Foreign Police Play Army at U.S. Domestic Terrorism Drill

California's Oakland Tribune reports “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,” The Alameda County Sheriff’s Department will have it's first experience hosting a foreign team of officers. Eight members of the French National Police’s Research, Assistance, Intervention, and Dissuasion unit will compete. The militarized SWAT team uses special forces techniques. “There will be the sound of gunfire and blasts — all part of Urban Shield, one of the biggest domestic terrorism drills in the country. The $1 million, two-day event begins Saturday and will test the training of 27 crack teams from throughout the state, elsewhere in the country and the world,” according to a tribune article.