Managing Risks and Threats in Challenging Environments

(10:00 a.m. EST)

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Thank you. Thank you very much. And, Frank, thank you for your introduction, but most of all, thanks for your service and your friendship. And speaking of friendship, let me acknowledge, because I saw him coming in, a dear and longtime friend of mine here who was serving in Vietnam before it was a word in every newspaper and on the lips of everybody, Noel Koch*. So good to see you, bro'. I'm happy you're here. (Applause.)

Now, ladies and gentlemen, last month, Assistant Secretary Taylor swore in the latest class of State Department special agents by telling them the following: "What you do and who you are cannot be separated; your duties and values should go hand in hand." We couldn't ask for a better person to carry that message. Frank, I believe your entire Diplomatic Security team has benefited not just from what you have done, but from who you are. So thank you very much, sir, for your leadership in this great organization. (Applause.)

I want to recognize Joe Morton and Bill Duggan for their leadership as co-chairmen. OSAC has seen a significant expansion on your watch in this past year and you have both kept a steady hand on the tiller in some rough seas. Now, of course, Mike Evanoff, who will have some remedial training by Frank later -- (laughter) -- deserves a great deal of credit, and I want to thank him for being such an effective and enthusiastic executive director.

Now, what most of you don't know is Mike and I go back a ways, to about 1990 or so in the Philippines. If you don't know his nickname, at least as far as I'm concerned, please ask him at some time during a break. (Laughter.) And I think he'll tell you.

Mike and his people work hard to deserve the sort of enthusiasm you are all showing today by being here for this briefing, and we are all quite grateful for you joining us today, but moreover, every day. Without question, it is your full participation that truly makes OSAC a success and there's no underestimating the importance of our mutual success. This is the sort of public-private partnership we need in order to provide the security and prosperity the American people deserve.

Ordinarily, Secretary Powell likes to be the one to welcome you all to Washington for this annual meeting, but I'm in the delightful position of being the pretend Secretary of State as he's winging his way to Chile to advance the President's trip there tomorrow for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. Those meetings will touch on trade liberalization, among other business. And given that one-third of all recent calls from our OSAC constituents concern nations across that region, I suspect many of you are quite happy that he's where he is today, or will be soon, and I'm where I am.

And it's true, this is a time of tremendous opportunity for American trade and American commerce around the world, as well as a time of record increases in U.S. foreign aid. The global underpinning of our economy is growing even stronger: World trade negotiations are back on track; we have free trade agreements in place with important partners from Central America to Australia; an unprecedented improvement in our relations with the major powers of the world, from China, Japan, Russia to India.

At the same time, the United States is taking steps to ensure that as many people as possible benefit from the global economy, as well as to generate new prospects and partners for the future. We have initiatives such as the Millennium Challenge Account, the President's $15 billion program to fight HIV/AIDS, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, which seek to eradicate poverty, alleviate disease and improve the investment climate overseas.

Of course, as we all know, the flip side of this tremendous growth and opportunity and the high visibility it brings for American companies is greater vulnerability. Indeed, this has been a difficult year for many of us.

Terrorist criminals have targeted America, including private enterprise, private individuals and private properties. They've done this on nearly every continent of the globe.

Now, in recent months I've had the opportunity to travel with Frank to some of the places where our people are in immediate and sometimes daily risk of attack: Islamabad, Baghdad, Kabul, as well as Moscow.

Indeed, we in the State Department lost one of our own last month with the death of Diplomatic Security's Ed Seitz in Iraq. Ed was an extraordinary and dedicated officer. Indeed, we can find that uncommon kind of determination in all of our missions, 263 missions in 180 countries around the globe.

That is really the comparative advantage that we offer you as a partner: the global presence of high-quality and highly motivated people. Indeed, as many of you need to call on, or, as many of you will need to call on our resources in the coming year, it's an unfortunate thing that the trend of increasing attacks on so-called soft targets is most likely to continue. Indeed, I believe we're seeing a permanent shift in our way of doing business and dispensing aid overseas.

But as we look ahead, it's not all bleak and bad news. We've gotten very good at working together to protect our people. And through OSAC, we share lessons learned, we share best practices, and we exchange information about threats and about attacks. Indeed, just as the information we provide you can be a force multiplier for your companies, you can also help us.

Your employees work in different circumstances and locations than ours do. The insights and information they provide can help us both fill in some blanks. OSAC works best when information flow is a two-way street. We're greatly aided in that effort by country councils, which act a forum for local representatives of U.S. companies and U.S. diplomatic missions, to discuss each and everything from terrorism to theft to labor disputes.

In Baghdad, for instance, the country council features real-time security updates. We have these councils now in 99 nations, and we're soon to add even more. In fact, our mutual success has become a model here in our country, where the Department of Homeland Security is building domestic partnerships loosely patterned on OSAC, but also abroad. The United Kingdom, as I believe and hope you've just heard from our British colleague, has established a similar group. Australia is exploring the same possibility.

It is to our advantage to be emulated. The more connected we are in our own public and private partnership, but also in the partnership with other nations, the harder it will be for the terrorists to succeed. For that reason, we are committed to sustaining OSAC, and I can assure you that after 19 years, our commitment has been institutionalized and will endure changes in leadership.

On the other hand, as good as OSAC is for both public and private sectors, it's not enough. Working together to manage the threats and risks is certainly very important, but no matter how good we get at this, we simply can't stop every attack indefinitely. As President Bush has pointed out, we have to be right all the time, every single day, and the terrorists and the criminals only have to be right once.

Fortunately, the President has a comprehensive strategy for dealing with this threat. First, we are implementing defensive measures, not just OSAC, but a range of homeland protections. Second, we are taking the fight to the terrorists, eradicating this problem at its very roots, working with scores of partners in dozens of countries to do so.

But even a forward strategy of freedom cannot assure final success in this war we're waging today. Terrorism is, after all, not an army. It's not an army we can defeat on a field of battle. It's an idea, an ideology of hatred, an ideology of destruction. And the only way to kill such an idea is to offer a better idea in its place, and that points to the true strength of the partnership we see in OSAC.

We are both advancing the idea of freedom, of the prosperity and security that comes with free markets and free minds. Prosperity and security are mutually reinforcing. Indeed, you can't have one without the other. At the end of the day, if we can work together to improve security conditions, if we can protect our people well enough to keep doing business and dispensing aid around the world, we will be helping to build a legacy of prosperity, and I believe that is, ultimately, our best defense against terrorism, which all goes to show you how wise Frank Taylor really is, when it comes to protecting your people. Keep in mind that your duties and your values go hand in hand. Who you are and how you represent your nation will matter as much as what you do.

I want to thank all of you for joining us today. I trust, pray that you find today's briefings informative, and we look forward to being with you in the coming year. Thank you all so very, very much.

(Applause.)
2004/1260