Headlines in the Midlands
South Carolina establishes Counterterrorism Advisory Team
By Carol A. Taber
The Joint Services Detachment (JSD) of the South Carolina Military Department (SCMD) has established a Counterterrorism Advisory Team, a 10-plus member council composed of nationally recognized military, counterterrorism, and intelligence experts responsible for providing information to - and briefing - the JSD, and through JSD disseminating information to the broader S.C. Military Dept. The information used and the analysis presented in the briefings is public – based on open sources – and pertains to terrorism and terrorist threats to the state and nation.
The team - whose experts include retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely (a former FOX News military analyst), Dr. Walid Phares (a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies), two retired CIA operations officers, and one retired FBI special agent for counterintelligence - is somewhat unique among military and paramilitary organizations, though there are groups like the Lower Manhattan Counter-Terrorism Advisory Team, a multi-agency team which includes among others the New York Police Department.
But S.C.'s Counterterrorism Advisory Team may best be described as a blue-ribbon panel of experts on international terrorism, and - though still in its developmental stages - it is certainly an elite organization; its members having already substantially increased the national awareness of threats facing the U.S. homeland.
The S.C. Military Department is composed of various elements, including the S.C. Army National Guard, the S.C. Air National Guard, the S.C. State Guard, the JSD, the Emergency Management Division, and the Adjutant General's office. In addition to its counterterrorism initiative, the SCMD's missions range from Guard units deployed in Afghanistan to Hurricane preparedness to the oversight and planning of the national Medal of Honor Convention to be held in Charleston, S.C. this year.
About Carol A. Taber - founder and president of FamilySecurityMatters.org - is a regular commentator on FOX News' Strategy Room, a frequent guest on FOX & Friends, and her work has appeared in The Washington Times, Accuracy in Media, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Sun Times, Townhall.com, and other publications.
