Counterpoints To postings and comments made about me in some forums which have referenced my Steele/ITG article.
Addendum June 2005
Note to Tacticalforums.com readers who have accessed this article through the link in that forum:
Along with some minor updates and finishing touches on this article, I have been aware that a link to this article and personal references to myself remain in the executive bodyguard section of tacticalforums.com where the moderators were encouraged to "ban" me for alleged violations of etiquette and release of personal information about other students who had attended the course, specifically, the publication of a low resolution class picture at the beginning of this article. There were no names in this article other than those openly published as instructors, not even the names of persons who were interviewed and published in an article from the SanFrancisco Chronicle what was published in December of 2004.
There was one passing reference in this article at savvysurvivor.com, not mentioned by name, but interesting in the light that person's responsibilities which I felt worth mentioning in this article. One of the other students then apparently contacted several other persons (not myself) in distress over the passing mention it the article that might have been a reference to their employment, and in that person's mind, might threaten the continuation of their employment because someone might possibly be able to figure out from the reference that they had attended a security course. Upon being informed of this person's objection through a third party, I immediately removed that one sentence from the first draft of this article as it was on my server. It should be noted, that person was posting on tacticalforums.com and relating their experiences in the ITG course I attended and this article was linked only there, and otherwise buried on this website with links that were several steps away from the index of savvysurvivor.com At the time of this June 2005 update, this article has only 202 hits, although that is likely to increase as the article is linked closer to the index page of savvysurvivor.com At the time the article was written and contained the sentence that certain individual found to be violating their privacy, the article was only read by members of the forum in which that person was already posting more revealing information about them self and their employment. While I had disagreements and disputes on both personal and professional levels with some individuals in that forum, I had no issues with the person who claimed extreme distress over the reference in the article, meant no flame or offense, and immediately removed the parts that person found to be objectionable. It is my opinion at this point that no damage whatsoever was done to this individual personally or professionally, there was no chance of such damage being done, and the circumstance was used as an opportunity to cull favor with a clique of moderately successful individuals in the private executive security industry who had taken it upon themselves to attack my character when the opportunity presented itself.
The circumstances of the topic on tacticalforums.com should not reflect negatively in Mr. Fitzgibbons who attempted to mediate the situation to everyone's satisfaction, but at this point, the timeline implied there is misleading and unacceptable. At the end of the topic, Kensho (his real name not published) posted "POST ad PHOTO deleted due to PERSEC and unauthorized use......xOSIx (my screen name there) ..your 86'd.. BYE.... First, there was a post on that topic in that forum that perhaps one of the fact-modifiers neglected to delete that was posted by the photographer (OK his name not mentioned on this site, and the topic not even linked from this site, so you can't find out his name from any link here) posted "Just make sure and give me photo credits as I have turned this whole picture thing into a pull fledge business right now". In fairness, most of the pictures he took of people other than myself turned out quite well. Further criticisms and insults against me were published in that forum after I was no longer able to post there or use the private messaging system there but those posts have since dropped off that server and there is no cause to address them here now.
Lightfighter Forum
Incidentally, this article was posted as a reference at lightfighter.com and some people took it as an opportunity to revisit a litany of "offenses" I had committed. First, the individual at lightfighter who posts as "Blackdog" is neither a bodyguard, Private Military Contractor or attendant or graduate of ITG, and never employed by the Steele Foundation. To the best of my knowledge, I have never met him in person. I understand that he is in his mid 30s and currently employed as a K-9 handler with a police department in the SanFrancisco Bay area, apparently South SanFrancisco, a part of the SF Bay are where I have only rarely travelled through and never had any encounters with law enforcement in that area except to complain about a software company out of that area that has been sending viruses on the Internet as a marketing ploy for their "internet security" software. Blackdog, by his own admission has never been in the military, never even sought overseas security jobs and never worked in executive security. I could attempt to speculate as to his motivations for posting against me in military and PSD/PMC related forums, but I would rather not be in the trap of fathoming what transpires in the mind of a cockroach.
Believeraz, Keld, Stonewall, Tricam, Luno and Jumper had attended the same course that I did, but there should be some clarification. Believeraz was not an instructor or evaluator in that course, he was a student just like I was. He did well and later went on to assist with instructing other courses. Incidentally, he had won his tuition to the course in some sort of contest. Regardless of how someone wants to rewrite history, the fact of the matter is that I passed the course with 87 out of 100 possible on the written test, and 48 out of possible 50 on the weapons qualifications (they used a standard State Department course of fire). Yes, the average written test score for that particular course was 87.5 so in theory I could be considered "below average" for that course, but that particular class, (now known as the legendary ITG3) had several people in it who had worked in both the government and private side of executive protection for a long time and had previously attended similar courses. The class averages for previous and later courses were lower and according to the instructors the class averages for State department personnel taking the same tests have been considerably lower (below 80%). 48 out of 50 may not be "perfect" in weapons qualification, but that makes expert any day of the week in any government approved or NRA courses of fire that I know of. I should also note that I shot the course with a realistic weapon in a realistic caliber. In that instance, I qualified with a .45 double action Witness .45 that I had used throughout most of the course while the vast majority of the other shooters were using Glock 9mms with light triggers and were not drawing from concealment on the timed portions of the course. I did match score with the only other shooter there who was using a .45 (his was a Kimber 1911 variant). Any claims that I 'did not perform' at the class are patently false. The assertions of a clique centered around a few individuals with a predisposed opinion is neither an official evaluation or a consensus. As far as a fashion critique from Stonewall, well, if the pictures were available, they would explain themselves. Suffice to say, "blending in the environment" is a matter of perception I guess, but someone should get a clue when they are walking down the street in San Francisco and everyone is staring because you are dressed like nobody else there. Clue #2, the only thing less cool than getting your coffee from Starbucks is getting your suits off the rack at the Men's Wearhouse.
If "guy" knows me from somewhere, I don't remember him or would identify him by a different name. Mike Miller, the guy claiming to be a former police sniper from Oakland California apparently attended ITG several months after I did and to the best of my memory, is not someone I have met in person unless he is the same guy who was an assistant instructor at a different course I had attended in that area and was the goofball trying to convince me that his fiberglass parade helmet was actually some new HSLD level 4 SWAT armor (I think he was a different guy). So apparently there was this time that "guy" wanted to kick my ass and his buddy Mike Miller diplomatically talked him out of it. Yeah...whatever. Mike Miller at his sniper rifle sling business does not seem to want to return the phone calls to explain any of this to me.