JIATF-W TRAINING ASSISTANCE REQUEST

UNCLAS SINGAPORE 001477 SIPDIS HQ ICE IAO WASHDC PASS TO DHS/ICE OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - FOREIGN OPERATIONS - ASIA DESK OFFICER ROBERT J. COOKE SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958 TAGS: KHLS ASEC DHSX SN SUBJECT: JIATF-W TRAINING ASSISTANCE REQUEST ¶1. (SBU) Summary. Post requests Joint Interagency Task Force-West (JIATF-West) assistance in sponsoring joint Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) / Department of Defense (DOD) training in Singapore focused on forensic document examination and the international legal issues involved in border enforcement and transportation security. -------------- BACKGROUND -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The United States has been supporting and collaborating with the Government of Singapore (GOS) in combating terrorism and transnational criminal organizations, ensuring migration integrity and transportation security in Southeast Asia for a number of years. Such efforts have yielded significant positive results, due in part to the ability of the United States to focus on the expertise and authorities of all relevant U.S. organizations and agencies on this mission. There remains a need for the United States to continue to focus interagency efforts on this mission and maintain our outstanding working relations with GOS law enforcement agencies. -------------- ICE/JIATF-West Training -------------- ¶3. (SBU) ICE has identified forensic document examination as a specific skill useful to GOS law enforcement entities, specifically to the Singapore Immigration and Checkpoint Authority. ICE is particularly well positioned to provide forensic document examination training by bringing to bear the expertise of the examiners at the ICE Forensic Document Laboratory (FDL) in McLean, Virginia. The ICE FDL is unique within the U.S. government in two ways. It is the only crime laboratory within the federal government dedicated exclusively to detecting and deterring travel and identity document fraud. The FDL also has an operational intelligence section intended to help develop document examination skills for field officers who do not have forensic experience. The FDL provides extensive document examination and fraud detection training to domestic and international law enforcement agencies as part of its mission to combat the document fraud and misuse of travel and identity documents often used in transnational crime, including but not limited to trafficking in persons and narcotics, as well as in furtherance of terrorist plots. ¶4. (SBU) Most training provided by the Forensic Document Laboratory is geared towards officers who are responsible for verifying documents, including border control personnel, police officers and passport and residence adjudicators. Training courses are tailored to the requirements and preferences of the requesting agencies, but all courses attempt to combine information on forensic examination techniques using basic field equipment with other methods of examination that can be used outside of a laboratory setting. ¶5. (SBU) Topics can be adjusted according to the needs of the requesting agency. A typical two-day course includes the following topics: -- Document security features and document construction -- Basic document examination -- Identifying counterfeiting techniques -- Fraud with stolen blank documents -- Identification of impostors -- International legal issues involved in air, ground and sea transit -- Maritime and air legal issues involved in international transit Each section discusses some of the challenges faced by enforcement officers and provides information that can be applied by front-line officers to their main responsibilities. ¶6. (SBU) These modules are supplemented with specialized information on specific documents of interest to the attendees, as well as discussion of how particular criminal groups abuse certain types of documents to smuggle people, narcotics and weapons across borders. Whenever possible the FDL training includes "hands on" exercises designed to allow participants direct experience with document examination. ¶7. (SBU) JIATF-West has the unique authority to sponsor and facilitate joint ICE/DOD training of this type. The goal of this training is to increase the proficiency of GOS law enforcement (Immigration and Checkpoint Authority) in forensic document examination and the exploitation of intelligence and evidence gathered during the course of inspecting identity and travel documents and interviewing travelers entering into and transiting Singapore. ¶8. (SBU) Post requests that ICE Attache Singapore and the ICE FDL, under the sponsorship of JIATF-West, execute a two day training event for GOS law enforcement (Immigration and Checkpoint Authority) in Singapore on the subject of Forensic Document Examination and the international legal issues involved in border enforcement and transportation security. Post requests that the training be conducted prior to the conclusion of FY 07. If such training proves successful and forces and funding are available, it may be appropriate to continue this training program in FY08. ¶9. (U) Post's Law Enforcement Council have reviewed and concurred with this request. HERBOLD