AKIPRESS.COM - U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Sonata Coulter today congratulated members of Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of the Interior on successful completion of the U.S. State Department’s Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) Program Advanced Interrogation Techniques Workshop.

Over five days of consultations, Kyrgyz law enforcement and security officers enhanced cooperation and developed the knowledge and skills for ensuring information and operations security and fostering interagency cooperation. Together with their American colleagues, participants explored emerging issues in law enforcement intelligence, such as cyber intelligence (social media, smartphones and Global Positioning Systems on personal devices), predictive policing, and data analytics. In addition, the training highlighted how a human rights-based community engagement policy can contribute to Interior Ministry's ability to combat terrorism.

At the training’s closing ceremony, Chargé Coulter praised the long history of cooperation in fighting terrorism between the United States and the Kyrgyz Republic. She mentioned a global growing threat of terrorism, enhanced by the development of cyber technologies and internet and expressed readiness to continue joint efforts to confront this threat by sharing the most contemporary knowledge and expertise through ATA Program curriculum.

This session of the Advanced Interrogation Techniques Workshop is one of six courses scheduled in the country through July 2022.

Established in 1983, the Department of State’s Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) program is the U.S. Government’s premier counterterrorism training and equipment provider for foreign law enforcement agencies. All ATA assistance is delivered within a rule-of-law framework that promotes respect for human rights and fosters development of a self-sustaining capability through best practices such as embedded mentors and train-the-trainer programs.

ATA receives funding and policy guidance from the Bureau of Counterterrorism and is administered by the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).