Graduation Ceremony for Security Technical Specialists

You are graduating at unique time and your contributions will have an immediate impact on American diplomacy. It is important to take time to celebrate this day with family and friends. In the very near future, you will join America’s war against global terrorism. We will ask you to travel to some of the most challenging and dangerous areas of the world, to protect our diplomats and missions abroad. Your jobs, our jobs, are critically important in ensuring that the President’s foreign policy agenda is carried out safely and securely.

You will have many unique experiences during your careers, such as providing technical security protection for the Secretary of State in a foreign land; we may ask you to go to Afghanistan to assist in safeguarding our newest ally in the war on terrorism, President Hamid Karzai.  We may ask you to help us open up a new embassy in Baghdad when the time is right. You will be required to design, install, and maintain technical and physical security systems at our embassies and consulates abroad that will protect our Foreign Service colleagues and national security information from terrorist, criminal, and intelligence attacks.

Together, the collective challenges we face are clear. Without question, we have a difficult job—one where there are no points for second place. In order to meet these challenges successfully, we must use all of the resources available to us.

As your Assistant Secretary, I can assure you that I will work day and night to ensure that you and the other members of DS have everything they need, from information to state-of-the-art technology, to effectively accomplishing the missions assigned to us. I will seek and expand opportunities for you to broaden your technical and leadership experiences within the Bureau and the Department. I firmly believe that all of us must have a broad-based understanding of the agencies we serve, and an appreciation for the rapidly expanding and important role that we play in American diplomacy.

As in any endeavor, mission effectiveness is critical. Today’s threat environment is very complex, and as events in the past 2 years have proven, extremely dangerous. Our adversaries are very intelligent and their ideologies, strategies, and tactics are as diverse as the day is long. They vary from nation states that sponsor terrorism to using their security and intelligence apparati to spy on us to terrorist organizations like Al Qaida that operate globally with the aim of destroying the American way of life and all that our country stands for. Our opponents have become more dangerous as they too increase their access to modern technology and seek weapons of mass destruction.

I have hopefully laid out an ambitious vision of a future that your colleagues and I firmly believe in. However, in your pursuit of this shared goal, always remember your core values. Shortly you will receive your credentials. Honor them and treat them with respect as you do your colleagues. Act with integrity and you will be treated in kind. Admit your faults and work quickly to overcome them. We will always be there to support you.

The Diplomatic Security Service is one of the preeminent security and law enforcement organizations in the world and our reputation for excellence is unmatched. You are the future of this organization. We will call upon you to excel early and often in your career, and I am confident that each of you will make a difference for our department, for our nation and most especially for the American people. That is what we have trained you to do and now it is time to perform.

I welcome each of you to our team and God bless each of you and your family as you go forth to serve this great nation and our people.