Press Releases: Trans-Atlantic Dialogue on Combating Crime-Terror Pipelines

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The U.S. Department of State, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Defense University, will co-host an international dialogue on combating crime-terror pipelines and related transnational threat networks in Washington, D.C. June 25-26.

Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Maria Otero will keynote and open the dialogue which will explore the regional and global reach of these networks and identify smart law enforcement tools, strategic capabilities, sanctions, and other levers to disrupt and dismantle this alliance of illicit actors and their money pipelines; maximize information sharing across the international community; and facilitate the development of concrete policy recommendations to isolate financial hubs, deny safe haven to criminals, terrorists, and their facilitators and super-fixers. It will also aim to generate greater collective action and net-centric approaches to combating converging threat networks, safeguard citizens, break the financial strength of criminal and terrorist networks, shut down corrupt and illicit channels, and strengthen the rule of law and judicial systems.

Invited participants include representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, European Union (EU) and some of its Member States, several countries in West Africa and the Western Hemisphere, and other international and regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Organization of American States (OAS), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and others. Globally-recognized experts from academia, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector will also participate.

In July 2011, the White House released a National Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National Security. The Strategy calls for the dynamic integration of all elements of American power to combat transnational organized crime and related threats to national security. A key pillar of the Strategy is to enhance international cooperation with key partners and allies to combat the lethal nexus of organized crime, narco-trafficking, and terrorism, and protect our communities from the violence, harm, and exploitation wrought by transnational threat networks.

The event is co-organized by the Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the Department of Defense's Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, in close collaboration with NDU's Center for Complex Operations (CCO). The United Kingdom is expected to host a follow-up meeting in London in Fall 2012.

For further information please contact:

INL Public Affairs section, 202-647-5568 (or 0675), INL-PAPD@state.gov