Remarks of Acting Director Michael J. Sullivan
CIARA Dedication
Bogota, Colombia
December 6, 2006
Thank you, Vice President Santos, for the gracious welcome you have provided for all of the guests here today. This is my first visit to Colombia, and I’m very pleased to be able to come for this important occasion.
And General Castro, I appreciate your hospitality. I know that ATF and the Colombian National Police have had an extensive and productive partnership, and this event is a testament to that partnership.
The building we dedicate today is just the most recent evidence of the important bilateral relationship between the United States and Colombia, a relationship that my colleagues working at the American Embassy seek to strengthen even further each day. I’m pleased to acknowledge Deputy Chief of Mission Milton Drucker, and I appreciate his leadership.
And I have a particular appreciation for the work of my own agency’s representative here -- ATF Attache Orlando Blanco -- who has been in Colombia since October 2005. Orlando is doing great work on behalf of ATF, and for the citizens and government of Colombia. I also want to recognize former Assistant Attache Ollie Mier, who was instrumental in the development of the CIARA.
Successful law enforcement depends on partnerships: both those between individuals, and those between nations. I know that many of you in the audience today are law enforcement officers, and you have seen first-hand that in order to put together a successful case, you often need to draw on the information and the expertise of your colleagues.
These partnerships are necessary at every level—within an office, across jurisdictions, and across national borders. Our own agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, has been working in Bogota since 1990, sharing our expertise in firearms and explosives investigations.
In that time, we have worked with the Colombian National Police to make the most of intelligence information, through initial efforts at firearms tracing, and creating an in-country repository of investigative information from explosives incidents.
We’ve also provided technical advice on-scene at numerous unfortunate incidents.
And we’ve helped to ensure that those investigating the incidents have the knowledge they need to work safely and effectively.
For example, we have trained and helped to establish 76 investigative bomb squads in Colombia since 2002. Before that date, Colombia lost six to seven of its bomb techs every year in this hazardous work. Since the training began, that number has been reduced considerably, and we are proud to partner with you to help ensure the safety of your law enforcement personnel.
In 2003, we also began an aggressive project to ensure that explosive ordnance detection equipment was available where needed throughout Colombia. This program provides a “blanket” to protect Colombian citizens from acts of terrorism involving explosives. By ensuring that Colombian first responders and investigators have the training and equipment they need for this hazardous work, we are able to safeguard their lives, and help Colombian law enforcement protect your citizens.
Now, we’ve made another step forward together.
CIARA’s dedication is an outstanding example of how law enforcement cooperation and information sharing must extend across national borders. And it’s a great example of using technology to make this cooperation and information sharing more effective.
This facility -- three years in the making -- includes a variety of resources to support Colombian law enforcement as it seeks to protect citizens from crimes and terrorist acts involving firearms and explosives. It will house the D-fuze system, an international explosives database that ATF helped develop. It will also include specialized units that will respond nationally to any emergency or crisis. And it will provide a wealth of information to Colombian firearms investigators, through a simple and speedy access to ATF’s systems.
Two of the most important of these are e-Trace and the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN.
Through e-Trace, investigators gain valuable information about the history of a firearm. And through NIBIN, investigators can use crime gun evidence to link crimes that could have been connected by no other means.
These systems allow us to make the most of evidence, whether that information takes the form of a firearm’s serial number or a bullet or cartridge casing recovered at a crime scene. And opening the systems through CIARA will enable better access to information, and create new opportunities to use intelligence to prevent future crimes.
The United States is a proud ally and partner with our friends in Colombia. It is not an accident that Colombia is the longest-standing democracy in Latin America. As Acting Director of the ATF, I am particularly proud of the small role our agency plays to assist you in your efforts to secure domestic peace and maintain your strong and healthy democratic tradition.
I know that the words “Libertad y Orden” are emblazoned on Colombia’s coat of arms. The United States shares your belief that “Liberty and Order” are crucial if a society is to function properly. In working with the Colombian National Police, our goal is to foster the civil order that will allow the Colombian people to live more safely and more freely.
When this order exists, your citizens may better exercise the basic liberty that democracy promises and enjoy greater prosperity. Through CIARA, we hope to contribute to this order; and by doing so, we hope to contribute to the liberty of all Colombians as well. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today.
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