By 1st Lt. Olivia Cobiskey
BAGHDAD - Iraq is a little bit safer today as four graduates of the ITAM-ITT intelligence course add their eyes and ears to the fight.
Iraqi Training and Assistance Mission Intelligence Training Team designed a course to help new recruits at the Baghdad Police College learn an improved way to gather and share information between different agencies in the interest of Iraq's national security.
"The ultimate goal of the Iraqi National Intelligence Model is to enhance Iraqi confidence in their police," said U.S. Army Col. R. Twitchell, director of TQI-TT, who presented certificates to the graduates of the ITAM-ITT.
Twitchell called the training groundbreaking.
"The Iraqi National Intelligence Model is new," said Twitchell, who helped introduce intelligence training to the Baghdad Police College. "It was never provided as part of the Iraqi police recruit training, but having the capacity to make every police officer or patrolman a donor to the corporate police knowledge that will, undoubtedly, contribute to the future enhancement of the Iraqi policing and public safety."
During basic training, recruit-level students, spend 40 hours in the ITAM-ITT classroom. ITT staff mentors trainees on planning, the use of equipment and resources, building partnerships and information-sharing protocols between law and non law-enforcement agencies; including the Forensic Laboratories.
It took more than six months, for the Intelligence Training Team to develop, design, and create the Iraqi National Intelligence Model. It took another three months before the ITT staff was confident with the course, said Naiem Guirguis, the Arabic linguist responsible for the bulk of the material translations.
"I am introducing a complete, Iraqi National Intelligence System, new to Iraqi-style policing, that will assist the building of relationships, partnerships and information-sharing protocols between law and non law-enforcement agencies; including the Forensic Laboratories, all using a common system with a common language to achieve common goals, "said Tim Niven, a retired British Police Criminal Intelligence Consultant and the progenitor of INIM.
Based on INIM's success more courses are being planned, said U.S. Army Capt. Jackson Drumgoole, the ITT leader, who helped develop the training program.
"Not only with the Baghdad Police College, but also involving the National Information and Investigations Agency, and each course will be tuned to suit the requirements of the organization," Drumgoole said. "Other courses will be focused towards the development of the management skills required to run an efficient intelligence unit."