17 February 2005
U.S. Pledges $1.6 Million To Fight Terrorism in the Americas
Pledge made at counterterrorism meeting in Trinidad and Tobago
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States has pledged an additional $1.6 million to strengthen and expand counterterrorism coordination in the Western Hemisphere, bringing the total U.S. contribution to that effort in the Americas to $5 million since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington.
The money is being contributed to an anti-terrorism committee of the Organization of American States (OAS), which is holding a February 16-18 conference in Trinidad and Tobago. Asa Hutchinson, under secretary for border and transportation security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who announced the pledge at the conference, said the money represents about 80 percent of Western Hemisphere investments in the OAS group, known as the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism (CICTE).
The CICTE session brought together delegations from all 34 OAS member states to evaluate existing anti-terrorism policies and to develop new strategies for hemispheric communication, cooperation, and training in combating the threat of transnational terrorism.
Hutchinson cited several issues addressed at the 2005 conference, such as improving border controls, document security, aviation security (including potential threats to civilian aircraft posed by Man Portable Air Defense Systems -- MANPADS), biometrics sharing, and links between arms/narcotics trafficking and terrorism.
Joining Hutchinson, who leads the U.S. delegation at the conference, are John Maisto, U.S. permanent representative to the OAS, and William Pope, the U.S. Department of State's acting coordinator for counter-terrorism.
CICTE was established in 1999 to foster a cooperative multilateral approach in the Western Hemisphere to combat terrorism.
Among the speakers at the conference was acting OAS Secretary-General Luigi Einaudi, who warned that the Americas and the world at large must remain vigilant against terrorism.
Speaking February 16 at the opening of the CICTE meeting in Trinidad and Tobago's capital city of Port of Spain, Einaudi said the Americas have been "gratefully spared" acts of terrorism since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
"But we cannot rest on our laurels," said Einaudi.
He said attacks in Madrid, Spain, in 2004, as well as the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, and a series of deadly explosions in the Philippines on February 14, "all demonstrate that seemingly safe areas far removed from zones of active conflict are not immune" from major attacks.
Einuadi said the terrorist threat is "insidious precisely because we can never be sure that we have done enough."
He added that "obtaining action in the absence of a visibly clear and present danger can be difficult, particularly in the face of competing demands for resources, which we face in all our countries."
Einaudi, a former U.S. State Department official, said the countries of the Americas must continue to build a "culture of cooperation" if they are to develop effective strategies to combat terrorism.
"No one country has all of the answers to improving the security of our citizens against the threats posed by terrorists, who seek to exploit the rules of civilized society," said Einaudi. He said that terrorism, "whatever its origin or motivation, has no justification," and that countries of the region must be united in fighting a threat whose danger to the world could not have been imagined in a far different era, such as in 1967 when Trinidad and Tobago became a full member of the OAS.
For his part, Trinidad and Tobago's minister of national security, Martin Joseph, called for "urgent, practical and harmonized" efforts to address terrorist threats in the hemisphere.
"We are all potential victims, given the insidious nature of terrorism," said Joseph, who is the new chairman of CICTE for 2005.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=February&x=20050217153002AEneerG0.4840509&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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