Counter terrorism training for policemen

Walter Jayawardhana

A reputed counter terrorism school in the United States has trained mid level and senior police officers in Sri Lanka to combat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the Police Training School in Kalutara under State Department Funds during February.

"Mercyhurst College Intelligence Studies Department Chair Jim Breckenridge and Assistant Professor Dave Grabelski recently returned from Kalutara where they delivered counter terrorism training to Sri Lankan law enforcement personnel," a spokesman for the reputed school, in Erie, Pennsylvania, which runs a successful intelligence studies department said.

School sources added that this marked the first training session provided by the Mercyhurst Intelligence Faculty under a new contract with the US Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Office of Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA).

Mercyhurst said according to the contract they signed with the State Department the school is charged with creating and delivering two information management courses aimed at strengthening anti-terrorism efforts in Latin America, Africa and Asia through a broader and more disciplined analysis of information within the State Department's partner nations.

The two professors were sent to Sri Lanka under the contract. Mercyhurst delivered the two-week Law Enforcement Intelligence for Counterterrorism course to 22 mid- to senior-level officers at the Sri Lanka Police College in February.

The course utilised case studies, link charts, and structured analyses to explain, examine, and forecast terrorism problems.