U.S. giving Palestinian security forces top-level training
By Avi Issacharoff Haarez Last update - 02:31 08/04/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077216.html

The United States has been training senior Palestinian security officials in
an advanced officers course in Ramallah for top-brass, Haaretz has learned.

The new course, entitled "senior leaders' course," is a two-month long
program conducted in Ramallah with the assistance and supervision of the
U.S., and is part of the project overseen by the U.S. security coordinator
in the territories, Gen. Keith Dayton.

So far, the program has produced 80 graduates divided into two 40-student
classes. A third class, made up of commanders from the Palestinian National
Security - the largest security force with 15,000 members, tasked with
policing borders, providing military intelligence, military police services
and presidential security - is currently being trained in Jordan.

That class is undergoing special training by Jordanian instructors under
American auspices. Most students so far have been army lieutenant colonels
and colonels, but the course also accepted commanders from the civilian
police, the general intelligence service, the preventative security force
and the civilian defense authority.