnerable. And that’s when we usually have our best opportunity to identify that something is up.”
His company is often asked by its clients to assess the security risks of going to a particular country.
“We’ll tell you what the realities are on the ground, where the safe zones are,” Baker said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got a business to run, you’ve got to keep moving forward. You can’t hide in the foxhole nowadays because this is just going to happen. If anyone thinks the Ataturk bombing is the last one, that’s a pretty naive way to look at it.”
Mike Baker was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning with Doug McIntyre and Terri-Rae Elmer.
