In advisory programs like this, you sometimes wonder if we really accomplish that much. Well, wonder no more, because I'm about to tell you what we have done.

Here's one example of what we mean by that vague term "technical assistance": Since the start of this program, Kuwaiti inspectors have gone to the United States to work side by side with our inspectors at JFK, Miami, Washington Dulles, and El Paso international airports. They've learned our techniques for detecting smugglers, what signs we look for-in general, how we operate vis-à-vis the suspected smuggler.

In Kuwait, as with most of the other foreign advisory programs, we follow up this stateside training with TDY instructors in country, who further instruct Kuwaiti Customs about the Passenger Enforcement Rover Team (PERT). I've heard many positive comments about this training from the inspectors who benefited from it.

One tangible sign of how successful the PERT training has been are the following statistics, taken from Kuwaiti newspaper articles: Since January 1, 2002, Kuwait Customs has made 40 significant narcotics seizures and 15 significant non-narcotics seizures.

The narcotics seizures involved either heroin or opium taken from arriving air and ferryboat passengers. Just slightly more than half of the narcotics seizures, 21, were from swallowers.

The average swallower had more than two pounds of heroin in his stomach. The record went to a 60-year-old Pakistani who had swallowed 130 pellets of heroin totaling more than three pounds!

American inspectors know that swallowers are among the most difficult smugglers to find, and most of the internal carriers detained were identified by Kuwait Customs inspectors who used techniques learned from PERT training. In talking with many of the Kuwaiti inspectors, I heard the same story over and over: they detected a fake passport-and these passports are done so well done that they fooled the immigration inspectors-and passengers' stories that just didn't add up.

The Kuwait program has also had considerable success with its investigations program. One U.S. Customs advisor did an outstanding job working with just six Kuwait Customs employees to create a proficient investigations office. As a result, the Kuwaiti investigations program has made seizures of illegal drugs, IPR violations, counterfeit American currency, alcohol, and fireworks. Because of these successes, Kuwaiti Customs is expanding this office and creating a new unit dedicated to money laundering and terrorist financing.

U.S. Customs has also been helping Kuwait Customs prepare for its new valuation system using the World Trade Organization's (WTO) valuing system for imports. U.S. Customs has been helping the Kuwaitis determine WTO values, helping them create a senior auditor position and develop a value database-the last is especially important because, until very recently, Kuwait Customs has lacked automation. All entries were processed pretty much the way they were in the United States in the 1960s. We've encouraged them to take that big step into the automated world, in part by helping them develop and test an automated system for processing imports.

A new training center opened recently in Kuwait City, thanks in part to U.S. Customs assistance. It has six classrooms, enough office space for the staff, and a schedule of classes that extends through the end of 2003.

Our challenges for the future involves capitalizing on the work started by the PERT inspectors: Kuwait Customs will form a PERT team at the airport and another for their ferryboat terminal. We will also help them increase their investigations staff and modernize their management systems through a reorganization aimed at reducing the number of direct reports to the Director General, and by developing a Kuwait customs management team and then delegating some decision-making authority to those managers.

A final benefit that accompanies a program like this in the Middle East, since September 11, 2001, is having a positive American presence right there. I have learned that we have many friends in Kuwait Customs who admire and respect America, especially its Customs Service.