U.S. Policy and Objectives for Diplomatic Security

Good morning.  It is a pleasure to be here with you today to discuss the role of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the challenges that we face.  As the security and law enforcement arm of the State Department, we are tasked with maintaining a secure environment in which U.S. foreign policy objectives may be pursued safely and effectively. On any given day, that might mean we’re providing protection for the Secretary of State as she pursues our national interests. It might mean we’re training foreign police and security officers to fight terrorism in their own countries.  Or it might mean we’re seeking new technologies to make our embassies and armored vehicles safer and the integrity of our passports and visas more secure.  

Secretary Rice has said that we are now in a period of transformational diplomacy, where our diplomats not only report what is going on in the field, but are actively partnering with nations to help them transform toward a democratic system of governance.  This new age of transformational diplomacy, combined with the global war on terror, has placed demands on DS like never before in its history. We are being called upon to serve in places today where traditionally the State Department would have pulled out or minimized its presence. So now, in countries that are on the forefront of the global war on terror and where democracy is just starting to take root, we are putting more people and resources on the ground, not fewer.  Intuitively, that means we are accepting more risk.  

In Iraq alone we have a significant percentage of our personnel and resources on the ground in such places as Kirkuk, Al Hillah, Mosul, and Tikrit.  Our regional security offices in Iraq are fully engaged in protecting U.S. diplomatic personnel, securing State Department facilities, and directing overall security for Chief of Mission operations throughout the country.  The safety of U.S. diplomatic operations in Iraq continues to be one of our greatest priorities and we could not do our job nearly as effectively without the robust and continual support from the Department of Defense and our federal law enforcement partners.  As we learned in Afghanistan, it is quite a challenge to balance the necessity of open door diplomacy while, at the same time, providing for a safe environment for that diplomacy to have a long lasting effect.  This comes at an all too familiar time of budget constraints and resource restrictions.  Additionally, in the event of a significant loss of property or serious injury, all that we do is subject to statutory authorities and legal mandates.  

In recent years, DS has been called upon to protect the leaders of some of the most politically volatile countries on earth--on their soil.  At this time, we are physically protecting world leaders in areas that are steeped in national and regional conflict; creating the basic and necessary stability for their leaderships to take their fledging democracies to the next level.  For the last few years, DS has been leading the protection efforts of President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.  At the same time, we have been providing robust counterterrorist training to the Afghan police so that they may combat the insurgency and continue their path toward democracy. 

More recently, we have been providing protection to the newly elected Liberian president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, so that the vital affairs of Liberia can carry on in a safe and secure atmosphere.  As is the case in Afghanistan, and many other countries around the world, DS is training a cadre of Liberian officers so that they may take over the protection of their president in the near future.  We are giving them the tools they need to carry out this mission, as it is vital to the stability and progression of the country’s affairs. 

During recent presidential elections in Haiti, DS agents provided for the secure movement of senior U.S. election monitoring officials around Port-Au-Prince and into the remote outlying portions of the country.  Concurrently, DS also oversees the personal protection of the interim president Boniface Alexander while the nation awaits its new president.  

Clearly, these new demands and refocused priorities in this era of transformational diplomacy will require new solutions and new ways of thinking.  We must seek new technologies from the private industry, to allow us to take on our newfound missions with confidence and success.       

We have allocated a great deal of resources to the research and development of new state-of-the-art structures that can withstand significant blasts.  For example, we have sought new construction technologies so that buildings on our new embassy compound in high-risk environments will have overhead roof cover to protect our people from indirect rocket and mortar fire. Recently in New Mexico, DS along with the office of Overseas Building Operations, set off controlled explosions against a mock embassy building to test the effectiveness of new blast-resistant construction techniques. 

We are working with offices within the Defense Department and the private sector, to develop new ways to detect and neutralize improvised explosive devices--the weapon of choice for insurgents in low-intensity conflicts.  These roadside bombs have been used against civilian and the military convoys too often and too effectively.  It is imperative that we quickly move to arm ourselves against these threats with technology and tactical know-how.

While efforts I have just mentioned have resulted in the hardening of U.S. Government facilities, anti-American terror groups have increasingly viewed the American private sector as a much softer target.  Many American restaurants and hotel chains have been repeatedly targeted worldwide.  U.S. oil companies and defense contractors have experienced terrifying attacks on their housing facilities and personnel.  To combat this, our Overseas Security Advisory Council or OSAC was set up in 1985 to foster cooperation and the exchange of security information between the U.S. Government and the U.S. private sector operating overseas. Currently, over 3500 constituent organizations participate in the program, including businesses, religious groups, universities, and colleges and other nongovernmental organizations.  At the Winter Olympics in Torino, OSAC played an instrumental role in keeping the U.S. private sector apprised of relevant threats to their respective organizations.  

Just as DS provides information to those organizations that are in need, we too, seek information from the general public to help us with our mission.  Our Rewards for Justice program, one of the most valuable U.S. Government assets in the fight against international terrorism, offers rewards of up to $25 million for information that prevents or favorably resolves acts of international terrorism against U.S. persons or property worldwide.  For example, supporting the military efforts in Iraq, reward offers were made for Saddam Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay.  A source came forward providing information as to the whereabouts of Uday and Qusay, just 19 days after the initial reward offer was made.  Since its debut in 1984, the program has paid out $62 million to over 40 people whose information has put terrorists behind bars or prevented acts of terrorism throughout the world.

In recent years, the growing technological sophistication that criminals and terrorists employ around the world has been of great concern.  The growth of the Internet, as well as the ease of travel and communication around the world, have made possible the rapid movement of operatives, expertise, money, and explosives.  As a result, we are concerned of cyber attacks against our vital information gateways that we so heavily depend on day after day.  To combat this challenge, DS has established a cyber security division, to oversee and protect our information gateways at home, and at the Department’s approximately 285 overseas locations.  I am pleased to say that our leading-edge cyber tool development efforts have been adopted by the U.S. Government and recently was recipient of a prestigious NSA an award.

DS understands the significance in developing and utilizing technology to meet the challenges of today, and more importantly, the challenges of tomorrow.  DS’ innovative use of technology provides the ability to remotely monitor the movements of employees in high threat environments, enabling immediate responses to incidents. Capabilities to monitor many of our overseas missions cameras in real time has also been implemented.  DS instituted a reengineered, technology enhanced security clearances program that delivers clearances in less than 75 days, a Federal sector leader.

Protecting our information is not only the job of our cyber security specialists, but also falls on our agents and analysts in our Counter Intelligence Division.  As State Department personnel are the most exposed U.S. Government employees to foreign intelligence threats, we have developed a strong defensive counterintelligence program.  Through background checks, assignment restrictions, and thorough briefings, we prepare our employees for postings to countries with aggressive and hostile intelligence services.  Our nation’s secrets are the responsibility of each and every employee.  It is our responsibility to give them the information and situational awareness they need to counter these threats.  

While the Department is committed to the safety and securing of our assets overseas, we are equally determined to protect the integrity of our nation’s borders.  Through our regional security offices overseas and our domestic field offices, including 25 Joint Terrorism Task Force locations, our 1400 agents are investigating allegations of passport and visa fraud, pursuing criminals and terrorists who seek entry into the United States to do our nation harm.  In FY 05 DS performed nearly 1000 arrests worldwide for travel document fraud and assisted in the return of 104 fugitives to the United States.  We have agents and analysts embedded in other U.S. Government command centers and watch locations, constantly feeding and sharing information with one another so that our decision makers have the information they need to do their jobs.       

I have mentioned just a few examples of the many challenges and solutions we are developing in our quest to secure our national interests ever more effectively.  For wherever DS goes in the world--whether we’re securing the new president of Liberia, protecting election-monitoring teams in Haiti, or serving search and arrest warrants nationwide--our goal is to protect and secure the American people, at home and abroad.  To meet our security challenges head on, we look, as always, to the excellent relationship the government shares with private industry.  In a large part, we depend on you to provide us with the technology, the industrial know how, to get the job done at the end of the day and help keep our nation safe and secure.  Thank you.