Heads Thriving Firm : Anti-Terrorist Guru Cashes In

From a tiny office, the location of which is a closely guarded secret, James R. Davis runs a police training program that teaches law-enforcement agencies nationwide to beware of liberal organizations because many are merely fronts for clandestine KGB activity.

With a vocabulary straight out of a Robert Ludlum spy thriller and a penchant for revolutionary name-dropping, this self-styled anti-terrorism guru glibly skips from prison gangs to liberals and the anti-nuclear movement in a series of seminars that has brought him both the admiration of loyal followers and the ire of peace groups.

“What I try to say when I give these seminars is that civil disobedience, lawful dissent, is fine,” said Davis, head of DanCor Ltd., which teaches anti-terrorist methods to police departments and international corporations. “But there are groups that are better at exploiting those that are dissenting than those that are dissenting would ever know.

“The next thing you know, people get committed. They’ll say, ‘Anything is legitimate in revolution, according to Marx.’ Carlos Marghella said, in his Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerrilla, ‘You will never relinquish the gun.’ There’s Malcolm X: ‘By any means necessary.’ And then there’s the Black Panthers: ‘Kill a pig and listen to the warm oink.’

‘Wires People Up’

“Now that stuff kind of wires people up, and what it’s saying is, ‘Let’s get off into terrorism, and we’ll bring about a successful revolution in the U.S. or wherever else it’s going to be.’ ”

The linking of the peaceful with the revolutionary, as though that were the natural progression of an activist’s involvement, has gotten Davis into trouble. His most recent skirmish with liberal organizations happened at his Pacific Northwest Crime Conference in Boise, Ida.

Davis had given nine seminars in Idaho before the state Department of Law Enforcement planned the conference. It was supposed to be an in-service conference on terrorism for law-enforcement officers in Idaho and surrounding states. It was to help local police officers prepare security for the upcoming National Conference of Governors that will bring dignitaries from around the country to the state in late August.

But then peace groups saw a copy of the conference brochure, which they contend links innocent peace groups with terrorist activities.

The single sheet of paper portrays armed guerrilla warriors on the cover. And scheduled lectures on terrorist activity included such talks as “Civil Disorder, Peace and Anti-Nuclear Power Groups” and “Central American Groups/Refugee Criminals.”

“Our concern is that it (the conference) would have a First Amendment impact, that these groups would be fearful that the police would be looking into their activities,” said Cathy Silek, spokeswoman for the Boise chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It focuses on New Left groups that are not terrorists . . . . At the very most, these groups might engage in civil disobedience, which is not the same thing as terrorism.”

And although the ACLU is not mentioned by name in the brochure, Silek said, a film called “The KGB Connection” was scheduled as part of the three-day event. And the film mentions the ACLU in the same context as the Soviet intelligence agency, she said.

The ACLU and a handful of other organizations protested the conference, and the Idaho Department of Law Enforcement dropped its sponsorship.

But the Sheriff’s Department and a county commissioner decided to pick up the sponsorship, and the conference went on as scheduled.

“It’s because of the National Conference of Governors that we decided to have this come back,” said Mike Johnson, Ada County commissioner. “We’re going to have something in this city we’ve never had before. A little more training won’t hurt.”

Despite the controversy that surrounds Davis and his business of training police and corporate representatives, DanCor Ltd. is burgeoning, and the self-styled terrorism expert says he is in constant demand.

On the Road

He has held seminars in every state, he said, and in several Latin American countries. He is on the road as many as 45 weeks each year, and his consulting business is swamped with requests. Begun in 1980, DanCor Ltd. has grown to a point now where “I’m able to pick the clients I want,” Davis said.

He charges a minimum of $750 per day and says he is known well enough that he doesn’t hand out resumes and refuses to divulge any information about his background. “It’s nobody’s business,” Davis said in a recent interview. “I have past law-enforcement experience, but that’s all I’ll tell you . . . . Besides, I’ve tried to insulate the professional aspect of what I do from my personal life and my home and three children.”

The result is that Davis--who characterizes himself as “a Christian and a patriot”--refuses to meet clients or reporters in his El Cajon office. His children, he said, think their father is a teacher. “And I am, in a way,” he added.

In addition to instructing police forces in the perils of national and international terrorism, Davis also advises corporate executives how to safeguard themselves, their families and their companies.

Easy Pickings

The most common problem he sees in corporations is the ease with which a terrorist can reach highly placed executives. Most companies, he said, make it easy to kidnap bigwigs.

“I always ask them if there’s an access program, whereby I have to go through two or three people to get to them, or can I just walk in and kick somebody in the throat, swivel-kick somebody on the side of the head and come in with my sophisticated automatic weapon and say, ‘Listen . . . I’m gonna take you out unless you give me some money,’ ” he said. “Every time I’m told I cannot get to the boss, I get to the boss.”

According to Rand Corp.’s top expert on terrorism, the El Cajon company is just one more example of a booming new industry that cashes in on the real and imagined fears of a nation full of fearful citizens.

“The private security industry--both for services and hardware--has increased enormously,” said Brian Jenkins, head of the Rand research program on sub-national conflict, political violence and terrorism.

Billions Spent

“The total amount spent on private security equipment and services now exceeds the total amount spent in this country on public security,” Jenkins said. “There is $14 billion spent on police department budgets at the federal, state and local level, compared to $21 billion spent in the private security area--consultants, private guards, alarm systems, armored cars, barrier systems and access control devices.”

Although terrorism is a way of life in many countries, it has only struck the United States in the last 10 to 20 years, he said, and the public sector cannot keep up with the growing protection needs of many of its citizens.

“In dealing with crime at home and with terrorism abroad at which Americans are the principal targets, it is obvious that governments cannot protect people,” Jenkins said. “Corporate executives are on the front line. Governments cannot protect all of those people for want of resources, therefore the burden of security has shifted to the private sector, and the spending has also shifted.”

Because of the growing numbers of American executives and diplomats kidnaped at home and abroad, Jenkins said, Americans will probably spend between $50 billion and $60 billion a year on private security by the end of the century.

Divergent Opinions

And DanCor Ltd. wants a piece of the action.

Law-enforcement officers and training specialists who have attended or reviewed Davis’ seminars and conferences have radically divergent opinions of his terrorism curriculum. Capt. G. M. Osterfeld, head of training for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said officers who attended Davis’ 1983 seminars in that state learned little from the experience.

“People who attended whom I talked to were sorely disappointed with the class,” Osterfeld said. “They felt that the information presented was dated and had very little solid information supporting it.

“What he presented can be gathered from reading any textbook on terrorism. I haven’t found anyone who likes him yet.”

According to Osterfeld, any police agency in Arizona can bring in an instructor to teach its officers at the officers’ expense, but the Arizona Law Enforcement Officers Advisory Council must approve all instructors and curricula if they are to be paid for by the state.

Reviewing the Records

“Looking back in Mr. Davis’ records, we discovered that he had taught and been approved for Class B status,” Osterfeld said. “All that means is that the police agency can apply to ALEOAC for reimbursement of costs. That’s all.”

In Massachusetts, Davis did not even receive such limited approval from certifying agencies because of his extreme “right-wing” approach to the subject matter. And he is not certified to teach in California law-enforcement agencies.

“His materials seemed to indicate that anyone could be a terrorist,” said Judith Panora, director of training for the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council. “We felt this was too aggressive and not appropriate for Massachusetts. I thought it was too right-wing.”

In contrast, federal Department of Defense officials in Illinois contend that Davis is excellent when it comes to training police officers to handle assaults from terrorist organizations.

‘Worthwhile’ Sessions

“I thought they (Davis’ seminars) were excellent,” said William Tollefson, a clinical psychiatrist for the Defense Department’s Rock Island Arsenal in northwest Illinois. Tollefson attended a two-day terrorism seminar in January and found it “worthwhile . . . as a preventive education in order to protect our police officers.”

“His courses for the area and subject matter are excellent for police and security people,” Tollefson said. “This is a new problem here, and we don’t have enough experience with it. The seminars present a good insight into what is becoming needed in our country--beginning to arm ourselves, America, against terrorism.”