140 Certified Instructors from the German School, and I predicted a terrorist attack for 9/11
Jim Wagner
Before training dedicated warriors, police officers, martial arts instructors and a few people who have never studied self-defense in their lives in my school in Solingen, Germany I took a short hop over to Berlin to work on a video project. That was on September 1, 2012 Anno Domini. Needless to say the introduction of this video begins with me in front of the world famous Brandenburg Gate; the symbol of German reunification on October 3, 1990.
Standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate was interesting because when I had joined the United States Army in 1980 the other side of that very gate was East Germany; communist, Soviet controlled, the Evil Empire. In short - the enemy. While going through Boot Camp my drill sergeants made it very clear to us that the Warsaw Pact, which included East Germany, were the enemy. Now, they are friends and I was able to walk through Checkpoint Charlie to the old “Soviet Sector” without be stopped or questioned.
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After a relaxing weekend catching up on some writing, emails, and enjoying some unusually good weather for this time of year, I started my Level 1 Reality-Based Personal Protection Defensive Tactics course on Monday, September 3, 2012. I know I seem to say this every seminar, but this was an exceptionally good group from start to finish; “finish” being Terrorism Survival on Friday. In this course I had soldiers from the German Army, three Swiss police officer from three different police stations, Jorg Kuschel and a few of his black belts from the Kenju-ryu, a few Krav Maga instructors, a Shotokan instructor, two Jiu-Jitsu instructors, some martial artists, and a couple of beginners. Assisting me was throughout the week was my Director of German Speaking Countries, Tobias, along with Samir Doubali, and a German Army Ranger (name withheld) who are regular guest instructors of mine.
Day Two was Ground Survival, Day Three was an intense day of Knife Survival, Day Four was Crime Survival, and the final day was Terrorism Survival; four days before the 11th anniversary of 9/11. All of my courses are life-saving, and every self-defense school should offer the same, but it still surprises me how very few martial arts schools teach anything about surviving a terrorist attack. I brought up this topic to share with my Facebook friends on September 10th, and here is exactly what I wrote:
September 11, 2012 marks the 11th anniversary of the 9/11, and yet there are still very few martial arts schools teaching terrorism survival.
On January 21, 2003, two years after the horrific terrorist attacks on the United States, I started offering my Reality-Based Personal Protection system to the public, which includes an 8-hour course titled Terrorism Survival. I was sure that in the face of increasing terrorism that other martial arts schools would copy my system or develop programs of their own to teach their students how to protect themselves against acts of terrorism. I was wrong. Eleven years after 9/11 it seems that only Reality-Based Personal Protection instructors around the world are teaching civilians step-by-step how to defend themselves against acts of terrorism while most self-defense schools ignore the problem all together. It’s as if terrorism does not exist. It’s not just Islamic terrorism that has plagued this last decade, but school shootings, mall shootings, office massacres, and gunmen running amok slaughtering people. It’s not just an “American problem,” but these incidents crisscross the globe; more problems that are virtually ignored by the martial arts community.
Anyone who has read my book Reality-Based Personal Protection published by Ohara Publications in 2005, has viewed any of my DVDs, or just watched a few of my videos on my YouTube channel jimwagnerrbpp knows that learning techniques to survive terrorists attacks are no more difficult than learning punching and kicking techniques. I’m still a long way from putting up everything I want to on YouTube, but what I have up currently covers a few key points in how to survive a small arms attack. I get a lot of students writing me and telling me that they are practicing what they have learned from these resources, but instructors outside of my system teaching these techniques are disappointedly low.
In my Terrorism Survival course I cover hand grenade attacks, small arms attacks, sniper attacks, chemical weapons attacks, bomb searches to increase my students’ chances to survive them should they find themself in the Hot Zone or Warm Zone. Not only do my students learn up-to-date information about terrorism when the attend, but they run through several realistic scenarios serving to implant actual experiences into their memories that can be recalled should the real event ever come their way. Are these things you should know for your own safety, or for those you care about? The answer is, most definitely. Maybe if more people ask their martial arts instructors, regardless of the system, to include techniques and training methods to survive various terrorists attacks. Then, just maybe, these instructors will start expanding their “martial arts,” their “war arts,” skills to include dealing with terrorism. At the end of the day it’s all about people’s safety and helping them to survive. Terrorism is not going to go away, and anyone learning self-defense should start looking into Terrorism Survival.
Be A Hard Target.
When I wrote this I suspected there might be a terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11, but even if there had not been I knew that the War on Terrorism was far from over and I wanted to "jump start" martial arts schools into action. I'll talk more about the events that took place in Libya and Egypt further on in this report.
If you are still not one of my Facebook friends you should be. Every day, except Sundays, I post a personal protection tip like the one above. Every day is a different topic that can span from legal issues in self-defense to step-by-step instructions how to survive an office massacre. My Facebook name is jimwagnerrbpp
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One of the highlights of the week was on Thursday six of my students invited me out to dinner. They wanted to go up to Schloss Burg, a wonderfully preserved Medieval castle surrounded by forests overlooking the Wupper River, just a 15 minute drive east of Solingen; “the blade city.” Inside the walls of the castle, and a small village surrounding it are some quaint restaurants, and Patrick Schlauch picked a good one. We all sat outside on the balcony overlooking the forest and ate traditional Bergisches Land food. We talked about self-defense, German economy and politics, and then I gravitated to the police side of the table and listened to the concerns of my Swiss police students.
I’m happy to report that when I handed out the instructor certificates that Sarah Scheu was the 140th instructor that I trained in the Solingen school. Hundreds more have gone through the various courses over the years, but we don’t number them. Her instructor, Timo Garner, encouraged her to take the Level 1 courses.
The weekend, including Monday, was KNIFE CAMP. Day one was Knife Survival, Day Two Knife Expert, at the tail end of Day Two is Tactical Knife which is restricted to government personnel, and Day Three finishes the Camp with Knife Instructor. A Knife Instructor certification gives the recipient my full blessing to teach under the Reality-Based Personal Protection banner, under my name, or independently if they so desire. Some instructors make their certificates public, while others use them only for in-house purposes for police agencies or military units.
One of the highlights during KNIFE CAMP was on Sunday the 10 th when I had the opportunity to train with a German Army combat medic during our lunch break. He taught me step-by-step their technique for inserting an IV (Intravenous Injection) into a wounded victim. Although I am Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) certified, the U.S. Army has done away with soldiers with my level of medical training giving IVs. For Americans this medical procedure is only reserved for our combat medics, so it was nice to get a little more training above my current level, and to see how a NATO ally is doing it. If anything it helps me understand how the circulatory system works, and makes me appreciate combat medics more. In the Knife Survival course I do go over direct pressure on knife wounds, stopping the bleeding of a severed artery, and the steps for treating shock as part of the post-conflict training.
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I would have left Germany the next day, but that was September 11 th; the 11 th anniversary of 9/11. When first booking my flight in California a month ago I decided to avoid flying on that day and book the flight from Dusseldorf to Los Angeles for the following day on September 12 th. As a terrorism expert I knew how important anniversary dates are to terrorist groups and didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. I told all of my students on September 7th, my Terrorism Survival course, "I'm not flying home on September 11th. There could very well be a terrorist attack on that day." I told my Reality-Based Director of Germany that we were going to spend a little extra money for me staying an extra day in Germany. Unfortunately, it turns out that my hunch was partly correct. Although no American passenger jets were targeted that day a well-coordinated terrorist attack was launched against the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya by a dozen gunmen in a few waves of attacks using rocket-propelled grenades killing United States Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three Regional Security Officers. One bodyguard killed was former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty, 42, of my state California. The CIA believes that this attack had been planned way in advance and purposely launched on the anniversary of 9/11. To the east in Egypt the United States Embassy was stormed in Cairo while the Egyptian police and military just looked on. Many men got over the Embassy wall, tore down the American flag and desecrated it, and later put up a black flag, resembling that of the Al Qaeda flag, with the Muslim profession of faith in white letters – “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His Messenger.” Fortunately our security personnel there fired rubber bullets and those advancing on the compound and repelled the attack. A U.S. Embassy is American soil. It is the duty of the host country to protect ALL embassies and diplomatic missions.
The incident in Egypt started as a “spontaneous” protest of 2,000 people who were supposedly outraged over a filmed titled “Innocence of Muslims” directed and produced by an Israeli-American. The film highlights the hypocrisies of Islam and was promoted by the controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones. What the Muslim world fails to realize is that Americans have freedom of speech. We don’t police people’s speech nor the Internet. To attack American interests for individuals giving their opinion is just an excuse for violence and murder. This movie has been known for weeks. It is no coincidence that trouble was stirred up in front of our Embassy on September 11th.
As a result of all of this chaos two American destroyers are now off the coast of Libya for “contingency plans,” and seven Islamic countries are warning that American interests are in danger in their countries.
I had watched the news in my hotel room in Dusseldorf on September 11th, but there was nothing about Libya or Egypt. I didn’t even find out about the terrorist attack and storming of our Embassy until I touched down in the United States in the afternoon on the 12th. I was warned about the attacks from a phone call and then I watched CNN at the airport to find out the details.
The night before flying home was rather special because Lieutenant Mike Remig of the German Army picked me up at my hotel in Dusseldorf and took me out to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant where we dined on exquisite foods; I even had a helping of crocodile meat.
So, why would an army Colonel, who has combat experience in Kosovo and Afghanistan, want to wine and dine me? The reason is simple. He believes in what I teach and has made it the “official system” for his private security company he runs on the side. In fact he sent one of his boys through my KNIFE CAMP before he heads off to South Africa.
With permission from his chain-of-command Mike owns and operates UW-SAFARI.NET. The company is hired by adventures who want him to organize their trips and provide protection for them in hot spots around the world. In the past year even fashion photographers have been hiring Mike to protect them and their models in exotic locations where other companies would love to go for exclusive shots, but are afraid to.
Before dinner I gave Mike my unit’s challenge coin and some Arabic study CDs since he does some runs down to Egypt every so often. To my surprise at the dinner table Mike gave me his Airborne knife. Not the new ones that they are using, but the older version that has the wooden handles, which were the standard issued knives since the first German airborne unit was commissioned by the Luftwaffe in World War II. Not only did I have an excellent knife to add to my personal collection, but I had a piece of history. I was honored that he gave me such a prized gift.
During the meal we talked business, world events, and German politics. We didn’t even know the tragedy that was going on in Libya, for the attack was happening that evening. Mike’s perfect English and high level of education and world experiences made the few hours slip by rather quickly.
I finished off the night with an after dinner drink called a Killepitch. The story behind this drink is that during a bombing raid over Dusseldorf by American bombers in World War II a group of people hiding in one of the brewing distilleries had mixed a concoction of a bunch of grains and herbs just to have something alcoholic to drink. As the bombs started to rain down above their cellar they toasted to each other saying, “Before they kill us let’s pitch another one.” The word “pitch” would be translated in English “take a shot.” Mike said, “I don’t know how accurate this story is, but it makes for a nice story anyway.”
As I was flying out of Germany to go home Ambassador Steven’s body, and the others killed with him, were being flown into Germany from Libya. Please pray for the family and friends of these brave Americans who gave their lives in the line of duty. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was an extraordinary man who went into Libya during the Arab Spring war to work with rebel forces on behalf of the United States. Regional Security Officers are men of steel. I just recently met with a couple of them in Germany in May, and their job is to keep our U.S. Missions and personnel safe.
As you can see from all of the intense photos that I have posted of the Level 1 courses, there are few self-defense schools in the world teaching the full spectrum of personal protection. If you are in the United Kingdom I will be teaching this same seminar in Devon, England at Paul Drury's Black Belt Academy at the end of this month, September 30 to October 2. To sign up for one or more of the courses please contact the Reality-Based Personal Protection Director of the United Kingdom, Gary Dell by visiting our official website.
I will be back in Solingen in November to teach three different seminars: Level 2, Women’s Survival, and Level 3. Since I do not teach these courses anywhere else in Europe I would encourage all of you Level 1 students and instructors to sign up for one or more of these courses. Level 2 is to complete your self-defense education and Level 3 is for professional instructors only wanting to know all the pointers in running a successful self-defense business. Anybody can sign up for the Level 2 courses, and women 14 years and up for the Women's Survival course, but only Level 1 and 2 instructors can sign up for Level 3 courses by visiting our official German website.
I always enjoy teaching in Germany, and I am always humbled how so many people are loyal to the system that I have created. It’s a good place to have my base of operations.
Be A Hard Target
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