Counterterrorism Training Program of the Day: The FBI enlisted the services of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church in a counterterrorism training program aimed at teaching to agents “how to stay measured when they are speaking with a witness or a suspect with whom they have a strong, visceral disagreement.”
The FBI brought members of the church to the Quantico Marine base in Virginia on several occasions this past spring to participate in counterterrorism classes intended to help officers and agents get better acquainted with the mind of extremists.
According to Timothy Phelps, the youngest son of the group’s much-despised leader Fred Phelps, the church had not been made aware of the real reason they had been invited to the base.
The FBI pulled the plug on the experimental sessions soon after they were discovered by the bureau’s high-ranking officials. The official who came up with the idea to involve the church in the FBI’s counterterrorism program said he had a personal distaste for the group, but felt it was important for agents to learn how to build relationships with disagreeable people.
[npr.]
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