Foreign Cops Take Part in 'Domestic Terrorism' Drill in California

'Armed officers in full battle gear will be scattered throughout the Bay Area this weekend, rescuing hostages, fighting bank robbers and quelling terrorism at the Oakland Airport, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, the NASA Ames Research Center and 22 other high profile sites,” writes Sophia Kazmi. “For the first time in the three-year history of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department-sponsored exercise, there will be a foreign team of officers taking part and international observers. An eight-member team representing the French National Police’s Research, Assistance, Intervention, and Dissuasion unit will compete” (emphasis added).

French police are technically speaking not troops. However, the French RAID unit — Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion (Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence) — is a militarized SWAT team that uses special forces techniques. It is   accused of triple tapping a mentally disturbed man who took school children hostage in 1993. RAID killed the man while he slept.'