Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
affluent foreigners to victimize. Typically, one or more individuals on foot
watch passengers as they deplane. It isn't very difficult to identify those
with money, especially those who ignore the general rule about not appear-
ing too flashy or well to do. Someone working at the airport may do the
foot surveillance. Flight attendants, who have a great deal of time during
a long flight, may even be the ones making the initial evaluation of the
target's potential value. It is then a simple matter of following the subject
to the hotel. A local taxi driver may be directed to pick up that person;
thus the group will know exactly where he or she is staying without mul-
tiple car surveillance. In any event, the person has been identified as a
target for robbery. The goal may be to wait several days until the person
goes out on the town and then conduct a simple mugging. Or perhaps the
criminals will just identify the hotel and room, wait for the person to go
out, and then enter the unoccupied room and steal whatever valuables
have been left there. In any case, the same principles of surveillance detec-
tion apply whether the perpetrators are terrorists or common criminals.
SURVEILLANCE IS COMMONPLACE
Surveillance of Americans and Western Europeans living, working, or even
traveling abroad has long been common. Frequently it has been associated
with surveillance conducted by the foreign intelligence officers looking for
activities inconsistent with the subject's stated reason for being in the
country. While this is still true, more recently terrorists and common crim-
inals conduct surveillance in advance of an attack or criminal act.
Because of this reality, the State Department provides a short block of
instruction on countersurveillance for government employees overseas as
part of the Security Overseas Seminar. In addition, the State Department
also has recognized the importance of educating nongovernmental
employees abroad. To this end, the State Department has published a
document entitled
Security Guidelines for Americans Working Overseas.
It pro-
vides a great deal of valuable information, including the importance of
being aware of your surroundings in order to become aware of possible
surveillance. While this is good advice, the document devotes only two
pages to the subject of target recognition and provides few specific details
about exactly how this should be done. Common methods of surveillance
and the things that you might observe that would indicate that you are
being targeted are not explained.
