IRAQ PROGRAM EFFORTS

The Department of Justice, through the Criminal Division’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), works with foreign governments to develop professional and transparent law enforcement institutions that protect human rights, combat corruption, and reduce the threat of transnational crime and terrorism. Situated in the Department of Justice, with programs funded primarily by the State Department, ICITAP supports both national security and foreign policy objectives.

Correctional Training and Assistance | Anti-Corruption Training and Assistance
Police Training and Assistance | Border Security | Forensics | Judicial Investigations

ICITAP possesses a comprehensive range of public safety development expertise:

Basic Police Skills
Corrections
Public Integrity and Anticorruption
Criminal Justice Coordination
Criminal Investigations
Forensics
Organizational Development
Academy and Instructor Development
Community Policing
Transnational Crime
Specialized and Tactical Skills
Marine and Border Security
Information Systems

ICITAP programs are designed in direct cooperation with host country law enforcement partners, and program implementation methods include on-the-ground, pre-program assessments; program planning, management, and review; curricula development; platform training through seminars and workshops; internships; equipment donations; donor coordination; and on-the-job training and mentoring provided by embedded long-term federal advisors and supervised contractor personnel.

Since 2003, ICITAP has labored in close partnership with the Government of Iraq, the Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission (ITAM), formerly the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT), under the Multi National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I), and the Department of State’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs to support efforts to help the people of Iraq achieve a free and democratic state. ICITAP components have and continue to support the Iraqi justice system in the following ways:

CURRENT PROGRAMS

The Iraq Corrections Service (ICS) Development Program has led the U.S. government efforts to reconstitute, develop, and train personnel who are critical to a modern Iraqi corrections system. To date, more than 15,000 corrections officers have graduated from ICITAP-established training programs, which have focused on teaching human rights as well as international standards and practices in the operation of a nationwide corrections system.

In December 2006, the Iraq Prison Assessment Rating Tool (I-PART) was launched to measure capacity building according to 49 customized international prison treatment standards. This tool captures prison conditions, establishes a method for deploying necessary assets, and demonstrates programmatic results.

Having successfully built an indigenous training capacity within the ICS, ICITAP is providing instructor development courses to Iraqi instructors who, in turn, provide advanced training in prison system management, weapons, emergency response team, transportation, personal security detail, and biometrics to Iraqi and Kurdish Corrections Officers.

ICITAP personnel developed and assisted with the implementation of a records review system that has become a standard operating procedure and has proven essential in the timely review of detainee cases.

Under the supervision and training of ICITAP staff, ICS personnel continue to develop practical skills and professional status in anticipation of their assumption of management and security responsibility for prisons and detention centers throughout Iraq.

The Iraq Commission of Integrity (COI), formerly the Commission on Public Integrity, was established as an independent, autonomous governmental body whose mission is to prevent and investigate corruption and promote transparency and the rule of law throughout Iraq.

ICITAP personnel trained and rendered operational 157 Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) and 161 Special Investigative Unit (SIU) investigators who have been given responsibility for over 9,572 (10/09) public corruption cases to date. These COI officers are assigned to investigate alleged acts of corruption and provide protection for public officials who are threatened due to their cooperation with ongoing corruption investigations.

ICITAP personnel have trained more than 203 (6/09) Facilities Protection Service (FPS) guards and 99 (6/09) Personal Security Detail Officers.

ICITAP personnel assisted with the referral of more than 2,665 (10/09) cases to the Central Criminal Court of Iraq for prosecutorial opinion.

PAST PROGRAMS

From 2003-2008, ICITAP helped lead the massive police training program in Iraq. ICITAP’s involvement began in May 2003 when it deployed an assessment team to advise the Coalition Provisional Authority on the state of the Iraqi police and provided recommendations on institutional reform, training, and policy implementation. Within the first three months, ICITAP reconstituted the Iraq police service in Baghdad and established the Iraq Department of Border Enforcement. ICITAP also worked with the U.S. military to stand up the Civilian Police Assistance and Training Team (CPATT). At its height, ICITAP’s police training program in Iraq was supported by 285 ICITAP police trainers-advisors. Through CPATT, ICITAP trained more than 260,000 Iraqi police officers. ICITAP helped to establish the Baghdad Police College and 11 regional police training centers, and trained and mentored the entire Iraqi police instructor corps.

In 2003 under the Coalition Provisional Authority, ICITAP stood up the Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement (DBE), consisting of both border and customs police. Operating under the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (now known as the Iraq Training and Advisory Mission), ICITAP’s border security program helped build the capacity of the DBE to effectively control Iraq’s land and sea borders and ports of entry. ICITAP helped develop a national border security strategy and facilitated the U.S. Department of Homeland Security audits of the ports and DBE academies. ICITAP also standardized the curriculum and training of Iraqi instructors at the four DBE training academies, where more than 27,000 border security personnel have received training. ICITAP’s Border Security program was completed in 2009.

From 2007-2009, ICITAP assisted the Iraq Ministry of Interior in establishing a National Criminal Evidence Laboratory System. The system consists of three primary operational laboratories nationwide and a forensics teaching laboratory at the Baghdad Police College.

From 2007-2009, ICITAP provided training in investigative techniques for Iraq’s judicial investigators and investigative judges. This is increasing the Iraqis’ ability to prosecute cases based on the collection, analysis, and presentation of evidence.