Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A New York University class on transnational terrorism is asking students to plan hypothetical terrorist attacks down to the detail. Marie-Helen Maras, a former Navy criminal investigator teaching the class, is instructing her pupils to "step into [a terrorist's] shoes" for the 10- to 15-page assignment and "describe your hypothetical attack and what will happen in the aftermath of the attack," the New York Post reported Monday. Advertisement The hypothetical attack must stay within the chosen terrorist group's "goals, capabilities, tactical profile, targeting pattern and operational area," the course syllabus states. "The exercise is meant to prepare students for the field, to prepare them for careers in intelligence, policing, counter-terrorism. This is a grad-level assignment for a grad-level course," Maras said. However, some sources with the New York Police Department said the class is an insult to officers who have died in terrorist attacks including Sept. 11, 2001. "This flies in the face of the 11 years of hard work the NYPD has done in tracking down terrorists to the far reaches of the globe to make sure they never strike again," one source told the Post. Advertisement NYU objected to the characterization. "The Transnational Terrorism course is taught by a decorated U.S. Navy veteran who uses her military experience to teach students -- including law enforcement officers -- how to anticipate and counter terrorism," the university's School of Continuing and Professional Studies said in a statement. "The assignment she gave her students is an exercise that has been utilized by many U.S. universities and government agencies. We think it is deeply regrettable that this veteran's work as an NYU professor has been mis-characterized in this way."
