College & University Police & Investigators Conference | George Mason University





John Giduck
2009 CUPIC Plenary Session Presenter
President; Archangel Group

John has a Bachelor’s Degree from Penn State and a law degree from the University of Denver. He also earned a Master’s Degree in International Affairs, specializing in Russian studies, from the University of Colorado, which included completion of the Russian Culture and Language Program at St. Petersburg State University in Russia. He has traveled extensively throughout Russia and the former Soviet Union, training with Russia’s elite special forces units for more than 10 years, and is a certified instructor in Russian special forces hand to hand combat.

He has trained state and federal law enforcement officers and agents, including DEA, FBI, US Marshal’s Service, and SWAT teams throughout the US. He has served as a consultant on various international and terrorism subjects, and as a Russian Organized Crime instructor, for numerous federal and state agencies. He currently devotes his professional time to the Archangel Group, providing anti-terrorism consulting and training to U.S. law enforcement, government and military, part of which includes John serving as a civilian contract U.S. Army Special Forces hand-to-hand combat and firearms instructor. As well, he holds several black belts, is a multiple inductee into international martial arts halls of fame, and is a former U.S. national weightlifting champion.

John is a lifetime member of the Special Operations Association, Rocky Mountain Tactical Team Association, Russian Special Forces Brotherhood of the Red Beret Association, and is a lifetime executive member of the British Professional Bodyguard Association. He is a graduate of the FBI Citizen’s Academy and holds the highest level expert certification in Homeland Security through the American College of Forensic Examiners International, and is a former member of the Executive Advisory Board of the American College of Homeland Security and Police Marksman magazine. He is a current member of the Advisory Board of the College of Disaster Medicine and Management of Philadelphia University. In addition to other published materials and articles on terrorism, Russian organized crime and close quarters tactics, finished his book, Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy With Lessons for America’s Schools, in 2005. His second book, co-authored with Green Beret Sergeant Major John Anderson, entitled The Green Beret In You: Living With Total Commitment To Family, Career, Sports and Life, was published in late 2007.

As part of his work with Archangel, John Giduck is also a scuba, tactical diving and CQB instructor, and teaches terrorist-hostage negotiations, narco-terrorism, terrorism and global organized crime, and Russian organized crime courses. He is now working on his doctoral dissertation on the global expansion of radical Islam through King’s College of London.
 

2009 Presentations
August 5, 2009

Beslan Terrorist School Siege Presentation

Archangel Group's President, John Giduck, arrived at Beslan Middle School No. 1 in North Ossetia, Russia, at the conclusion of the battle by Russian Special Forces to retake the school.  Drawing on 17 years experience traveling, working, attending university and training with the Russian Special Forces, he spent months investigating all aspects of this attack, including many interviews with Russian Special Forces, government officials, and Beslan townspeople, with three trips to Russia for this purpose alone.  Mr. Giduck presents up to an 8-hour seminar on his investigation.  In the seminar he covers the terrorist planning process, terrorist intelligence collection for the assault, defenses deployed, and how negotiations ultimately failed and why.  The result was over 300 dead in a ten hour battle.  Further, this seminar will cover the government's plan in handling the crisis, what went wrong and what was done right.  Vulnerabilities of U.S. scho ols to this same type of assault and necessary changes in security to protect our children are presented in detail.  Mr. Giduck presents diagrams, video, and never before seen photos of the siege.  Archangel Group was the only American entity that conducted an on scene investigation of this tragedy.  Mr. Giduck authored his book, "Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America's Schools," to completely detail the history leading up to this terrorist event, as well as aspects of the siege and the aftermath.

 


Virginia Tech Massacre Presentation

The Virginia Tech massacre (VT) briefing examines the evolution of tactics in school attacks committed by disenfranchised and disaffected American citizens.  Detailing the rise in both actual attacks and those planned (but prevented) the briefing demonstrates how even our own untrained citizens are studying the tactics of those who came before them, and further evolving the manner in which the attacks are carried out to present law enforcement and schools with the greatest tactical hurdles possible.  The briefing provides highlights and details of the most recent major attacks from Columbine to Bailey (CO), Nickel Mines (PA) and ultimately VT many of which are unknown to the general public.  The spectrum of extreme tactical threats to schools is presented, with an analysis of the elements of each to help schools and LE create a predictive model of behavior for both its students and citizens, but also for response.  With the attack at VT being the most recent and resulting in the greatest number injured and killed, complete details of the manner in which Seung-Hui Cho studied these prior school assault, adapted his tactics, carried out his assault plan and the police response are provided, in addition to photos and floor plans.