17th Annual Overseas Security Advisory Council Briefing

And I thank you, Ambassador Taylor, General Taylor, for that very kind introduction. I am very pleased that you have finally been advised by and consented to by the Senate, and the President should attest your nomination at any moment, and then we will finish this rather lengthy process we go through to get our appointees in and be able to swear you in as Assistant Secretary of State for the Diplomatic Security Service.

Let me take this opportunity to thank Frank for the great work he has done since coming in with me at the beginning of this Administration, working on counterterrorism issues as the Assistant Secretary of State for Counterterrorism job. He has done an absolutely great job in that capacity and I am pleased that he is staying on now in a new capacity. I know he will just be terrific in it.

I would also like to congratulate Peter Bergin and Robert Littlejohn for their successful work as Co-Chairmen of the Overseas Security Advisory Council. Craig DeCampli is doing a wonderful job as OSAC's Executive Director, and I express my thanks to Craig, as well.

But, above all, I am pleased to welcome you once again to the State Department for this 17th Annual Briefing of the Overseas Security Advisory Council. I know some of you have traveled a long way to be here. I think that that is a testament to the value that you find in OSAC, the value that you find in this organization in a world that is full of promise, as well as a world that is one of peril.

We all know the score. We all know what we are facing. We all know that business does not stop at the water's edge. Opportunity, these days, is global. In order to be successful in business these days, you have to think globally. The old lines that separated us ideologically and politically have been changed in the last ten years. Globalization is a reality. Whether you like it or not, whether you think it is good or bad, it is a reality. If you are going to do business successfully in this new world, you have to be prepared to do it globally.

American business, increasingly, is global business. You are working in every region, on every continent. You are trading, investing, sharing American know-how -- sharing American know-how and best practices -- and through that, you are expanding the circle of prosperity. It isn't just a matter of going out to make a profit for your shareholders or your owners. That's fine. That's right. That's the free enterprise way.

But, in the process of doing that, you are bringing hope to countries in need, to people in need, to people who wonder whether or not globalization will help them, not just for business people in those countries but for the workers, for those whose life will be enhanced and improved and whose children will now be able to get an education or have food on the table or have hope in their hearts once again.

That is what this is all about, and that is why you always have to see it in that manner and why it is so important for you to invest and to trade and to work overseas, but to also do it safely. And that is why we need OSAC. The events of the past 14 months have brought painfully home that our world is still dangerous, for private Americans as well as American officials.

In the past ten months, I have taken three casualties within the State Department family. Two of them were family members killed in Pakistan in a church bombing. The third one was an AID worker in Jordan. It is dangerous to be overseas now, so we have to do everything we can to protect ourselves and not let the terrorists drive us back home. If they do that, if they succeed in doing that, then they have won.

But we all know that security is too big for you or for us to manage alone. We can only make it work, we can only make our people secure, if we cooperate in the way that we are cooperating here today. And that, of course, is what OSAC is all about. OSAC delivers.

Just look at a sample of the past year's activity. The Caracas Country Council put together an intensive briefing for crisis management for its members, and within a month of that briefing there was an attempted coup that brought some instability into the country for that period of time. Needless to say, under those circumstances, OSAC members were in a much better position to take care of their people and to protect their assets than they might have been otherwise.

In the wake of the Bali bombing, the Country Council in Indonesia provided companies operating there with the information they needed to make informed decisions. I could go on. Carjackings in South Africa, unrest in Argentina, tensions between India and Pakistan -- all of these had an impact on your employees, your people, and their families. And all of them, OSAC helped guide the way through.

As in any good partnership, the benefits flow both ways. I particularly wanted to thank our OSAC members operating in Cote D'Ivoire for their help in locating private American citizens trapped behind rebel lines just a few weeks ago.

The message here is clear. We are committed to working with you, each and every one of you, through OSAC to make your people and our people -- together, collectively, working together, sharing information, sharing intelligence, sharing best practices, sharing what we hear about potential risk -- to make your people and our people, through those efforts, safer, as safe as possible.

We are committed, as I said to you last year, to listening and learning from you. Your attendance today shows that you believe in OSAC, too. You are not alone. OSAC's membership has grown to over 2,100 private sector organizations. But that is not enough; 2,100 is only a fraction of the many, many organizations out there working and doing business who face the same risk that you do.

So we need to spread the net wider. We need to make it a larger and more vibrant organization. And we are working to do so. Some of you have seen, perhaps, this morning my open letter in today's Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. But the best promotion is word of mouth. So if you believe in what we are doing, if you believe in OSAC's value -- please, through your trade associations, through your meetings of other business leaders, spread the word to your colleagues who do not yet belong to OSAC.

OSAC itself is adapting to the changing threat environment, and environment that knows no national boundaries. So I am very pleased to welcome a new contributor to our Annual OSAC Briefings -- if he is here. It is great to introduce somebody who's not here. (Laughter.) Since he's not here, I will go on a bit longer. (Laughter.) He's coming?

I would love to stay and really spend the whole hour with you, taking you on a complete tour d'horizon, as we say in the diplomatic world, of what is happening around the world, but you are well familiar with the various issues of the day. I can say to you that we are hard at work here in the Department on the issues dealing with Iraq, trying to find a peaceful solution to that problem. We are working hard to enhance our relationship with China and Russia.

We are looking forward to the Prague summit next week, where we will invite a number of additional countries to join the NATO alliance. NATO is a great organization. My Russian colleagues used to say to me in the early '90s, "Why do you still need NATO? We got rid of the Warsaw Pact and therefore NATO doesn't have a reason to be any longer."

My response was, "It's hard to close a club down when people are still trying to get in." (Laughter.) And all of the former Warsaw Pact members are now anxious to get into NATO. Why? Because NATO is that great link to North America, that great link to Canada and the United States, which these newly independent nations see as the proper way to move into the future -- linked solidly in Europe, but also linked to America as part of a great Euro-Atlantic partnership.

We worry about the problems of the day so often that sometimes we fail to stand back and take a look at all of the terrific things that are happening in foreign policy and in the world. No longer are there great ideologies clashing against each other -- communism versus democracy, fascism -- all gone. Terrorism is an ideology, but it can hurt us, it can damage us, it can destroy our buildings, it can kill our citizens, but it can't kill us, it can't kill this nation, it can't kill the ideology that we believe in of democracy and the free enterprise system.

It is a different world. We will fight this "-ism" just as we have fought all other "-isms." But we are in a much better world this century because it is democracy and the free enterprise system that really works. And people know it. People know it throughout the world. We have forged better relations with our friends and colleagues in Asia, our friends and colleagues on the Eurasian landmass. We are working hard in Africa. We are working hard in our own hemisphere. I am leaving here in a few moments to go to Canada to speak to our colleagues up there to enhance the great relationship that exists between the United States and Canada.

So we are doing very, very well, and we shouldn't let the problems that are out there take away from the opportunities that exist in this new world of ours. One of the things we do have to do, though, is protect our homeland, protect our citizens here at home. We have to do it in a way that makes sure we know who is coming into America, what they are here for; do it in a way that protects us, but, at the same time, does not turn us into an isolated state where we are afraid of foreigners, where we don't want people to come.

We do want people to come here. We want people to come to our universities. We want people to immigrate here, as my parents did and as your forbearers did at one time or another. We want people to come to our hospitals and to Disneyland and Disney World and go to our great attractions. This is what makes America vibrant.

And while we are protecting ourselves, we are going to make sure we communicate the vision of an open society, an open nation that welcomes people to come here and to enjoy, to live, to find a new life. We are going to welcome people from every part of the world. We are going to continue to welcome people of every faith, of every religion.

We will reject the kinds of comments you have seen recently, where people in this country say that Muslims are responsible for the killing of all Jews and who put out hatred. This kind of hatred must be rejected. This kind of language must be spoken out against. We cannot allow this image to go forth of America because it is an inaccurate image of America. We are a welcoming nation, a nation that is a country of countries, touched by every country, and we touch every country in the world.

On Sunday, The New York Times had in its Living Arts section a picture of a prom scene at a high school in Miami. I don't know how many of you noticed it, but there were these three prom pictures, hideous pictures. (Laughter.) You know what prom pictures are like. Go look at your own when you go home tonight. (Laughter.) But there were these three teenage couples arrayed in front of a rather hideous red and white background. But what was fascinating was three youngsters represented just about every race, color, creed or ethnicity you can imagine. These three couples, six kids.

The whole story was about this high school in Miami and prom night, and the story was about the fact that this high school in Miami had 65 different countries represented in that school, drawing from the immigrant population in that part of Florida. They spoke dozens and dozens of different languages. But on prom night, they all were coming together to enjoy that special evening in the lives of teenagers.

This is a country that supposedly hates other people? This is a country that is against other religions? Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. We share values with every religion, with every faith, with every culture, with every creed and with every color on the face of the earth. That is what makes America what it is.

I can walk out this door in five minutes and I can be at a temple, I can be at a mosque, I can be at a church of any one of a dozen denominations, I can be at a synagogue -- all within five minutes of here, all living in peace with one another. That is the kind of society we are.

And he gave up that job to come to Washington to take on an important responsibility for the American people, to help us protect our homeland. He has done a terrific job at it. I have watched him every day as he struggled with getting a bill that would create a Department of Homeland Security -- and almost there. He has provided leadership and he has provided inspiration, not only to his fellow citizens as he has gone about this work, but to his fellow colleagues within the Administration.