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 STATE 00131332 002 OF 002 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