As prepared for delivery...

"Security and Safety Planning in the Enterprise Environment"

Hilton Hotel
September 23, 2003

Mr. Rologis, CyABA Members, Ladies and Gentleman,

I am delighted to have this opportunity to participate in another well-focused Cyprus America Business Association (CyABA) event.  I am pleased that you have partnered with the Department of State’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) to examine business security in light of the war on terrorism and other developments affecting the global business environment.

I wish I could counsel you to not worry about security and instead just concentrate on boosting your bottom line.  I can’t and won’t.  The best way to prevent Nicosia or any other city from being added to the list of places struck by terrorists in recent years on virtually every continent is for government, business and society at large to be prepared and to work together.   From this perspective, as the threat of terrorism continues to evolve and is focused more than ever on “soft targets,” initiatives such as today’s are especially timely.  I’m sure you’ll find the presentation by OSAC’s European Analyst Adrian Senyszyn particularly relevant.

As the U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus, I have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens and American interests on the island.  Because I take this responsibility seriously, I commend each of you for your attendance today and for being committed to raise your security awareness and contribute to a secure environment for your colleagues and families.

As I said in my first speech to CyABA last October, I am keenly interested in improving cooperation between the United States Embassy and American businesses, including on security matters.  I can tell you from first-hand experience that establishing an OSAC Country Council concept is one of the most efficient ways to strengthen our partnership, something that my colleague Chris Schurman will discuss later in greater detail. 

I served on Secretary of State Shultz’s staff in the early 80s.  After the terrible car bombing of our Beirut Embassy, each week Shultz and his senior staff selected a different Embassy and reviewed its security set-up.  As a companion initiative, Shultz also launched the OSAC in those years to strengthen collaboration between the U.S. Government and business community on overseas security concerns and to boost the exchange of security information. 

Established in 1985, OSAC quickly expanded by chartering overseas country councils, resulting in security partnerships between our diplomatic missions and the American business community in those countries.  Today, OSAC has over 60 country councils worldwide and is working aggressively to push that number to over 100 by the end of 2004.  We established one in Hong Kong three years ago during my tenure, and – it will come as no surprise – Cyprus is now high on my agenda if it can address the needs of its main stakeholders.  I encourage each of you representing American companies to reflect on how we can best help each other.  If you agree a Cyprus Country Council is the way to go, I hope you will work with my Embassy colleagues and become charter members – something Chris Schurman will talk about later.

In the global war on terrorism, we have made great progress since the September 11 attacks:  over two thirds of Al Qaida’s senior figures have been captured or killed.  Al Qaida’s sanctuary in Afganistan is gone; the country has been returned to the Afghan people, although much work remains.  Saddam Hussein’s regime – which embraced both weapons of mass destruction and terrorism as instruments of policy – is gone.  Iraq is being transformed from a place of torture chambers into a nation of laws and free institutions. Worldwide, over 3000 terrorist suspects have been detained in over one hundred countries.  Millions of dollars of terrorist assets have been frozen.  New UN resolutions have been passed and countries across the world have banded together to combat terrorism.   Sounds promising, doesn’t it?  The war on terrorism, however, is far from over.  Let me name some cities.  What do they have in common?  New York, Washington, Bali, Riyadh, Casablanca, New Delhi, Jerusalem and Jakarta.  I could name many more in Europe and elsewhere where terrorist plots were foiled by police work.  This will be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts, in many places, with many different tools. 

As the war on terrorism has progressed, those who seek to destroy our system of democracy, freedom, and economic prosperity have evolved, focusing also on targets that are not as heavily defended as government installations.  Recall my list of cities and the potential targets – often commercial buildings or hotels.  The threat is real and it is transnational.  It is diffuse.  It is insidious.  None of us can combat it alone.  We must cooperate.  This is where OSAC Country Councils fit in. 

I have highlighted terrorism, but that is not the only threat faced by American business abroad.  International crime and fraud have joined the ranks of political violence as challenges you face.  OSAC has a role to play on these as well as international piracy, counterfeiting of American products, and cargo theft.

On a daily basis, OSAC’s headquarters in Washington provides a tremendous amount of information to constituents all over the world.  During the Iraq war alone, the OSAC web-site was visited over one million times by those seeking up-to-date security information.  While the web-site is clearly focused on the American private sector, much of its content is available to any manager interested in making more informed security decisions.  OSAC also produces a wealth of timely analyses on emerging security issues, some of which we have already distributed to you through the series of security bulletins that the Embassy began publishing in March.  Yet, as valuable as these resources are, they are at best a support structure for OSAC’s Country Councils. 

I know from my experience in Hong Kong – where we established a country council in 2000 – as well as my assignment in The Hague how important these fora are to business leaders.  In Hong Kong, we started off with a solid base of members; after September 11, membership mushroomed, as did registration of American citizens with the U.S. Consulate General.

OSAC’s essence is to develop an effective security communication network. The country council provides a structure within which we – the embassy and American businesses in Cyprus - can cooperate and exchange information on the specific business environment in which you operate.  It serves as a point of contact for you, and a group that can concert efforts on specific issues as they arise.  Through this exchange, the country councils also set their own priorities and agendas.  For example, some topics that have driven country council agendas have been the improvement of physical security measures, raising security awareness, developing crisis management skills, or seeking better ways to protect their intellectual property rights.  By ensuring local country councils drive their agenda, OSAC expects that each country council will be engaged in issues that matter most in each individual business environment, tailoring goals to fit local needs. 

OASC also has its own Research and Information Support Center (RISC), established in 1997, with analysts dedicated solely to the private sector.  Through RISC and the OSAC country council framework, corporate security managers in Cyprus are also exposed to information produced by the State Department’s DS Intelligence and Threat Analysis Division (ITA) and Counterintelligence staffs (corporate espionage).  This can provide you analysis on crime and terrorism trends in any country in the world. 

While the threat of terrorism is reason enough to establish this framework for dialogue, I hope you will share your views on other security issues in Cyprus with our Regional Security Officer, Chris Schurman, at the end of this seminar.  In doing so, you will plant the seeds for the Cyprus Country Council’s agenda and put its establishment on a fast track for completion.

I noted at the beginning of my remarks that I commend each of you for your attendance and commitment to raise your security awareness and contribute to a secure environment for our colleagues and families.  I hope those of you who are interested will join my Embassy colleagues and help us form an OSAC Country Council.  It will provide a platform both to serve American business interests and to act as a leader on private sector security issues throughout Cyprus. 

Thank you.