HOLIDAY GREETINGS FOR INL PERSONNEL WORLDWIDE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 131332

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AMGT KCRM SNAR
SUBJECT: HOLIDAY GREETINGS FOR INL PERSONNEL WORLDWIDE


1. From: Assistant Secretary David T. Johnson, Bureau of
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.


2. As the holiday season arrives, the year comes to a close,
and we prepare for a Presidential transition that has
historic implications, I want to express my thanks to the
entire INL family - Civil Service, Foreign Service,
contractors and friends. The INL family encompasses 5,700
contractors, 150 personal services contractors, 200 State
Department Civil Service employees, 600 Foreign Service
Nationals (LES),75 Foreign Service members, and hundreds of
colleagues from the Coast Guard, DEA, ICITAP, OPDAT, DOD,
ICE, Bureau of Prisons, state and local police forces, and
other state and federal agencies. We serve the nation in
over 70 countries around the world, from Afghanistan and Iraq
to Colombia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Sudan, Panama, Austria, and
the Palestinian Territories. We maintain full-time Sections
in thirty-one countries and work closely with colleagues in
many others to support and implement INL programs.


3. We are fortunate to serve our country and our fellow man
in some extraordinary missions in counternarcotics, judicial
training, anti-corruption, police training and many other
programs aimed at improving our partner nations' ability to
stem the flow of drugs, enhance law enforcement
effectiveness, and institutionalize the rule of law.
Together, we operate and maintain over 240 rotary and fixed
wing aircraft, manage a budget of $2.6 billion, and
coordinate across traditional agency boundaries.


4. During the course of this year, you have made remarkable
strides. In northern Afghanistan, poppy cultivation is down,
and in the south pressure on the Taliban and others who
profit from the production of opiates has increased. In
Mexico, implementation of the new Merida Initiative has
begun. In Bolivia, the Narcotics Affairs Section has dealt
with a tumultuous political environment that has forced the
closure of DEA and USAID programs. In Iraq, despite
significant security constraints, you made notable progress
on criminal justice and prisons reform. In Kosovo, you
continued ten years of outstanding work and were a key to
successful implementation of a new European Union civilian
policing mission. Equally important successes were achieved
by many others, throughout the world.


5. If "transformational diplomacy" has a face, it is you.
Around the world, your work has a direct impact on our
nation's interests. You are at the forefront of efforts to
bring stability to fragile and failed states, to reduce the
availability of ungovernable safe havens for transnational
criminals and to staunch the flow of narcotics to our
borders. You fight international money laundering, promote
government accountability, and deter corrupt officials. You
work in some of the toughest and most dangerous overseas
posts. Your programs are an integral part of a coordinated
effort planned and executed in close cooperation with other
government agencies, Congress, foreign allies and
multilateral organizations.


6. This holiday season, I urge each of you to take pride in
what you have accomplished. It is a record of which you
should rightly be proud. Those of you who can: enjoy the
holidays, and give back to your families and friends some of
the time that your work has taken from them. Those of you

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deployed to places where family holidays are not possible:
please know that your friends and colleagues in the INL
family are thinking of you. You have our thanks and best
wishes for the sacrifice you are making for all of us. I
wish each of you the best in what I hope will be a joyous
time for your colleagues, your friends, your family and you.
RICE