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Iraqi police officers practice
dusting for fingerprints |
For more than a year,
we've been sending agents, analysts,
and language specialists—all volunteers—to
Baghdad to join a multinational effort
to train the reconstituted Iraqi Police
Service. We talked about it with Supervisory
Special Agent Richard Hoskins, who heads
our International Training and Assistance
Unit and has spearheaded our efforts.
Q. How'd the FBI get involved
in this training?
Agent
Hoskins: The seeds
were planted a couple of years ago, when
the Iraqi Minister of the Interior and
some of his senior police advisors visited
the U.S. and met with Director Mueller
and then-Attorney General Ashcroft. At
the meeting, key areas where the Iraqi
police force needed training were identified,
and the FBI agreed to take the lead in
developing course material and training
in intelligence gathering and analysis,
counterterrorism operations, and organized
crime and kidnapping investigations. Our
training began in June 2004 and is overseen
by the U.S. military’s multinational Civilian
Police Assistance Training Team.
Q. What do you cover specifically
in your counterterrorism classes?
Agent Hoskins: Quite
a bit. We go over interviewing, source
development, surveillance, fingerprinting,
and the enterprise theory of investigation.
We explain how to identify and counter
suicide bombers, large vehicle bombs, and
weapons of mass destruction. We do role-playing
scenarios and act out crimes to give the
officers more hands-on experience. Through
it all, we're teaching them that their
most important job is to protect the public.
Q. Who attends the classes?
Agent Hoskins: It's
a real mix—both street level
cops and mid- and upper-level police managers...representing
a range of Iraqi police agencies. We've
trained over 600 Iraqi officers in all.
Q. You've been to Iraq several
times to inspect and review the classes.
What's your impression of the Iraqi police
officers?
Agent Hoskins: I've
found them to be very focused on the material
and very committed to their country. We're
talking about people who are putting their
lives on the line, day-in, day-out, to
maintain law and order as Iraq's democracy
takes shape. Hardly a week goes by that
one of their colleagues isn't attacked
or killed. On top of that, they're learning
a whole new way of doing business—how
to police in a democracy instead of a dictatorship.
I know I speak for everyone who's involved
in the training that we're just glad to
be able to help them in some small way.
In my mind, they're heroes.
Resources: FBI
International Training Program | Related stories