Remarks at the Law Enforcement Executive Development Class Graduation

Good morning. Ambassador Huggins, Acting Commissioner Batshu, His Excellency High Commissioners, Director Patrick, Honored Graduates, Distinguished Guests, it is indeed my honor to be here with all of you to offer the keynote address for what I believe is one of the most important phases in the career of a law enforcement professional.

We, as law enforcement officers, are the first line of defense against the many evils that threaten our citizens, our nations, and indeed our international system. It is through training, such as you have just completed, that you can further develop and expand your individual and your organization’s capacity to meet and defeat the ever-changing challenges that our law enforcement leaders face today and tomorrow.

As leaders, you also have the challenge of inspiring future generations to cultivate the skills necessary to continue the fight when it is their turn to lead. The International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) epitomizes excellence in cooperative international law enforcement training and the Law Enforcement Executive Development Program (LEEDS) is one example of how our global police leaders are coming together to learn from one another and with one another. It reinforces for me what I have learned over more than 33 years of both military and law enforcement service as a law enforcement executive. The challenge we face in law enforcement is global and requires a global partnership among law enforcement professionals to be successful. The roots of that success can be seen here with your classmates. Each of them will become your not only your lifelong friends but most especially, your life-long professional partners.

You are the police leaders that your troops are looking to for guidance. Your officers see the landscape of their fight only as we define it for them. There is a clear nexus between organized crime, narcotics trafficking, trafficking in people, smuggling, poaching, and terrorism. You name the crime. We cannot allow our agencies and our officers to see these crimes narrowly and as individual entities. Then our adversaries will have the advantage in exploiting the seams in our defenses and harm our nations. We must look at criminal activity holistically and develop comprehensive strategies to resolve these interconnected problems. That is why I am very pleased to see that counter-terrorism has been added to your curriculum. It is an addition that is long overdue.

By adding counterterrorism into the LEEDS program, your experience with crime and terrorism is broadened and, by extension, so is that of your people who you are privileged to lead. Because, make no mistake, terrorists are first and foremost criminals. The same tools and techniques used to find and prosecute a criminal are the same tools and techniques that we must apply in our hunt for terrorists. We are on the front lines of the war on terrorism, no different than our war on narcotics, organized crime, or narcotics trafficking.

Law enforcement has and will continue to play a vital role in the war on terrorism. History has shown that the sustained effort of law enforcement and the firm application of the rule of law have been central to the defeat of terrorists and terrorist organizations. No terrorist organization was ever defeated by military force alone. It is the judicious, effective, and timely application of international, national, and local laws that has broken the backs of terrorist organizations and brought their members to justice. The tools of law enforcement—the gathering of intelligence, conduct of investigations, arrest, prosecution, and conviction of terrorists—are absolutely crucial to our success in waging this war. The results from you and your colleagues since 9/11 have been impressive.

There has been tremendous international cooperation between among the world’s law enforcement agencies. Through the identification and arrest of terrorists, we have crippled terror organizations that believed they could operate with impunity around the globe. The story of the law enforcement role in the global war on terror is what I call the story of the quiet sentinel. You and your colleagues have arrested and brought to the bar of justice more than 3,500 Al-Qaida criminals in more than 100 countries around the world. You have demonstrated that there are no sanctuaries for these criminals. They are criminals and the full weight of the international law enforcement community will be brought to bear against them. We have closed many of those seams these criminals have exploited prior to 9/11 to carry forth their diabolical plans. But there is much more to be done, indeed, it must be done if our societies are to thrive and prosper.

We must continually seek to stop acts of terror before their deadly aims are fulfilled. The gathering of intelligence on capabilities and intentions are just as important as preventing the triggering of a detonator on an IED at an intended target. We must continue to hound those who intend to pursue a path of wanton death and destruction, but this effort must be done without trampling on the rights of others.

I can’t overemphasize the importance of the rule of law in this global war on terror. That all of our nations have been fighting together. You know, having spent 30 some years in the United States military, I was greatly impressed by the military performance of our forces in our coalition in Afghanistan and Iraq. I can tell you that as a law enforcement professional, I was never more proud of the way our law enforcement professionals in bringing that number of 3,500 Al Qaida operatives to justice. Not military justice, but justice at the local and state level in 100 countries around the world. Citizens of your countries and colleagues around the world will judge and punish them appropriately for the crimes they have committed. I believe, over the long term, that will be what will break the backs of those who threaten us.

Despite our successes, the fight against terrorism will be a long-term effort. It is not a war that will be won by the United States alone, indeed by any nation alone. It will be generations of your children and your children’s children before terrorism will cease to be a political tool or weapon. We must sustain today for the generations tomorrow the worldwide collaborative law enforcement effort if we are to prevail for our children and our children’s children.

No other program has the geographic scope or potential venue for international cooperation than the International Law Enforcement Academy. The four ILEA training academies, of which the Gaborone campus is the youngest, covers the entire world and your colleagues around the entire world. More than 2,000 officials from 48 countries are trained every year in virtually every facet of international law enforcement. ILEA has the unique ability to not only prepare law enforcement professionals for the wide gamut of law enforcement challenges that you will face, but to shape and influence police activities in every country around the world.

The key to ILEA’s success is coordination. The United States and 17 other countries and international organizations work together to provide instruction at ILEA. This cooperative effort has resulted in an extremely dynamic, high profile program with strong worldwide support.

That support is strikingly vivid here in Gaborone. The government of Botswana, a key ally in the global war on terrorism, has a superb reputation for its commitment to policing through democracy. Botswana’s outstanding support to the ILEA program is evident in this state-of-the-art training facility, a tribute to the importance Botswana places on this cooperative effort. With the support of other countries in the Southern African Development Community, ILEA Gaborone is a textbook example of how a common, global goal can be achieved through teamwork.

And the Law Enforcement Academy’s Executive Development program is a key part of ILEA Gaborone’s success. Great thought and planning went into developing the structure of this personal and professional development program. Ministers and law enforcement experts from each country in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region, as well as Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Uganda, pooled their knowledge and expertise to identify topical areas and competencies required necessary for combating terrorism and transnational crime in sub-Saharan Africa. Although new to the region, this program already enjoys an outstanding international reputation.

The Law Enforcement Executive Development program reflects the collective quest for practical and productive efforts to better equip and empower law enforcement professionals in the region to prepare for and combat the ever-increasing sophistication of criminal elements. Over the past six weeks, students from Ethiopia, Uganda, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho have received instruction on regional integration, safeguarding of individual freedoms, preservation of human dignity, and other topics identified as central to the identification and development of methods to ensure the safety and sovereignty of all people in every region of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa.

But perhaps the most important part of this program is the relationships, partnerships, and friendships forged during the past six weeks. By studying and living together as a group, these graduates have learned to foster the exchange of information, ideas, and experiences. They have built an unyielding bond that will ultimately result in increased and enhanced regional and international cooperation between officers and nations. This increased cooperation will also pave the way for additional bilateral and multilateral agreements and working groups to develop new policies and procedures to suppress crime and ensure peace and stability in the region.

By all accounts, I understand that you embraced your studies eagerly and energetically. I encourage you to maintain that same level of enthusiasm as you return to your respective countries to resume the important work that awaits you.

You are all ambassadors of your respective countries and you are about to join the ranks of ILEA Gaborone’s proud alumni. ILEA’s ultimate success and value to the region rests on your initiative and effective implementation of the skills and knowledge you have gained during your time here.

On behalf of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the Department of State, and the American Government, I congratulate all of you on the successful completion of the Law Enforcement Executive Development Program. This has been a tough and challenging course, and I am sure you are all eager to return home to your families, friends, and colleagues. I wish you a safe journey, Godspeed, and continued success in your respective careers.