DUSHANBE, May 31, 2015, Asia-Plus – CNN reported on May30 that Tajik special police unit commander Gulmurod Halimov, who has joined Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria, was trained in counterterrorism tactics on American soil, in a program run by the United States.
Halimov who calls for jihad in online video posted on YouTube on May 27 says that he participated in programs on U.S. soil three times, at least one of which was in Louisiana.
The State Department has confirmed this claim.
CNN quoted spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala as saying, “From 2003-2014 Colonel Halimov participated in five counterterrorism training courses in the United States and in Tajikistan, through the Department of State”s Diplomatic Security/Anti-Terrorism Assistance program.”
The program is intended to train candidates from participating countries in the latest counterterrorism tactics, so they can fight the very kind of militants that Halimov has now joined.
A State Department official was quoted as saying that Khalimov was trained in crisis response, tactical management of special events, tactical leadership training and related issues.
The American program in which Khalimov participated is reportedly designed to teach tactics used by police and military units against terrorists by countries that cooperate with the United States on security matters. But now experts are concerned that this defector has brought ISIL not only a propaganda victory, but also an insider”s knowledge of the playbook the United States is using in the fight against ISIL, according to CNN.
“That is a dangerous capability. It”s never a good thing to have senior counterterrorism people become terrorists,” former Army intelligence officer Michael Breen was quoted as saying.
“It sounds like he was involved in defending sensitive people and sensitive targets,” said Breen, who is now with the Truman Project in Washington. “He knows how to plan counterterrorism operations. So he knows how the people who protect a high-value target will be thinking; he knows how people who protect an embassy would be thinking.”
Former Army sniper Paul Scharre, now with the Center for a New American Security, was quoted as saying that Halimov could not only help train other ISIS fighters in tactics, but also serve as a recruiter for the group.
A State Department official said Halimov and other members of his unit were recommended for the program by the Tajik government.
“All appropriate Leahy vetting was undertaken in advance of this training,” said spokeswoman Jhunjhunwala.
