Few, if any, modern terrorists share Abdel Rahman’s pedigree, Fred Burton, Stratfor’s chief security officer, writes. “One of the more interesting and lesser-known aspects of the Blind Sheikh’s plots forever changed the methods we used to protect our charges. In the aftermath of the first World Trade Center bombing, we uncovered sophisticated surveillance efforts that Abdel Rahman’s cell had carried out while hiding in plain sight… In light of the unearthed plans, we quickly revised our procedures to put countersurveillance agents on the street. We turned the tables on the terrorists and began aggressively looking for pre-operational surveillance in progress. While the Blind Sheikh’s plots cost lives and wreaked havoc, they also led to a shift in mindset and methods that made our protective details more effective,” Burton writes.