Counterproductive counterterrorism training.

• Author: Forest, James J.F.
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

Your article about bad "counterterrorism experts" ["How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam," Meg Stalcup and Joshua Craze, March/April 2011] is one of the best I've seen in recent years. It addresses one of the most important challenges that more balanced professionals have to deal with. When I have addressed law enforcement audiences over the past eight years, at times I have had to spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to help certain members "unlearn" what they think they know about these subjects. It can be rather frustrating, as you might imagine, made worse by the personal traits of individuals who are very good at catching bad guys, but not necessarily concerned with the second- and third-order effects of their actions.

James J. F. Forest, PhD

Associate Professor, Criminal Justice and Criminology

University of Massachusetts Lowell

Thank you for a great article, very informative but also alarming. I am a Muslim and I do give lectures about Islam as a service to the community where I live, but I have never had the pleasure of serving law enforcement. I wish there were a way I could help.

Abdul Barghouthi

(via email)

Thank you for publishing this critique of an extremely important part of the intelligence apparatus that has apparently been corrupted by quacks like Sam Kharoba. How can we expect our law enforcement personnel to protect us from the increasingly nuanced threat of homegrown jihadist terrorism if they are pulling people over for having "conical" beards or arresting them for misspelled names? Much of what Mr. Kharoba preaches smacks of bigotry, and I hope that law enforcement officials have enough sense not to follow his misguided and uninformed suggestions. As a foreign affairs major, I know enough about Islam to see right through Mr. Kharoba's half-truths and smoke-and-mirrors parlor tricks.

Jose Cardenas

University of Virginia

Recently, the Washington Monthly published an article entitled, "How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam." In it, the authors told portions of the truth, twisted to convey false impressions. The information they were given was obtained under false pretenses.

John Giduck has a law degree, a master's degree in Russian studies, and a PhD in Middle East studies. In response to questions about how Giduck knew Russian Spetsnaz soldiers whom he interviewed after the Beslan school siege, he explained that years before he had known the former director of the KGB for the St. Petersburg region, Anatoli Kurkov. With...