The hydrocarbon area in Algeria is protected by the Algerian military, with gendarmes providing area protection and expatriate escorts for each site, and contract security personnel providing on-site access control. My company was not involved in the In Amenas operation, but we were protected by the very same security systems which were failing them.
My next thought was for our people in Algeria and if they were safe. It was right then that I received an email from the Operations Manager at our facility saying that he had already evacuated most of our people to a safer location. A few expatriates and most of the Algerian staff remained at our facility. Flights from Europe to the Algerian desert had been cancelled. We didn't know at this time whether In Amenas was the only target.
Evacuation was not a simple decision. To evacuate people from the site you must first safely complete the half hour drive to the airstrip, after scouting the road and the airstrip for threats. The plane had limited capacity so decisions had to be made about who was most at risk as well as who was most needed to provide leadership on the site. I wondered whether the terrorists knew that most companies would respond by evacuating expats to Hassi Messaoud. What if they had another attack planned there? The airport in Hassi Messaoud was also protected by the military. Vehicles and people were searched before entering. There were military checkpoints throughout the area. Still, it was known that RPGs were in the hands of terrorists in Algeria. If they could get within a few kilometres of the airstrip, they could shoot down a plane on take off or landing. Our evacuating staff had to land there and then our Hassi security team had to drive them safely to our secure compound. Everyone was afraid as the illusion of safety was shattered.
This initial response was only the beginning. After such a horrifying situation, people were asking themselves what risk were they willing to take just to do their jobs every day? And so, as the events unfolded at In Amenas, our crisis response team met every morning to ensure everything in our power was done to protect people. Engineers calculated whether the dining hall roof could support enough sand bags to create a defensive position. Safe rooms were constructed, procedures were changed, and the number of expatriates on site was limited to the capacity of the airplane. A berm was built around the base de vie, checkpoints were added, barricades installed to ensure vehicles had to slow for the checkpoints, surveillance posts were built on top of the beautiful sand dunes, and many other measures were taken. Still, you could imagine a new way through every defense.
The attack began on Wednesday and lasted until Saturday. On Sunday, I boarded a plane in Houston with my boss heading for a meeting in Algiers. There was a problem with the plane's engine and the flight was delayed and then cancelled. My boss had asked me if I felt comfortable going to Algeria. If I didn't, I could choose not to go. Men fifteen years my senior who had spent years rotating 28 days in and out of Algeria had decided to stop taking that risk. My boss was surprised that I was comfortable continuing to travel to Algeria after In Amenas. The decision is a personal one - choosing how you wish to live - and each person's decision is respected.
I had chosen to move from the safe city of Calgary, where the violent crime rate is low and usually between people who knew each other, to Houston with 10 times the crime rate and frequently random victims. This was a foreign culture for me - people feel very strongly about their right to carry guns and use them, the system of electing constables left me feeling unsure about how the police force worked here. America is a country where mad men with guns all too often go on a shooting spree.
Algeria's capital city of Algiers has a visible police presence, most people don't have guns, and there are vehicle check points on the way into the city. When I traveled there, the company provided a driver and a security professional, and restricted my movements. I stayed in a secure villa with high walls, barbed wire, security staff, cameras, and police stationed at several points on the block. In Houston I stayed in a townhouse by myself. I felt safer in Algiers, and on a rational level, I was safer in Algiers.
In North America, girls are taught that they are not safe outside alone at night. We are taught to be careful, avoid dark alleys, ask someone to walk us home. We learn to live with the fear that a man is lurking somewhere, ready to pounce, targeting us because we are female. We tell ourselves that we are safe because we choose a busy street to walk home at night. We invent ways to protect ourselves. We take self-defense classes. We could imagine a way through every defense, but we choose not to because we don't want to live in fear.
I did not find it difficult to continue traveling to Algeria after the attack. The threat level had not changed - we had always known there was this risk but it did not become real until the attack. Before the attack, we felt the security precautions were over the top. We thought the lieutenant was just being hard on us when we were not allowed to climb the dune after work. We knew vehicles traveling through the desert were not always thoroughly searched and we were not concerned because not much had ever happened. The attack woke everyone up and this made us safer afterwards than we were before.
I was more alert - looking for suspicious behaviour everywhere I went. For every room I stayed in, I thought about where I would hide and how I would escape if there were an attack. The company took down every list from the walls that might indicate which expats were on site. I developed the habit of packing everything in my suitcase before I went to sleep and hiding the suitcase in the closet. If there was an attack in the night, I would make it look as though the room was unoccupied and give no reason to look for me in my hiding place. I knew the odds this would ever make any difference were negligible but we were leaving no stone unturned.
I also reflected on what the greatest risks to my life and well-being were. Driving on I-10 in Houston was my biggest risk. I started taking the tollway more often as it had only two lanes of traffic and this significantly reduced the risk of collision. I thought about how long I was willing to live with the risk level in Houston and what made that worthwhile.
Now, two years after the attack at In Amenas, the world is reeling from a new attack. I am afraid of what this will bring. Calls to hunt down the terrorists and kill them and fight the war on terror only add fuel to the fire. More and more terrorists are created every day. More disturbing to me is that some of them are Canadian. Two of the attackers at In Amenas were born and raised in Canada.
To prevent terrorism, we must prevent people from becoming radicalized in the first place. This is no easy task, but there is knowledge of how to do this. Calgary police have reduced recruitment of kids into gangs because they understand what drives the kids to want to join. On a most basic level, everyone wants to be a part of something important and everyone has a tendency to reject people who don't fit in. What if we all commit to lead a cultural change? To ensure everyone has a place in society. What if one of our Three Things for Calgary this year is to help a kid who feels left out or help a young adult find their place. What if we recruit people to work for a good cause before they are recruited into a violent group? It will take a long time and a lot of effort but I believe we must do it. You can't kill the terrorists fast enough as long as they are recruiting more. Canada is an amazing country. Let's make sure every Canadian feels a part of that.
Alberta's Gang Reduction Strategy:
https://justice.alberta.ca/programs_services/safe/Documents/alberta-gang-reduction-strategy-20101206.pdf
Calgary Police Service 4 Point Gang Strategy:
http://www.calgary.ca/cps/Pages/Community-programs-and-resources/Crime-prevention/Gangs-Calgarys-gang-strategy.aspx
Volunteer in Calgary:
http://propellus.org/
In Memoriam
Alf Vik
Angelito Manaois Jr
Bunshiro Naito
Carlos Estrada
Carson John Bilsland
Cesar Araos Laluan
Chung Ngen Chong
Frederick Martil But-taccio
Fumihiro Ito
Garry Samuel Barlow
German De Guzman
Gordon Rowan
Hans M. Bjone
Hidemi Maekawa
Hiroaki Ogota
lluminado Santiago
lonut Tiberiu Costache
Jon Jon Morgado Falogme
Julius Ceasar Caluza Madrid
Keisuke Kawabata
Kenneth Hugh Whiteside
Mihail Marius Bucur
Moham«l Lamine Lahmar
Paul Morgan
Ping Wee Tan
Raffy Edubane
Rokuro Fuchida
Satoshi Kiyama
Sebastian John
Silvino Robeniol Imanil Jr
Stephen Green
Takashi Yamada
Tanadori Aratani
Thomas Snekkevik
Tore Bech
Victor Lovelady
Victor Sneberg
Wensler Garpino Caringal
Yann Desjeux
Yasuji Goto
