2013-2015 Antiterrorism Assistance Program Retrospective
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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE BUREAU OF DIPLOMATIC SECURITY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BUREAU OF COUNTERTERRORISM ANTITERRORISM ASSISTANCE RETROSPECTIVE 2013-2015 ATA 2013 2014 2015 OFFICE OF ANTITERRORISM ASSISTANCE (ATA) 2013•2014•2015 Executive Message From the inception of the graduation of its 100,000th the Department of State’s participant from more than 150 Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) countries around the world. program in 1983, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the President Obama has Bureau of Counterterrorism emphasized repeatedly have partnered in managing the that we need to bring strong, planning and delivery of critical capable, and diverse partners training and equipment services to the forefront and enlist to law enforcement agencies in their help in the mutually countries friendly to the United important endeavor of global States in the worldwide fi ght counterterrorism. We recognize against terrorism. that we cannot succeed in the long term with military The mission of the ATA force alone and that civilian program has always been clear law enforcement tools are and focused: to enhance the equally critical. We need capabilities of partner nations partners who can investigate, in the detection, deterrence, arrest, prosecute, incarcerate, and prevention of acts of and rehabilitate terrorists. terrorism, the resolution of Addressing terrorism in a rule terrorism incidents when they of law framework, with respect do occur, and the apprehension for human rights, is critical both and prosecution of those for ensuring the sustainability of involved in such acts. our efforts and for preventing the rise of new forms of violent Fiscal year 2013 marked two extremism. The ATA program important milestones for the will continue to play a key role program: the celebration of in this strategy of building its 30th anniversary of service partner nation law enforcement to the Department and to the capacity and ensuring that international counterterrorism our partners are prepared to and law enforcement handle the terrorism challenges communities, as well as they face. Gregory B. Starr Justin Siberell Assistant Secretary of State Acting Coordinator Bureau of Diplomatic Security Bureau of Counterterrorism U.S. Department of State 2 OFFICE OF ANTITERRORISM ASSISTANCE (ATA) 2013•2014•2015 ATA by the Numbers IN FY 2013 • 53 PARTNER NATIONS RECEIVED ATA ASSISTANCE • 516 DELIVERIES OF TRAINING COURSES, CONSULTATIONS, EQUIPMENT, ETC. • 11,273 PARTICIPANTS RECEIVED ATA TRAINING AND ASSISTANCE IN FY 2014 • 49 PARTNER NATIONS RECEIVED ATA ASSISTANCE • 531 DELIVERIES OF TRAINING COURSES, CONSULTATIONS, EQUIPMENT, ETC. • 11,293 PARTICIPANTS RECEIVED ATA TRAINING AND ASSISTANCE IN FY 2015 • 51 PARTNER NATIONS RECEIVED ATA ASSISTANCE • 588 DELIVERIES OF TRAINING COURSES, CONSULTATIONS, EQUIPMENT, ETC. • 11,772 PARTICIPANTS RECEIVED ATA TRAINING AND ASSISTANCE 3 OFFICE OF ANTITERRORISM ASSISTANCE (ATA) 2013•2014•2015 ATA Origins In 1983, Congress amended Part II of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961 and created an antiterrorism assistance program to help U.S. partner nations develop the capabilities needed to detect, deter, and investigate terrorism. The need for such a program came about as a result of escalating terrorist acts around the world targeting U.S. and partner nation interests, including the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and the 1983 terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. The initiative, which started as a pilot program, expanded in scope as many American lives were lost from subsequent terrorist attacks, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. homeland. 4 OFFICE OF ANTITERRORISM ASSISTANCE (ATA) 2013•2014•2015 The FAA legislation authorized the President to “ PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO DETER TERRORISTS AND TERRORIST GROUPS FROM ENGAGING IN INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST ACTS SUCH AS BOMBING, KIDNAPPING, ASSASSINATION, HOSTAGE TAKING, AND HIJACKING. The law authorized this assistance to be delivered to partner nations in the form of “training, commodities and equipment that would help to detect, deter and prevent acts of terrorism and manage such incidents if they occur.” The Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) program continues with this mandate and is a successful partnership between the Bureau of Counterterrorism, which is responsible for policy formulation, strategic guidance, and oversight, and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which administers and implements the program. Since 1983, the ATA program has helped our partner nations overcome security challenges within their borders, defend against threats to national and regional stability, and deter terrorist operations across borders and regions. ATA provides assistance in the form of training and consultations on topics such as cyber security and computer forensics, crisis management and response, travel document fraud, dignitary protection, bomb detection and disposal, airport security, border security, response to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction, interdiction of terrorist organizations, and hostage negotiation and rescue. Assistance also includes equipment grants, such as cyber forensic technology, computers and monitors, bomb-disposal robots, and other course-related equipment. 5 OFFICE OF ANTITERRORISM ASSISTANCE (ATA) 2013•2014•2015 Afghanistan Afghanistan remains an In fi scal year 2014, ATA important partner in the ATA provided training to four Afghan program, which focused on law enforcement agencies in building broader, self-sustaining preparation for that nation’s Afghan security force capacity 2014 presidential elections. to protect national leadership, ATA delivered explosive government buildings, and incident countermeasures, diplomatic facilities. ATA crisis response, and canine training also aimed to improve explosives-detection training Afghan security agencies’ to Afghanistan’s Directorate coordination and cooperation of Protection of Government Afghan security in response to terrorism- High-Ranking Offi cials (D10), personnel secure the related crisis incidents. In the Afghan Border Police (ABP) site of a suicide bomb addition to a suite of tactical at Kabul International Airport, attack that struck the response courses, the ATA the Kabul City Police, and the convoy of presidential program provided instructor Presidential Protective Service. candidate Abdullah development and mentorship Abdullah in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 6, to Afghan offi cers to build and D10 and Border Police units 2014. The candidate’s institutionalize a sustained provided bomb-disposal and ATA-trained security capacity in antiterrorism skills Special Weapons and Tactics team evacuated him so they could share lessons services for presidential rapidly and unharmed learned with law-enforcement candidates Ashraf Ghani and from the attack scene. (AP/Wide World colleagues tasked with Abdullah Abdullah during the Photos) counterterrorism response. 2014 presidential campaign. 6 OFFICE OF ANTITERRORISM ASSISTANCE (ATA) 2013•2014•2015 ATA also provided D10 with runoff vote. The blasts from a An ATA instructor (right) courses in the protection of roadside bomb and a suicide explains how to identify potential improvised national leadership. These vehicle bomb just minutes explosive devices to a trainees subsequently apart killed fi ve civilians and member of Afghanistan’s conducted protective details for one police offi cer and wounded Directorate of Protection both presidential candidates. 22 others. But due to their of Government High- training, professionalism, and Ranking Offi cials This training paid dividends pre-planning, none of the during a live exercise with a metal detector, when assailants launched an ATA-trained D10 personnel April 8, 2014, at an attack on the motorcade of protecting the candidate were ATA training facility frontrunner Abdullah Abdullah injured and the protectee was outside of Kabul. in Kabul on June 6, 2014, just safely evacuated. (U.S. Department eight days before the fi nal of State photo) 7 OFFICE OF ANTITERRORISM ASSISTANCE (ATA) 2013•2014•2015 Afghan Law Enforcement when Lt. Col. Nabila Hamdi Trains Its Own Wahab, a D10 instructor, For more than a decade, ATA completed all the requisites to has been delivering training become a certifi ed instructor to Afghan police and security of ATA’s Protection of National forces. But in recent years, ATA Leadership (PNL) course has been training and certifying and became the fi rst female Afghan law enforcement instructor to do so. personnel to deliver ATA- certifi ed training to their Lt. Col. Nabila, who has worked Afghan peers, thus serving with the ATA instructional as a force multiplier for ATA staff since 2012, is also the fi rst training efforts. Afghan woman to meet the rigorous standards necessary to The ATA program marked a become a certifi ed designated signifi cant milestone in 2013 defensive marksman for D10 and now serves as a D10’s Lt. Col. Nabila fi rearms instructor Hamdi Wahab (rear left) to both male and oversees female D10 female offi cers Afghan agents during in Afghanistan’s an exercise in how to form a protective law enforcement diamond around the community. “protectee” in an ATA course on protection of national leadership. (U.S. Department of State photo). An ATA-trained bomb-disposal offi cer with Afghanistan’s Directorate of Protection of Government High-Ranking Offi cials disables a mock explosive device during a night-time exercise at an ATA training facility