Welcome To Direct Security Measures

Direct Security Measures teaches the student how to identify and manage aggressive and potentially violent situations involving trained and committed aggressors/attackers. These threats and could come from professional criminals and/or gangs or religiously motivated terrorists both at home and abroad. This course will teach you how to identify such threats, how to handle/manage them and what to do in every worst case scenario along the way.

With the potential for professional e.g. terrorist violence now becoming “home grown” everyone has to start taking responsibility for their own, their family and their community’s safety. With international travel now posing new and often unexpected dangers, travelers need to be prepared for every eventuality. If you want to know what to do and be equipped with the skills to control your environment to: a) prevent the very real threats of violence and b) deal with them when they arise then you should be thinking about developing some direct security measures.

The course will be held in Boston, Massachusetts from January 15th to January 20th, 2010.

The course is taught by a professional security operative and trainer currently working in Baghdad (more details about close protection operative David Ashworth are included below) and the contents of the course is detailed below (it is suitable for civilians and especially applicable for reality based self-defense instructors who want to increase their knowledge and add something unique to their students training). There is a contact form at the bottom of this page.

Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) – Module 1

Hostile Environment Awareness Training often referred to by the acronym HEAT is the type of training typically offered to journalist, NGO’s etc who travel to or work in countries where there is civil unrest, shootings, the strong possibility of isolated violence or war and/or hostility to various groups e.g. U.S. citizens, government organizations etc.

The aim of such training is to mentally prepare the individual for what “life on the ground” will actually be like and to equip them with the skills that are necessary to ensure personal safety. There is also the longer term goal of reducing the effects of trauma and psychological discomfort, which may occur later due to experiences the individual has had and/or events they have seen.

There is a strong emphasis on the identification and management of potential risks from abduction/hostage taking right through to how to handle and deal correctly with potential natural disasters such as flooding and earthquakes. Correct and safe entry and exits strategies into countries/cities/regions are also taught e.g. how to cross borders and checkpoints; how to exit a country should the normal routes and exit points become closed etc, along with vehicle and hotel/residence security. The basic course content consists of the following:

Dynamic risk assessments
Threat identification
Cultural assessments
Evasion strategies
Developing the correct “mindset”
Creating survival packs with necessary equipment
IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices), mines, booby traps etc
Situational Awareness (SA) in various settings
Weapons identifications,
Civil disturbances/unrest strategies
Safe and effective checkpoints/border crossings
Dealing with natural disasters e.g. flooding etc
Hostage abduction and enduring captivity
Hijacks & Hijacking scenarios
Personal security and personal protection
Vehicle security
Scenario based traumatic stress training
Understanding Post-traumatic stress disorder

Surveillance & Counter Surveillance – Module 2

All criminal and terrorist acts involve some sort of pre-operational surveillance; even a purse or bag snatch involves some type of observation and target selection. However whilst a mugger may take only a few seconds to go through this “casing” process, a militant organization or terrorist(s) may take months or even years.

Understanding how to conduct surveillance on an individual or group will start to teach you the skills that are necessary to identify when you yourself are being observed and/or targeted (this may be by government agencies or criminal/terrorist organizations). By learning surveillance methods and being introduced to various “bugging” and “tracking” devices you will start to understand how both these things can be countered and dealt with, without those observing you becoming aware.

The basic course content consists of the following:

Understanding & identifying patterns of movement

Developing SDR’s (Surveillance Detection Routines)

How to conduct surveillance on both mobile and stationary targets

Correct and effective information gathering

How to avoid being picked up as a “target”

Introduction to surveillance devices

Identifying Counter surveillance routines in others

Close Combat (Krav Maga) Training – Module 3

In this module the student is taught simple and effective techniques along with the correct mindset that is necessary in order to survive an armed/unarmed encounter against single or multiple attackers. An appreciation will be gained of the various phases such violent confrontations go through from those involving both professional e.g. terrorist, gang etc and non-professional aggressors

This is a simple and effective self defense component based on the Israeli Military’s system of hand-to-hand combat known as “Krav Maga” (roughly translated as close or contact combat from the Hebrew). There will be 2 hours of this training a day and students will quickly learn how to handle themselves physically in a variety of situations and confrontational engagements. The basic course content consists of the following:

Understanding aggressive and violent situations

Gun (both short and long barrel) disarms

Dealing with knife threats and knife attacks

Verbal de-escalation and disengagement strategies

Escapes from locks and holds

Ground survival

Dealing with multiple attackers

Course Suitability & Eligibility

This course is open to civilians, law enforcement professionals and military personnel. It is well suited for those who engage in international travel both in a business and leisure capacity. Although this is not a “train the trainer” event it is also well suited to instructors of reality based self defense systems who are looking to expand their security and personnel self protection knowledge in order to better educate their students.

Course Instructors

The course is being organized and administrated by SEPS Security instructor Gershon Ben Keren who will also be assisting course leader David Ashworth. David Ashworth is a real world operator who is currently an executive/close protection operative working in Baghdad (during his time there he has worked in CP for the British Embassy as well as other organizations) - a role he has also fulfilled in Afghanistan. His background is with the UK Military where he worked and operated with members of some of the most accomplished and elite units in the world. His military career saw him serving in some of Europe’s hottest spots. It is rare for an operative possessing both his skill set and experience to be sharing his knowledge with civilian personnel and due to his schedule a rare opportunity to have access to his time.

If you would like more information about this course please feel to initially contact us using the email form below. Please provide us with your contact details and we will get back you within 24 hours.