U.S. Training Global Network Of Foreign Soldiers & Police, Programs Took Place At Many Locations Including Louisiana & Minnesota
Investmentwatchblog.com
July 14th, 2016
“If police tactics suppressing citizens’ protests worldwide are starting to look familiar, it could be the result of an extensive global training program by the US military of foreign soldiers and police, according to an analysis of WikiLeaks documents.
The program, however, is largely unknown by Americans and has little oversight or scrutiny, an exclusive report by The Intercept finds.
Since 9/11, the US Department of Defense has spent $122 billion in training foreign soldiers and police programs in 471 locations in 120 countries on “every continent but Antarctica,” the Intercept reported Wednesday.”
“At 9:30 A.M. on a gray winter Monday, the State Department officials began certifying the names at a rate of one every two minutes and 23 seconds.
In rapid succession, they confirmed that 204 police officers, soldiers, sailors, and airmen from 11 countries had committed no gross human rights violations and cleared them to attend one of more than 50 training efforts sponsored by the U.S. government. The programs were taking place at a wide variety of locations, from Italy, Albania, and Jordan to the states of Louisiana and Minnesota.
Thirty-two Egyptians were approved for instruction in, among other things, Apache helicopter gunship maintenance and flight simulators for the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. Azerbaijanis were cleared for a U.S. Army course on identifying bio-warfare agents in Maryland and underwater demolition training with Navy SEALs in San Diego. Thirty-three Iraqis were certified to attend a State Department training session for bodyguards, held in Jordan. Bosnians were bound for Macedonia to prepare for deployment to Afghanistan. Ukrainian police were selected for peacekeeping training in Italy. Romanians would study naval operations in Rhode Island and counterterrorism in Skopje.
This was only the beginning of one day’s work of vetting security personnel for U.S. training. A joint investigation by The Intercept and 100Reporters reveals the chaotic and largely unknown details of a vast constellation of global training exercises, operations, facilities, and schools — a shadowy network of U.S. programs that every year provides instruction and assistance to approximately 200,000 foreign soldiers, police, and other personnel. The investigation exposes the geographic and political contours of a U.S. training system that has, until now, largely defied thorough description.
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