Quote Originally Posted by John T. Fishel View Post
that many restrictions in Haiti were self-imposed by senior military leadership that didn't want to do policing. Very common response - read Tommy Franks' memoirs where he is happy to have dodged the bullet of responsibility for Phase IV.

Carmudgeon, ICITAP, sadly has always had problems, The biggest is that it was an FBI creation - an investigative training agency - not a police training agency. It also had major internal bureaucratic problems according to a former colleague of mine who worked in DOJ and with ICITAP for a number of years.

We, as a nation, are not well equipped for police training and organizational development. The big problem is that we have no national police comparable to that of most Western nation-states. The best force to have taken charge of police organization and training in Panama that actually offered to do so (the only one that made the offer) was the Georgia State Police - at least they resembled a national police force. Slap can comment on their quality and speculate on how good or bad they might have been. In any event, the offer was refused.

JohnT aka 660 D
To all,
I happened upon this thread while doing research for an upcoming conference paper on regional police development efforts. I was the US police development advisor there (State/INL) from '03 to '07. I'm also working on a book that chronicles Panamanian policing from its independence through the Just Cause invasion - up to the present date.

To John Fischel, I'd like to contact you off-board regarding your experiences in Panama post-invasion, if you're amenable. For confirmation and contact purposes, email address is dsg@miamibostongroup.com and website is miamibostongroup.com.

Best to all and my apologies for hijacking the thread.