"How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam"

[Pete]

In 1998 I got to know Bob Craig, formerly of CORDS in Vietnam, as well as his brother. Bob had been an Infantry officer doing intel work in the 3rd Infantry Division during WW II. After Bob's death his brother showed me the following papers. The context of the specific incidents is incomplete, but it gives the impression that during Vietnam there was a lot of manipulation and "putting your best foot forward" in dealing with the news media.

DEPUTY FOR CORDS TO COMUSMACV

TO: COL. JAMES HERBERT
PSA, LONG AN PROVINCE

I doubt if attached was what Mr. Craig intended, but it's a good example of the sort of press treatment we don't need.

I am not familiar with whether Mr. Craig has had any experience elsewhere in Vietnam, but both his draft Long An Pilot Pacification Program and this article seem to suggest he is generalizing about matters far beyond his camp.

/s/
R. W. KOMER

DATE: 11 JUNE 1968

DEPUTY FOR CORDS TO COMUSMACV

TO: MR. ROBERT CRAIG
ACTING PROVINCE SENIOR ADVISOR
ADVISORY TEAM 86
APO 96314

THRU: DEPCORDS III CTZ

SUBJECT: NBC Interview

What say? I hope you showed Liz Trotta some better places than this!

/s/
R. W. Komer

Inclosure
Radio TV Defense Dialog

DATE: 8 SEP 1968

[davidbfpo]

In the UK it is clear that much of the educational / training input on the Muslim faith to senior LE has usually been from certain groups, who can be described as minority, sectarian and "extremism entrepreneurs". At lower levels there is evidence that a wider range of views have been used and it is clear that some Salafist groups have successfully offered their viewpoint.

There is an officially recognised, if not supported, Muslim Police Association, which includes in its objectives an educational role and their speakers will state which part of the Muslim faith they follow when giving talks. Website:http://www.namp-uk.com/

Part of the problem here is that some Muslims who are prepared to talk to LE hold strong views, e.g. Palestine, which can if cited in Q&A lead to acrimony. Or hold political positions, even as an elected city councillor for a non-mainstream party and so cause worries about how an audience might respond.

Choosing a speaker from one local mosque and not others can cause its own problems. Local LE, especially those working in CT need to have empathy with Islam and identifying who can help will take time. Credibility and trust are essential.

Going back to 'The Troubles' I cannot recall a single example of an input from all the political parties, let alone the IRA's political arms. No-one IMHO would have found that acceptable within LE. Nor has there been any input from any of the current political extremes and radical groups on climate change for example. On the extreme right LE, including the Special Branch, have historically relied on a couple of institutions for training input, who are hostile to the extreme right and a tiny number of academics.

[davidbfpo]

Some good points made here, even if a prelude to a review by a think tank and cites the head of the USMA CTC, Lt.Col. Sawyer:

You've got a lot of individuals who are not academically qualified to be instructing in these venues, and more importantly they are speaking with authority, which empowers the audience with knowledge that is not necessarily accurate," said Sawyer, adding that these short courses tend to stereotype Muslims in a way that just isn't helpful as officials redouble their efforts to fight homegrown terrorism and radical Islam.

Link:http://www.npr.org/2011/03/09/134374...error-training

[bourbon]

Originally Posted by davidbfpo

even if a prelude to a review by a think tank

The aforementioned think tank report:

Manufacturing the Muslim Menace: Private Firms, Public Servants, & the Threat to Rights and Security, by Thomas Cincotta. Political Research Associates, 2011. (PDF)

Note: Political Research Associates is a progressive think tank of the Noam Chomsky stripe, and is dedicated to the study of right-wing groups. While I have read some interesting work by PRA’s head, the organization is not an impartial observer. I would say it is similar to the Southern Poverty Law Center, only without the shameless greed and intelligence gathering.

[bourbon]

Do the trainers have to be US citizens for the DHS funded programs?

It might be worth bringing over some retired cops with CT backgrounds from the UK or France to work the lecture circuit; former Special Branch or DST types.

[Sergeant T]

Finally got around to reading the Stalcup & Craze piece. The whole thing had the feel of clues in search of a mystery. Guess this is what passes for journalism these days.

I had the benefit of an excellent course while I was in patrol entitled Understanding Islamic Militant Terrorism and Prevention Strategies. (Kroll presented the class under contact.) IMHO it was very well done. The instructors took great pains to delineate between Whabbism and the rest of Islam. Also explained in detail the Sunni/Shiite differences, kunyas, etc. They compared and contrasted AQ with other terror organizations and talked about their grand strategy. None of it had that “how to spot the sleeper cell at your local 7-Eleven” feel. Very well rounded package.

On the whole I think it's better to bring in outside subject matter experts on something like this. The catch is to not leave them alone as instructors. (This is true if the topic is Islam or traffic law.) If they're not law enforcement having a certified law enforcement instructor ride along seems like a simple, logical solution. The other option, having cops stretch themselves into cultural/academic unknowns in order to generate a syllabus, usually produces moderately piss poor results. Some of the terrorism courses I took immediately after 9/11 were less than well done. One was a week long laundry list of all the possible ways AQ might try to kill us while the instructor pushed this piece of crap book like some revival tent preacher. On the topic at hand I think no matter who does the teaching someone else is going to have a problem with it. If it's law enforcement teaching their own then “the community” will say they're not being culturally sensitive. If it's an outside group law enforcement will say they're being forced to bow at an alter of “cultural awareness”.

[davidbfpo]

We have touched upon LE relations with the American-Muslim communities before, but this is a classic and refers to a current case in Miami:

In this instance, however, federal authorities showed greater sensitivity in their approach than they have in the past.
Knowing the need to build trust between lawmen and Muslims, U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Office, made it a point to say that the allegations against a few Muslims must not taint the entire community....But arresting the imam while he was in the mosque leading daily prayers won’t deepen the bonds of trust. Imam Khan lived in a modest house around the corner and there is no indication he planned to flee.

No one advocates treating terrorist sympathizers with kid gloves, but we daresay interrupting Sunday church services to arrest a pedophile clergyman instead of waiting until after the service wouldn’t sit well with Christian congregations. Apparently, the “sensitivity training,” if that’s what it is, still has a way to go.

Link:http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/1...#ixzz1Mj1q7YsW

Please note in the UK we took time to learn too and one colleague vividly recalls being on TV after forcing entry to a small mosque, to detain suspected illegal immigrants IIRC.

[davidbfpo]

An update on a previous post, which was critical of a FBI arrest of an Imam and another in a mosque. Taken from a NPR article:

What makes these particular arrests unusual is the way the local Muslim community reacted to them: The arrests didn't spark outrage or demonstrations. Instead, the way they were handled is being lauded as a model for the way law enforcement and communities should work together.

Link:http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/137767...utreach-effort

[Jedburgh]

Danger Room, 14 September 2001: FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’

The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.”

At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”

These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity.

The piece cites one particular FBI analyst as being the source of many such briefs. I know the guy, and, to put it quite mildly his approach could be the source of Robert McFadden's critical quote: “Teaching counterterrorism operatives about obscure aspects of Islam, without context, without objectivity, and without covering other non-religious drivers of dangerous behavior is no way to stop actual terrorists.” McFadden is correct - yet this guy is not only putting out products to agents, he is training and mentoring other analysts. A sad situation.

[Rex Brynen]

Originally Posted by Jedburgh

The piece cites one particular FBI analyst as being the source of many such briefs. I know the guy, and, to put it quite mildly his approach could be the source of Robert McFadden's critical quote: “Teaching counterterrorism operatives about obscure aspects of Islam, without context, without objectivity, and without covering other non-religious drivers of dangerous behavior is no way to stop actual terrorists.” McFadden is correct - yet this guy is not only putting out products to agents, he is training and mentoring other analysts. A sad situation.

You're indeed putting it mildly.

[Rex Brynen]

Counter-terrorism expert Jarret Brachman weighs in on the issue of poor quality FBI training--and notes that Jihadist forums are citing it as evidence of US hostility to Islam:

There’s been a lot of attention in recent months on the cadre of counterterrorism trainers who are peddling paranoia and fear about what they believe is the “real” problem: Islam itself. As one who provides training for law enforcement and government audiences, I’m particularly concerned about this issue.

Not only is their brand of anti-Islamic training factually incorrect but it actually becomes self-fulfilling as it serves to confirm that what many Western Muslims already suspect is being the case. Today, Ackerman over at Wired’s Danger Room has a great new piece looking at some training being provided to FBI from some of these “Islam is the Problem” trainers.

Although I’m not shocked to hear that agencies of the USG are paying for this kind of garbage before, I am resolute in my commitment to work toward some kind of solution. But before I do, I figure I’d profile what’s being said within the English-language Islamic forums upon hearing this story. Here are some quotes about news that “CT experts” are conducting anti-Islamic training for USG with my reactions interspersed:

Forum User: “Looks like years of sucking up to the authorities, throwing innocent Muslims under the bus and cooperating with the feds has done “American Muslims” no good at all. In fact, the Maghrib crowd are probably all under surveillance as the FBI views them as potential terrorists”

JB reaction: This kind of exasperation is being echoed throughout the forums. Despite ten years of rhetoric about the need to engage the American Islamic community with respect , the USG continues supporting individuals who advocate suspicion of the religion.

In the meantime, questions get raised in Congress (and it is about time too):

The FBI swears it has stopped teaching agents that “mainstream” Muslims are proto-terrorists and that Mohammed is a “cult leader.” But top Senators aren’t prepared to let the FBI turn the page on its anti-Islam counterterrorism training, revealed by Danger Room on Wednesday.

“There is no room in America for the lies, propagated by al-Qaida, that the U.S. is at war with Islam, or the lie propagated by others that all Muslims support terrorism,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, told Danger Room.

Lieberman is one of the most consistently hawkish members of Congress. Not coincidentally, he’s been disturbed at recent reports that “inaccurate or even bigoted” anti-Islamic sentiment — his words — is substituting for diligent, responsible counterterrorism. In a letter this week to John Brennan, the president’s assistant on homeland security, Lieberman called for “meaningful standards” on law enforcement counterterrorism training, a point he reiterated to Danger Room.

[jmm99]

from some folks not known for their timidity: (con the training), The Federal Bureau of Idiocy (16 Sep 2011); and (pro the training), Far-Left "journalist" assails FBI training materials that depict Islam accurately; FBI folds, and New York Times takes up Hamas-linked CAIR's cause of trying to force the FBI to stop telling the truth about Islam (16 & 17 Sep 2011).

Here is the Powerpoint presentation re: Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law -which is of interest to me, but not something that I have the expertise to rip apart or endorse with respect to the "Muslim Mainstream".

Based on my reading of AQ materials, the slides might be more correctly characterized as "Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law as Viewed by AQ". The "Law" slides do not reflect that limitation.

I'd be interested in what Omarali50 and others of Islamic background think of the "Law" slides.

Regards

Mike

[Rex Brynen]

New Evidence of Anti-Islam Bias Underscores Deep Challenges for FBI’s Reform Pledge
By Spencer Ackerman

Wired Danger Room, 23 September 2011

Following months of denials, the FBI is now promising a “comprehensive review of all training and reference materials” after Danger Room revealed a series of Bureau presentations that tarred average Muslims as “radical” and “violent.”

But untangling the Islamophobic thread woven into the FBI’s counterterrorism training culture won’t be easy. In addition to inflammatory seminars which likened Islam to the Death Star and Mohammed to a “cult leader,” Danger Room has obtained more material showing just how wide the anti-Islam meme has spread throughout the Bureau.

The FBI library at Quantico currently stacks books from authors who claim that “Islam and democracy are totally incompatible.” The Bureau’s private intranet recently featured presentations that claimed to demonstrate the “inherently violent nature of Islam,” according to multiple sources. Earlier this year, the Bureau’s Washington Field Office welcomed a speaker who claimed Islamic law prevents Muslims from being truly loyal Americans. And as recently as last week, the online orientation material for the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces included claims that Sunni Islam seeks “domination of the world,” according to a law enforcement source.

“I don’t think anyone with half a brain would paint 1.2 billion people of any ethnic or religious persuasion with a single brushstroke,” Mike Rolince, an FBI counterterrorism veteran who started Boston’s JTTF, tells Danger Room. “Who did they run that curriculum by — either an internal or outside expert — to get some balance?”

...

[Erich G. Simmers]

At the risk of being "Mr. Sensitivity," it isn't just bad trainers that are part of the problem. Pop culture exposes everyone to a predominately negative view of Muslims and/or Arabs. There's a good film called Reel Bad Arabs (reel, as in movie reel) that addresses representations of Arabs in film. It is worth examining the subtle (and not so subtle) messages that inundate LEO, warfighters, etc. and end up influencing the decisions stakeholders make at all levels. There were films that I watched and enjoyed that, on a second look, were ridiculously prejudiced and no doubt tainted my view of Arabs; I'm sure others have similarly affected.

[davidbfpo]

Erich,

It has been interesting to see how uniform and non-uniform officers react to having private meetings with Muslims, where they can learn about their faith and simply talk.

Met Police officers from the Muslim Contact Unit, part of CT Command in London (previously known as the Special Branch) often comment on the gains from working in partnership after establishing a relationship, which may take time. Have a look for the writings of Bob Lambert, the ex-head of the MCU. He found after 9/11 that many Muslims had been waiting for the police / SB to ask them, but would not take the first step forward.

Part of the problem in the UK was the suspicion, prejudice whatever amongst the police that minority communities had very different needs regarding policing, when in fact they were often the same.

[Erich G. Simmers]

That doesn't surprise me about officers creating more positive relationships after building a regular relationship. I think we're all predisposed to that inclination build a barrier between the unfamiliar and us, no matter what our backgrounds are. I was a year into a PhD program in postcolonial studies, a discipline which at least aspires to a greater awareness of and sensitivity to issues of race, culture and religion, when I had my first regular interaction with an Arab woman who wore a hijab and was more, for lack of a better word, traditional in her Muslim beliefs. I discovered a person with a sense of religion and family that might be praised as traditional American "family values" if it had been wrapped in a more familiar package, and I found myself letting go of fear and suspicion that, frankly, I wasn't conscious of. Assuming "different needs" is such a great way to put it.

I'll definitely check out Bob Lambert; his work sounds interesting.