While it’s a little overdue, I wanted to do a follow up on the last article I wrote about the brutal hostage ordeal Gabriel J. and his friends survived in their home. If you didn’t get a chance to read it you can easily find it in Held Hostage in Cork.
“Neither dead nor alive, the hostage is suspended by an incalculable outcome. It is not his destiny that awaits for him, nor his own death, but anonymous chance, which can only seem to him something absolutely arbitrary.” …Jean Baudrillard.
It’s a difficult task to truly imagine the fear and horror involved in a brutal attack, let alone a hostage or kidnap scenario. Many people would be familiar with well publicized stories of survival such as Terry Waite’s. He had been taken hostage in Lebanon between 1987 and 1991 while working as an envoy trying to secure the release of four other hostages. As disturbing as stories like his may be, most people have a hard time seeing themselves confronting a similar threat. We always think of it as one of those things that happens to someone else. It’s not true though. While it’s unlikely that you’ll find yourself sitting in a far off land as someone’s political prisoner you could easily find yourself, as Gabriel J. did, living a nightmare in your home, workplace or even the back of a moving vehicle. Make no mistake; it takes little time for you to be attacked, bound and enroute to a new location where your chances of survival greatly diminish. There is no shortage of in-depth material on how to understand and deal with such a crime. There are also just as many varying opinions on how to negotiate the fine points of preventing and handling it all. Having said that, there are some basic things to be aware of and in the end, even knowing something small can often give you the tactical advantage you may need.
What you need to know:
• On average, only one out of every ten kidnappings and hostage situations ever gets reported to the authorities. This means that in many countries crimes like this go on without any real public awareness.
• Most people eventually get released because if the intent was to kill then the victim would often be dead in the initial attack. That doesn’t mean the situation can’t nor won’t become lethal. If violence is used or threatened then it can easily be used again, despite any promises that are made.
• Regardless of the motivations or means of carrying them out, the initial goal in any hostage situation is to isolate you and get you to be submissive.
• When under duress, victims often believe any lies they are told hoping that it will lead to survival. “Tie her up and I won’t hurt you.” “Get in the back of the car and I will let them go.” “Take your clothes off and I won’t kill you.” It is fairly common for most to capitulate to the threat of violence and feel overwhelmed by fear paralysis.
• Most hostage/kidnap situations are perpetrated on locals instead of foreigners and most often by criminal or sexual predators.
• While there are never any guarantees in a life or death crisis, it is critical to follow your intuition and never give up because chances are you will come out of the situation alive.
What can be done?
1. Make a Plan. Whether you have children, travel frequently, live alone, or simply feel the need to be prepared for a crisis; always sit down with whomever you trust in your life and work out a simple plan. Create a code word or duress word that when used in conversation will indicate that you are in trouble and need help. Understand that, despite any sense of abandonment that you may feel, escaping to get help improves the survival odds of others that may often be involved. If you are travelling abroad, be sure to let someone know what your plans are and check in with them when appropriate.
2. Fight Back. In some cases, deception and manipulation can be used to get a victim to willing follow along but most times there is often a physical attack that is swift and brutal. It’s designed to make use of speed and surprise to achieve psychological and physical dominance over a potential victim. As in the case of Gabriel J., where the potential for immediate escape from the situation outweighed the dangers of resisting it is most often best to fight back. Unleash everything you have on your attackers by targeting injuries. Injuries are the only currency you can count on when your life is on the line. Injuries incapacitate your assailant or, in many cases, assailants from completing their premeditated task. This is not a social situation where rational communications are often involved. The assumption is that if someone threatens to use lethal violence then they are capable of doing so. Fighting back in most cases prevents you from being relocated to a second crime scene where you are isolated and on unfamiliar ground. If there is more than one of you then join the fight. As in most cases, captors are often outnumbered by their victims but by using speed and ruthless violent intent they gain the tactical advantage and dominate the situation. They create isolation and debilitating fear within a group.
3. Calm Down. If your intuition tells you to submit or your attack has not succeeded you will need to quickly regain some composure. The heart will be pounding, breathing will be shallow and the effects of an adrenal dump will be kicking in to give you a life saving sense of fear. The sooner you can wrap your head around what is happening the better off you will be.
4. Observe Details. Make mental notes of as much information about your assailants, yourself and your environment as you can. If you can’t see then listen and if you can’t hear then feel or even smell. Any information may be of use later on when planning an escape or predicting an assailant’s next move.
5. What’s the Motive? There are a number of reasons why someone would take you hostage and most need not even make sense to you but understanding what is driving an attack will give you some critical information on deciding how to deal with your situation. Whether or not you attempt an escape will come directly from this information.
6. Focus on Survival. Stay active by creating mental and physical routines if possible. Human beings are purpose driven creatures and the moment you let yourself loose your sense of purpose then despair and depression can easily creep in. Observe time if possible. Disorientation will be a constant threat to you and your captors will take advantage of every opportunity to exploit it. Take everything you do in stages and stay positive, as best you can.
During his captivity, Terry Waite kept repeating these three phrases to himself: 1) “No regrets – there might have been something you could have done differently to avoid capture but that’s little help now.” 2) “No self pity – no matter what your situation, there’s always somebody worse off than you.” 3) “No over-sentimentality – don’t look back and wish you’d spent more time with your family or had longer holidays. Life has been lived, you cannot re-live it.”
7. Be the Grey Man or woman, whatever the case may be. Take a neutral mental position and avoid drawing any unnecessary attention to yourself. Depending on the situation, you may be in for a longer captivity than you would expect so continue to be vigilant and pay close attention to any information you are directly or indirectly given. Situations vary so the amount of communication you have with a captor will often differ but the depth of communications will be up to you. Some security experts would advise to create rapport to bond with them and others would advise the opposite. I tend to advise giving minimum information that will ultimately be used against you. When you are fatigued, disoriented, injured and possibly malnourished it will be a big enough task to stay focused on survival. There will always be a desire to believe any lie for survival and so the more information they have the better the lies sound. Prolonged empathy can often lead to Stockholm Syndrome which develops into a false bond with your captors.
8. Communicate with Other Hostages. If you are not alone and can find a way to communicate, even if it is nothing more than a signal of some sort, then do so. It can be an amazing morale booster. Remember, we are social beings and most of us dread isolation above all else. If you can connect then do so.
9. Plan an Escape. Always be planning an escape. If anything, it will help keep you focused on survival and have you consciously observing the routine behaviour of everyone involved. If your captors’ behaviour suddenly changes and you feel your life is in imminent threat escape may be a final option to consider. Often it can be best to wait to be freed or rescued but that will be a judgement call made by you alone. If you think you are going to be killed and you feel the opportunity presents itself then, in many cases, a flawed escape plan will be better than the alternative.
10. Keep your Head Down. If an outside rescue attempt is made then be aware that you are far from being out of danger. The same fear and stress you felt during the initial stages of your attack will be experienced all over again. This time you have hostage takers who may panic and want to kill you or use you as a human shield. Keep your head down and don’t make sudden movements when you hear or see the rescuers come in. Whether they use a slow, deliberate entry or a fast, dynamic entry they will all be on edge and constantly looking to make a shoot-no shoot decision. Help them by staying low and following their commands to the letter. Don’t allow a false sense of security to occur immediately after the initial rescue. Until you have been taken to a secure location anything can still happen. It can be commonplace for people to think a fight is over because of an initial lull during a rescue attempt. Expect to be manhandled and sometimes even handcuffed until you have been extracted from your location and debriefed.
It is my sincere wish that anyone reading this never has to endure the fear and violence that’s often attributed to being taken hostage. Crime statistics tell me otherwise though. Know that you can live through it and that you don’t have to feel helpless. Take some time to do a little preparation and become informed.
As always, your comments are greatly appreciated.
To find more great articles By Mark Lee, you can visit Real World Defence Systems.
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