National Defense Consultants educating law enforcement and the public since 2023

Military experts formed the organization years earlier in 2012

By Chris Carter

National Defense Consultants, the nation’s premier national security and military analysis group has existed as an LLC since 2012, but the Columbia, S.C.-based organization has been providing client companies, government agencies, policymakers, and the media with the full-spectrum of military analysis, consulting, and national defense briefings since the beginning of the October 7, 2023, War in Gaza.

Partnering with expert analysts like Kyle Shideler, director and senior analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, and Christopher Holton, senior Analyst and director for State Outreach, also at the Center; NDC began providing briefings to S.C. law enforcement agencies in early December 2023 with a briefing delivered first to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, followed by a counterriot briefing to the S.C. Police Chiefs Association at the U.S. Secret Service South Carolina field-office headquarters facility in Columbia, June 5, 2024. Successive briefings followed, including one in North Charleston, S.C., each covering counterriot operations for law enforcement, the presence and threat of domestic groups like Antifa, other extremist groups and international terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and their affiliates.

Simultaneously, Col. Bill Connor, a retired U.S. Army Infantry officer and one of National Defense Consultants’ (NDC’s) senior founding partners, began providing expert analysis to NEWSMAX: Connor’s live television segments beginning soon after the eruption of the Israel-Hamas War in 2023. He has since become one of the most widely recognized regularly featured national security analyst on the publicly traded network’s various program offerings. [please see archive of NEWSMAX segments – https://rumble.com/c/NationalDefenseConsultants].

THE 2025 LA PROTESTS

In the wake of the recent protests-turned-rioting in Los Angeles which has since spilled over into other major metropolitan cities across the U.S., both NDC and the Center for Security Policy have addressed the myriad disparate threats to state, local, and national security.

Shideler has appeared as a guest analyst on FOX NEWS’ ‘Fox & Friends’
[please see – https://www.foxnews.com/video/6374124433112]. And Connor, Shideler, and Holton have each addressed the threat of domestic terrorism and risks to law enforcement responsible for thwarting and responding to violence – looting and destruction of property – nationwide.

“These three experienced military analysts and longtime friends are frankly the best in the industry,” said Col. W. Thomas Smith Jr., a retired S.C. Military Department officer, counterterrorism expert, combat correspondent, and former U.S. Marine infantry leader. “What Bill [Connor] in fact has been bringing to American consumers of news, both through broadcast media, primarily NEWSMAX, and print, primarily through his articles in Canada Free Press and other publications, is simply unmatched.”

Smith founded NDC with Connor in 2012.

Smith adds: “Bill’s analysis is based on years of counterterrorism work and his ground-zero command of both U.S. and foreign military forces during counterinsurgency operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, during the height of that war. He is not simply some guy on TV with lofty rank, though he has that too. But he has literally led ground combat forces in some of the toughest fighting, including a potentially disastrous complex ambush which he and his convoy survived, during the war.”

Col. (Ret.) Steve Vitali, U.S. Marine Corps, and chair of NDC’s Advisory Council, agrees.

“Bill is the unequivocal best,” said Vitali, who commanded U.S. and foreign forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan. “He’s far more than simply a talking head like so many who today are able to land a segment or two on national television where they wax philosophic about warfighting and combat action gleaned only through advanced degrees but no actual military experience.”

SHARED EXPERTISE

As far as the recent eruption of rioting in Los Angeles and elsewhere, Holton says: “This is a case in which there is no joy in being able to say, ‘I told you so.’”

Speaking of Shideler, Holton says: “For the past four years Kyle Shideler has traveled the country briefing police departments and sheriff’s offices on the tactics, techniques and methods that extremists have used and will continue to use on the streets of America. Even more importantly, Kyle has been able to educate American law enforcement on the ideology that animates extremist groups like Antifa.”

According to Shideler: “The current effort by organizers to bring the Los Angeles disorder to other areas is a reflection of just how quickly these kinds of protests and riots can spread. That is why it is essential for local and state law enforcement to have access to quality intelligence about the nature of these anarchist and Antifa networks, their doctrines and tactics. Through education, law enforcement officers will be empowered to be proactive in maintaining law and order when organized and highly professional ‘revolutionaries’ seek to sow chaos.”

LESSONS LEARNED

Connor said he is “thankful” that NDC arranged and facilitated the briefings (in South Carolina) delivered by Shideler and Holton months prior the LA rioting.

“What I personally learned advising Afghan forces fighting insurgency in Afghanistan was the importance of law enforcement understanding the tactics of insurgents seeking to destabilize the government and sew discord for political ends,” said Connor. “Shideler and Holton in their presentations explained not only the tactics of domestic insurgent groups, but how this was put in practice during the civil unrest back in May of 2020. This time, our law enforcement is – and will be – much better prepared to counter domestic insurgent groups seeking to destabilize government for political ends.”

PREPARING FOR THREATS

Bruce Brutschy, a 10th-degree black belt who has served on several executive protection details, says what NDC is accomplishing, primarily through Connor’s national television analysis and the Center for Security Policy’s briefings, better prepares the public and public safety officers. “They’re literally making us safer,” said Brutschy, who also sits on NDC’s Advisory Council. “This isn’t about politics. It’s about knowing what we need to know and protecting others through that knowledge.”

Smith agrees, adding: “We’re like the Boy Scouts in our approach to public safety threats. We keep it simple, and like a good Boy Scout, we want everyone to ‘be prepared.’”

 

– Chris Carter is a former semi-pro football player and U.S. Air Force veteran whose articles have appeared in Ops Lens, Human Events, Canada Free Press, Deutsche Welle, and NavySEALs.com among other publications.