When Russian special forces units stormed the terrorist held school in Beslan on Sept. 3, 2004, John Giduck was landing in Moscow with his Archangel tactical consultant team, which includes retired Soviet spetsnaz commandos. Giduck reached Beslan while the school was still smoking from the fires ignited by the terrorists’ bombs and bodies were still being removed. The experience changed Giduck’s life and led him to become one of the busiest law enforcement speakers and trainers in America.
Giduck was commissioned to write an after-action report for the U.S. government on the tactics used by both the terrorists and the Russian troops who assaulted the school. He soon realized that the information in that AAR needed a larger audience, and he wrote “Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America’s Schools.” The book was written in just three months and, ever since its publication, Giduck and Archangel have become some of the busiest law enforcement and military trainers in America.
Police Magazine editor David Griffith caught up with Giduck by phone as he was preparing to hit the road again, moving from agency to agency warning American cops that Beslan-type school sieges are coming to America.
Police: You’re an attorney by profession. How did you get involved with Russian special forces units?
I was working on a master’s degree in Russian Studies in Russia, and I got to know through an odd set of events the gentleman who was the head of the KGB for the St. Petersburg region. I told him I was interested in learning the Russian martial art called SAMBO. He set me up for some training with some of the Spetsnaz instructors, and I started training with them.
Police: Were you in Russia when the siege at Beslan occurred?
We got into Moscow as the siege was ending. We got down to Beslan the morning after. It was a bad scene. They were scraping bodies out of that gym for quite a long while, and I mean scraping.
And the town itself was just insane. People were running everywhere, racing around, 20 people in a car with guns bristling out. Any time we heard a rumor that there were more terrorists in a house somewhere, everybody—the military, the police, the citizens—would go there and start shooting things up. That went on for several days.
Police: Why did the American news media soft pedal the brutality of the Beslan siege?
Part of it is political. They have been locked into a particular perspective and viewpoint. It’s difficult for them to now change and say, “Oh my God. These people are horrible. Look at the terrible things these people are doing.” They’ve allowed their egos to get interjected into it.
And it’s not as though Russia is an innocent party. Russia has committed more than its share of atrocities in Chechnya. But Russia has never taken over a school full of Chechen children and wired them to bombs.
The thing that is most relevant to me is that I have friends in Russia. I have friends in Russian special forces units. I don’t have any friends who are Chechens. I know some Chechens. But ultimately, I don’t have a horse in this race. It doesn’t matter to me.
All that matters to me is what is the relevant tactical information for America. As for the two parties to that conflict, there’s one thing I know for sure: I don’t have to worry about Russian special forces coming over here and taking over schools full of our children. But there are groups over there in that conflict who will do it and that includes the Chechens, Muslim Arabs, and North African Muslims who are operating in Chechnya and training there.
Police: Have we done anything in America to protect our schools from a Beslan attack?
No. The short answer is, “No.” There are a lot of police departments around the country that are very forward thinking that understand the reality of all this, who know it will come to America. They are doing their absolute best to be as prepared as they can be, but we keep tying their hands. We impose ridiculous legal and equipment restrictions on them. They don’t have enough ammunition, weapons, training time, and they face tactical restrictions that make it almost impossible for them to truly be ready for attacks.
Schools themselves have done an inexcusable job of being prepared for anything. To be honest, the schools here in America haven’t done a credible job of being tactically prepared for just student shootings in their schools.
Police: What is the most important thing that American law enforcement can do to prevent a Beslan attack in America?
That’s a tough question because all of the decision points are taken away from law enforcement. If American law enforcement were given the options, they would have more cops in the schools and those cops would be better armed.
Beyond that, the best thing police can do is to start training to respond to these attacks. And don’t make a secret about it. This is one of the things you want the enemy to know. Play the counter-intelligence game. Let them know that your department is ready, that your department is getting ready. That’s your best deterrent.
Police: You write that Beslan was in many ways a dry run for America’s schools. Have you had any luck convincing American law enforcement that this is true?
Absolutely. I’m on the road five or six days every week speaking to law enforcement and giving briefings on Beslan. I have rooms packed with law enforcement because I am preaching to the choir. Most cops in America already get it.
Police: Are the terrorists aware that our cops are training for school sieges?
Oh absolutely. They put all of this in their intel files. Any time a police department or a SWAT team anywhere in America has to respond to a critical incident and the news media reports the response time, it goes into the terrorists’ intel files. They need to know law enforcement’s response time. They need to get through the first two phases of their model before the first cop arrives. They are trained to use diversions to draw officers off to another area.
This is why these attacks are likely to occur outside of big urban areas. In smaller communities, it might take the first cop 40 minutes to get there. And it might take the first three cops an hour-and-a-half to get there. That’s the kind of time they need to get through the opening phases of one of these sieges, to make sure it turns into a siege. The last thing they can ever afford is to have that first cop decide to engage and treat it like an active shooter situation. They have studied what cops are doing and they know about active shooter. They want this thing to turn into a siege, and they will make it easy for the commanders outside to make the decisions that will let it turn into a long siege.
Police: You sent a letter to Tom Ridge but never received an answer. Have you had any luck convincing Homeland Security of the threat to our schools? Have you been in contact with Michael Chertoff?
No one in our organization has had any contact with the director of Homeland Security.
Police: Why haven’t the terrorists hit us since 9/11?
There are a lot of things going on. One of the aspects of the terrorist mentality for big operations like this is that they always have to outdo their last big score. The 9/11 attack is a tough thing to beat. That’s part of it.
The other part is that the U.S. invading Afghanistan was a huge shock to them. So what has happened is that they do what they always do. They hunker down. They keep their heads down, then they get their legs back under them.
And recognizing where we are politically in terms of Iraq, they are not going to come hit America now. They want Iraq for a base and for its mineral resources. Right now, as far as they are concerned they’ve got us on the ropes. They think we’re halfway there to just pulling out of Iraq. And if they come hit America, the American public is just going to explode and there will be a resurgence of demands on our government and our military to recommit, to redouble aggressive military actions, not just in Iraq but in other countries. They’re not going to risk that. They’re not that stupid.
Fundamentally, they are afraid of us. This is why they use asymmetrical warfare. They will not go head to head against us. They are predators, and they want easy victims. They don’t want to fight. And they don’t go looking for easy victims when there are protectors—like cops and soldiers—around.