"Palestinian security officers schooled by U.S. later used tactics against Israel." From the San Francisco Chronicle, with thanks to Teri:
Bethlehem, West Bank -- In June 1998, somewhere near CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., two rows of men in military fatigues posed for their graduation photo.All of them were officers in Palestinian General Intelligence Service, charged with hunting down terrorists and preventing attacks on Israel. They had just completed a training course, paid for by the U.S. government, in which they learned firearms and counterterrorist tactics.
But the graduation photo holds a stark warning for the Bush administration as it gets more involved in Middle East peacemaking. Some of the men in the picture later swapped sides and began using the skills they learned in Virginia against the Israelis.
Such training courses, which were suspended with the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, will be an integral part of Washington's aid package for the new government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas....
As Israeli commentators had been warning for years, the CIA inadvertently helped train future adversaries -- as it has done in other countries, including the anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan who ended up as Taliban and al Qaeda militants....
A U.S. official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said that if previous U.S. aid went to train would-be militants, "obviously steps will be taken so that any future training does not lead to a similar outcome."
What steps? How can they possibly do this?
Ah, yes. In the last years of the Second World War, the American OSS - the predecessor of the CIA - went all out to support, against the Japanese but also against their own French allies, an Indo-chinese insurgent... one Ho Chi Minh...
I suppose they are asked to sign an "oath" as many are when graduating from this type of training. Of course an oath signed by Palestinians is about as legitimate as the oath they sign swearing they will not return to terrorism when released from Israeli prisons. Many released last summer have already gone to their reward after attempting to murder as many Israelis as possible. Those going through this training must surely have a lot of self control when inside they are screaming with glee.
"I can't friggin' believe they're teaching me better ways to kill Jews ... and for free! These people are f%#*^ crazy!!" Allah bless the stupid Americans!Jeeeehaaaad!"
the thing about training arabs
http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_17/articles/deatkine_arabs1.html
"The role of culture
These problems notwithstanding, culture does need to be taken into account. Indeed, awareness of prior mistakes should make it possible to assess the role of cultural factors in warfare. John Keegan, the eminent historian of warfare, argues that culture is a prime determinant of the nature of warfare. In contrast to the usual manner of European warfare, which he terms “face to face,” Keegan depicts the early Arab armies in the Islamic era as masters of evasion, delay, and indirection. Examining Arab warfare in this century leads to the conclusion that the Arabs remain more successful in insurgent, or political, warfare — what T. E. Lawrence termed “winning wars without battles.” Even the much-lauded Egyptian crossing of the Suez in 1973 at its core entailed a masterful deception plan. It may well be that these seemingly permanent attributes result from a culture that engenders subtlety, indirection, and dissimulation in personal relationships.
Along these lines, Kenneth Pollock concludes his exhaustive study of Arab military effectiveness by noting that “certain patterns of behavior fostered by the dominant Arab culture were the most important factors contributing to the limited military effectiveness of Arab armies and air forces from 1945 to 1991.” These attributes included over-centralization, discouraging initiative, lack of flexibility, manipulation of information, and the discouragement of leadership at the junior officer level. The barrage of criticism leveled at Samuel Huntington’s notion of a “clash of civilizations” in no way lessens the vital point he made — that however much the grouping of peoples by religion and culture rather than political or economic divisions offends academics who propound a world defined by class, race, and gender, it is a reality, one not diminished by modern communications."
read the rest...
The same thing might happen with the Iraqi arm forces that the U.S. is training and the U.S. train bosians and afgani.
Ploome, thanks for the link, one of the best I've seen so far.
I fowarded it to a communicant, who had been a privileged "dhimmi" in KSA,an infidel he taught in a military school. He has some interesting stories to tell.
"Some of the men in the picture later swapped sides and began using the skills they learned in Virginia against the Israelis."
Duh.
Oh, well, folks, we've just gotta keep plugging away at it. Eventually we will get by the Great Blind Spot re: Islam that our PC Protectors insist on maintaining. Maybe we're making a LITTLE progress; even though Bush mentioned the Koran during his inauguration speech, at least he didn't have some imam up there making nice. At least, I didn't see one. . .
Sigh. Nobody said it would be easy. . .
"The same thing might happen with the Iraqi arm forces that the U.S. is training and the U.S. train bosians and afgani."
Posted by: RED at February 20, 2005 12:27 PM
Red,
You can depend on it.
Yes, and while they train the all sing:
"Cut off a head for Al Jazeera, Cut off a head for Al Jazeera...
Allright, here he comes:
http://www.terrorists-suck.org/fight/winds_of_jihad.html
Some of the men in the picture later swapped sides and began using the skills they learned in Virginia against the Israelis.