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U.S. Will Use Psych Evaluations, Stress Tests To Screen Syrian Rebels For Training
[WashingtonPost] The U.S. military will subject Syrian rebels taking part in a new training program to psychological evaluations, biometrics checks and stress tests under a screening plan that goes well beyond the steps the United States normally takes to vet foreign soldiers, a sign of the risks the B.O. regime faces as it expands support for gangs in Syria.

Officials said the screening program, developed chiefly by the U.S. Central Command, will rely on what was described as a "common core" of screening protocols, including running trainees" names through U.S. and foreign intelligence databases, collecting biometric data and, when possible, seeking information from fighters" home communities. Rebel commanders will be subject to additional screening.
We understand the Islamic mind so well that psych evaluations can't possibly fail...
"In the special operations community, we have a pretty long history of vetting and screening surrogate forces that we"ve worked with," said an official at CENTCOM, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe planning.

But the new plan "is unique to Syria, because we"re going to work with folks that we won"t accompany once we employ them," he said. "So vetting and screening becomes even more important."
Not to mention building up a humungous data base of the various parties involved, and their interconnections, the kind of thing Big Data methods are uniquely designed to pull useful information from.
The effort to develop a layered vetting process is an attempt to mitigate the hazards associated with deepening U.S. involvement in Syria"s chaotic battlefield, where a dizzying array of gangs have been accused of abuses against soldiers and civilians alike. Although the B.O. regime has sought since 2011 to foster a competent force to fight Syrian troops and, now, the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
, U.S. officials remain wary even of fighters whose objectives currently align with their own.

In particular, officials want to lessen the risk that U.S.-trained fighters sent back into Syria to combat the Islamic State will use their weapons on civilians or -- like the Afghan mujahideen fighters Washington backed in the 1980s -- later turn against the United States and its allies.
Thoughtful of them...

Posted by: trailing wife 2014-11-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=405264