Let me just congratulate you madam Foreign Minister on election to the chair of CICTE. We know we are in excellent hands under your leadership. I would also like to express appreciation to the Government of El Salvador for its outstanding hospitality in hosting this Third Regular Session of CICTE which we are sure will be of great benefit to all of us in the hemisphere.

Although we are 16 months removed from the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the threat from international terrorism is every bit as real, immediate and dangerous as it was then, if not more so. In the United States, I can tell you that we are as committed as ever to winning the war against terrorism.

But we must remember that the threat from terrorism is a multi-national threat — it is a threat that knows no boundaries. Almost every country in the Hemisphere lost citizens in the World Trade Center on September 11, and the terrorist attacks more recently in Bali, in Kenya, off the coast of Yemen, and elsewhere across the globe remind us all that the terrorist threat is one we must all confront, and it is a long-term threat.

It is critical that we maintain the same sense of urgency and action that galvanized the Americas and the world against terrorism on 9/11. It is critical that we continue to do everything that we can to protect our hemisphere from the terrorist threat.

The United States applauds CICTE as an institution that can and will help us to protect the Americas from terrorism, both now and in the future, long after justice is served on the murderers that were behind the 9/11 attacks, the AMIA attackers in Buenos Aires, the kidnappers and bombers of Colombia, and the other perpetrators of terrorism in our part of the world.

The United States also applauds the member states of CICTE for taking steps in their own countries to counter the terrorist threat.

Department of Homeland Security
In the United States, we are about to officially launch — in just two days — a new Department of Homeland Security whose primary mission will be to prevent and respond to acts of terrorism against our citizens and fellow countrymen.

The new Department will put under one roof 22 existing federal agencies that each have some responsibilities for protecting our nation. This includes the United States Customs Service, which I manage. This new Department will make us far more effective and more efficient in protecting the United States against the threat of terrorism.

As we move forward with this new Department and with our other initiatives for addressing the terrorist threat, I want to emphasize to my fellow delegates that the measures we take will be in accordance with domestic and international law, and that our commitment to the principles of democratic institutions is at the forefront of the global campaign against terror.

Emerging Terrorist Threats
One of the things the new Department of Homeland Security will help us improve in the United States is our ability to identify and respond to emerging terrorist threats. This is a challenge that all nations, and counterterrorist institutions like CICTE, must confront. Terrorists continue to seek new ways to exploit our vulnerabilities to harm us. We must address these emerging terrorist threats before they become a reality.

One major emerging threat we must all be aware of, and continue taking concrete steps to prevent, concerns terrorist attacks on information systems that control or run the critical infrastructures that are essential to our economies and to our way of life. Networked systems are often globally interdependent, and failure or disruption in one system could lead to widespread damage. Tomorrow, you will be hearing more about this emerging threat, and suggestions for successfully addressing it, from Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield, the lead U.S. official on international cyber security policy.

Other potential emerging threats include:

• the development of alliances between largely domestic terror organizations around the world and international terrorist organizations for purposes of perpetrating specific attacks;
• they include the use of surface-to-air missiles, which we saw used in the failed attack in Mombasa, Kenya to shoot down a passenger jet; and
• terrorist use of established smuggling and illegal migration routes in the region — although these routes are not a new threat, their potential use by terrorists does pose new and dangerous ramifications.

Perhaps the gravest emerging terrorist threat we face is the possibility of weapons of mass destruction — chemical, nuclear, or biological — falling into terrorist hands. The dangers from this threat are very real: just two weeks ago, we saw the discovery of traces of ricin — a deadly toxin — in a London apartment occupied by suspected terrorists.

The use of weapons of mass destruction by terrorists poses not only a great physical threat to our citizens; it also poses a great economic threat as well. We need to increase the security surrounding the movement of trade between our nations. For example, containerized shipping is the primary means of global trade. A terrorist attack involving a weapon of mass destruction concealed in a cargo container could wreak havoc on global trade and the global economy, and damage the economic growth of all nations.

One initiative the U.S. Customs Service is implementing to address that emerging threat — without hindering the flow of legitimate trade — is the Container Security Initiative, or CSI. Through CSI, the United States is partnering with other governments to identify and pre-screen high-risk cargo containers for terrorist weapons at the port of departure instead of the port of arrival. We also have begun to expand our existing Business Anti-Smuggling Coalition (BASC) and Carrier Initiative Programs to include a strong counterterrorism element. These public-private partnership programs, as many of you know, were originally established to improve security practices to prevent narcotics smuggling.

There are steps that all OAS member states can take to reduce the prospects of terrorist exploitation of our means for trade and transport. These include better application of risk management principles; requiring automated, advance data on goods and people; and the use of some level of detection technology for inspections.

Cooperative Counterterrorism Efforts
Our concern about potential terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction underscores the essential nature of strict non-proliferation conventions and practices, and it reminds us that still greater cooperation between and among nations is necessary to prevent the unthinkable from happening. That leads me to an important point: collective, cooperative defense against terrorism is an imperative for success in the global campaign against terrorism.

We have made many cooperative strides since 9/11. The negotiation of the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism adopted in Barbados last June and now signed by all but one of the OAS member states is an excellent example of hemispheric counterterrorism cooperation.

Building on the United States' long record of bilateral counterterrorism assistance in the region, the United States has also played an active role in sub-regional cooperative efforts. In December, for example, the United States participated in the "Three Plus One Tri-Border Terrorism Conference" in Buenos Aires at the invitation of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The United States was particularly pleased with the opportunity these formal four-way talks presented for augmenting the existing counterterrorism efforts of this important regional grouping.

The United States is also engaged in several cooperative efforts with OAS member states on terrorist financing issues. A number of Latin American countries have provided support for investigations under Operation Green Quest — this is the U.S. government's multi-agency enforcement initiative, led by U.S. Customs, that goes after the sources of terrorist funding both here in the United States and around the world. In addition, our State Department, in conjunction with our Justice Department, has provided training on terrorist financing issues in the region, including a course in Asuncion just last month.

The U.S. has also provided other counterterrorism training programs, including, among others, a workshop for Latin American countries on counterterrorism legislation, a new anti-kidnapping training program in Colombia, and, as part of the Third Border Initiative, an airport security training program in Trinidad and Tobago to assist English speaking Caribbean countries in meeting the new International Civil Aviation Organization standards established in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. We look forward to seeing CICTE become a multilateral vehicle for coordination of these types of counterterrorist training programs in the future.

Strengthening Our Cooperative Efforts in the Hemisphere
Additional cooperative counterterrorism efforts are underway throughout the hemisphere; however, much more can and must be done.

For example, nowhere in the world is the nexus of drugs and terror more clear than in our hemisphere. These are twin evils that feed off each other — drug revenue provides funds for terrorist organizations and operations, and those operations create a chaotic atmosphere in which the drug trade can continue to thrive. We believe that CICTE should enhance coordination with CICAD (Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission) to put an end to this cycle.

We also believe that CICTE members should:

• aid each other in developing legal authorities in each member state to designate terrorist activity as a crime,
• develop national legislation required to implement the obligations they have assumed under the 12 UN conventions and the OAS convention,
• sign, ratify and implement the 12 UN conventions against terrorism and our OAS convention and convert that into national legislation,
• work together to exchange pertinent information regarding potential terrorist threats, and the movement of goods or people that pose potential terrorist threats;
• work together to demand transparency from charitable organizations to ensure that terrorist diversions of funds do not occur,
• cooperate with each other on developing good governance programs and a firm rule of law to reduce the threat of corruption and to deter terrorists from gaining a foothold in this region, and
• consider making or increasing financial or other tangible commitments to CICTE, some of which was started this morning.

On that last issue, I can tell you that, while we are reorganizing the United States government domestically to strengthen our capacity to respond to terrorist attacks and emerging terrorist threats, we are similarly strengthening our multilateral cooperation efforts in the global campaign against terrorism. This includes a continued commitment to OAS/CICTE as a means for protecting our hemisphere from terrorism. And so today, the United States is pledging new financial support in the amount of $1 million to further seed the Secretariat, and nurture CICTE's growth as a technical body devoted to increasing counterterrorism expertise in the Americas.

Conclusion
I hope our pledge today will encourage other member states, beyond Trinidad & Tobago and Brazil, to do what they can to support cooperative counterterrorism efforts. Although countless national priorities compete for scarce resources throughout many member states, we must not forget that investments in the prevention of terrorism not only are far less costly than the costs of an attack, they also serve to combat all other forms of transnational crime, such as drugs and arms trafficking. We must remember that the achievement of many of our other national priorities depends on a hemisphere free from terrorism. By working together, I believe we can and will help safeguard the hemisphere against the terrorist threat.