WEBCommentary Contributor

Author: Jim Kouri
Date:  August 1, 2008

Topic category:  Other/General

Training the Trainers in Anti-Terrorism

by Jim Kouri

Immediately following President George W. Bush's Iraq strategy speech, Beltway insiders knew exactly where to go for analysis of the proposed "surge" of troops in Iraq.

People who wish to know the facts about defense issues would be hardpressed to find an organization more trustworthy and informative than the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. It's also done the job news media organizations refuse to do: expose international corruption.

For instance, FDD Journalist-in-Residence Claudia Rosett broke the story regarding the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal. By breaking the story, she caused the world to see the UN in a new light.

Through three years of intrepid investigative journalism, Claudia documented the institutional failures and abuses by high-ranking officials that made Oil-for-Food one of the largest financial frauds in history.

FDD is the only nonpartisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism.

The Foundation was created shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A number of philanthropists and policymakers decided to engage in the worldwide war of ideas and to support the defense of democratic societies under assault by terrorism and Militant Islamism.

FDD uniquely combines policy research, democracy and counterterrorism training, strategic communications, and investigative journalism. They focus their efforts where opinions are formed and, ultimately, where the war of ideas will be won or lost: in the media, on college campuses, and in the policy community, at home and abroad.

At a time when college campuses are under the sway of apologists for terrorism, FDD has trained hundreds of professors and university students as pro-democracy, anti-terrorism advocates and activists.

A key part of the training is an intensive fellowship program in Israel and Washington, DC, examining how democracies defend themselves from terrorism. FDD also runs a separate US-based program that trains professors in how to teach about terrorism.

As a result of their training, professors have launched new courses on terrorism and students have held hundreds of on-campus events and registered hundreds of media appearances. FDD students have gone on to jobs in the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, the military, the Peace Corps, and the White House and have won Fulbright and Truman scholarships to continue their studies.

For more information on the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and its programs, visit http://www.defenddemocracy.org

Jim Kouri
Chief of Police Magazine (Contributing Editor)


Biography - Jim Kouri

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for a number of organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. Kouri holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice and master of arts in public administration and he's a board certified protection professional.


Copyright © 2008 by Jim Kouri
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