ON
THE GROUND IN GEORGIA
New Overseas Office Opens for Business
10/14/05
It's
no surprise that we have agents in Atlanta
and throughout the state of Georgia. What
you may not know is that we now have agents
in the republic of Georgia--the former
Soviet bloc country that's nestled between
Turkey and Russia on the Black Sea.
The
office, one of more than 50 Legal
Attaché offices or Legats worldwide,
was opened this past year in the U.S. embassy
in Tbilisi--Georgia's capital since the
fifth century on the banks of the River
Kura.
Why
Georgia? Legal Attaché C. Bryan
Paarmann points out, "Georgia is the
cradle of democracy in the former Soviet
Union and is one of our strongest allies
in the global war on terror. It's also geographically
strategic, particularly in the fight against
Eurasian transnational crime."
We've
been working with our overseas partners
in Georgia for years--but at a distance,
as the office was previously covered by
our Legats in the Ukraine and Turkey. Now,
Special Agent Paarmann, Special Agent Mark
Kirby, and Operations Assistant Wendy Johnson
are on the ground to more easily build relationships
in Georgia and in the neighboring countries
of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Our
partnerships with the Georgian Ministry
of Internal Affairs and the Office of the
Prosecutor General are already paying dividends:
these two agencies worked together with
us to track down a man suspected of throwing
a live grenade in an attempt to assassinate
President Bush during his visit to Georgia
in May. The man was arrested
and indicted by a U.S. federal court in
September.
The
Tbilisi Legat has also helped investigate
the suspicious death of a Georgian Prime
Minister, looked into arms smuggling out
of Armenia, and helped break a major kidnapping
ring in Azerbaijan.
"We
have established--and enjoy--very warm and
cordial relationships with the law enforcement,
security, and intelligence agencies in these
three countries," Paarmann says. "We
are working together daily to combat those
crimes and security issues that affect our
respective countries."
For
the record, how do our Legats work?
Each Legal Attaché office is led
by a special agent, who works directly and
openly with the international colleagues
in his or her geographic area. They don't
have authority to conduct investigations
overseas (unless given express permission
by the host country); rather, they work
with their international partners to pursue
leads in our cases with global links and
to address larger global security issues
like terrorism, international organized
crime, and cyber attacks. And our Legats
return the favor, coordinating requests
for investigative assistance for other country's
cases that have ties to the U.S.
How
do you contact the Tbilisi Legat? Call
the U.S. Embassy at 011-995-32-98-9967.
For
more information about the republic of Georgia,
see the CIA
World Factbook and the
U.S. Embassy website. To read more stories
about our Legats and other international
operations, see our story
index.