Herat, Afghanistan (January, 24) – Twelve Afghan National Army military investigators completed the first-ever ANA comprehensive two-week Criminal Investigation Basic Course at Camp Zafar, Herat Province, Afghanistan Jan. 19.
The officers, who hailed from the ANA 207th Corps, learned crime-scene processing and forensics, criminal code procedures and other crime and investigation skills.
One student summarized the final training scenario where students used their newly acquired skills.
“We received a report that there was a dead body in the court house, so we quickly assembled our team to begin an investigation in hopes of determining who killed the individual,” said ANA Capt. Mohamad Sadeq.
The first order of business was to take photographs and draw a sketch of the area, said Sadeq. Next, the team gathered statements from possible witnesses and collected evidence.
“We found 16 bullets of a variety of sizes, a body and a weapon,” said Sadeq. “When we came into the area, we had two kinds of evidence left for us: The kind we can see with our eyes and the kind that is not visible, such as fingerprints. This is always the two kinds of evidence criminals leave behind.”
Instructors were pleased with the final exercise, said Special Agent Patrick Eller, U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command (CID), who taught much of the curriculum.
“[This was] all about capacity building,” said Eller, who has 12 years of military police, investigations and CID experience. “We want [the ANA] to be able to conduct proper investigations in support of their country.”
From a lawyer’s perspective, the training will safeguard courtroom procedures and bolster Afghan civilians’ perception of the ANA.
“For [military investigators] police to have integrity in the eyes of the general population, they have to go the extra mile to ensure written products are complete and compliant with all procedural rules,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Corey Bean, Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps attorney.
Bean witnessed improvements in the investigators, describing “there was a gradual change in what students considered minimum standards for a complete investigation.”
With those minimum standards in mind, Eller said graduating students need to understand the importance of the training, and be held to the standard by their leadership.
Students also learned about human psyche, said Eller.
“All people are capable of lying, especially when in fear of trouble,” said Eller. “Teaching [the ANA] how to use this to their advantage during interviews was a key [training] point.”
Top lawyers here have high hopes the course will expand to other regions in the future, said U.S. Army Col. William McQuade, a JAG officer and the ANA 207th Corps Legal Advisor.
The judge advocate general of the ANA, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim, requested more training for soldiers in the legal career field. Through grassroots networking, McQuade’s idea for an official CSI course for the ANA came to fruition.
“This is the first corps to offer such a comprehensive basic criminal investigation course,” said McQuade. “We brought representatives from all four ANA sections involved in investigating crimes and provided them with basic professional training in conducting criminal investigations.”
Thinking back over his vast career as a JAG and the countless times he’s seen the U.S. Army CID process cases so professionally that they seem routine, McQuade said he hopes the ANA someday will have similar capabilities.
The 12 students now have substantial training and can take their new skills back to their units and provide informal training to others, said McQuade. This will improve their investigatory techniques until others can obtain similar formal training.
Eller also believes training will be the key to ANA CID success, he said.
“Once you prove to them it works, they are more likely to use [these] skills,” said Eller. “When applied, this training has the potential to lead to better investigations which lead to better prosecutions. Once [that] begins to happen, they’ll gain credibility through their own ability to serve and protect.”
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