[ from: The Hungary Report #1.28, free weekly, direct from Budapest ] [ retransmitted to list without permission to increase distribution ] FBI School Teaches New Tricks to Old Enemies By Susan Milligan Copyright (c) 1995 In matching navy blue polo shirts, the students sat transfixed as they watched slides showing the destruction of the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings. "God forbid you should ever have anything like this happen over here," American instructor Ed Burwitz told his Central European class, outfitted with headphones for simultaneous translation of the lecture. "It is a tough task for any freedom-loving country to prevent terrorism," he added. The class on forensics is typical of what goes on in law enforcement academies across America. But in this classroom, the instructors are teaching crime-fighting tactics to students from onetime enemy nations. "This could not have happened five years ago," said Laszlo Simon, the Hungarian director of the International Law Enforcement Academy here. "We don't preach or teach," said Leslie Kaciban, the American director of the newly-opened facility. Instead, the American instructors - culled from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies - share information and experiences with the students for them to adapt to their systems. Students from Hungary, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and other Central and Eastern European nations attend ILEA's 8-week sessions, the first of which began in April. The United States fronted $2.5 million to renovate the campus, which includes a brand-new gym, classrooms, dormitories and one of Hungary's few indoor tennis courts. The Hungarian government contributed $500,000 to renovate the facility, but the U.S. will pay the $3.5 million yearly cost to operate the center, which is modeled after the law enforcement training center in Quantico, Va. The facility looks like any other college campus - students go on field trips together, take "wellness" physical fitness class together, and will have a yearbook and alumni newsletter. The idea is to help the Eastern Europeans with their burgeoning crimes problems, as well as to foster cooperation on international crime problems. "I'm amazed at the freedom of travel that is possible" after the opening up of the Eastern nations, Burwitz said. But "that means criminals can travel as well," he said, allowing them to traffic drugs and contraband. "The more interaction we have with these countries in law enforcement, the better it will be for emerging democracies," Kaciban said. Class topics range from "human dignity" - how to treat a crime suspect - to undercover operations and fraud. April's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City is being used as an example in several classes. In "crisis management," students will learn "how to contain it (a crisis) and keep it from erupting," said instructor Stephen Brooks, who helped handle the Oklahoma City bombing. Big-scale bombings are not common to this part of the world, students said. But they said they learned a lot about how to fight organized crime, which is mushrooming in the aftermath of the fall of communism. "They told they have a lot of problems (with organized crime), and that it's better if we learn from their mistakes," said Hungarian student Vilmos Szeplaki. Organized crime is doubly damaging to the emerging nations, because it undermines their economies, Kaciban said. Investors are naturally reluctant to dump money into a nation if they believe there is rampant corruption. Some teachings do not translate for the European students. For example, there is no Russian RICO - the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act that is one of the strongest American legal tools against organized crime. Eastern European crime syndicates tend not to be based in crime families, instructors said. And organized crime in Russia and Ukraine is so much a part of the society, that it's hard to stop it, said Amy O'Neil, a State Department official not involved in the ILEA. "Under the communist system, you basically did what you could get away with. Everyone broke laws," O'Neil said. "That's how you survived." Both students and teachers said there was a remarkable similarity, however, in the use of evidence and investigatory tools among the countries. Eastern Europeans are very familiar with the use of DNA testing, for example, to identify suspects, although they don't always have the money to do it, Burwitzsaid."There are different orders of laws between the U.S. and here," said a Czech student who would identify himself only as Milan. "But essentially, we have the same methods of investigation." * * * Susan Milligan <susan.milligan@magnet.hu> is a free-lance writer and stringer for the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Examiner, Business Central Europe and Hollywood Reporter.