DSS Director and OSAC Co-Chair Joe Morton Addresses OSAC's 18th Annual Briefing

Welcome to the State Department.  And, welcome to the Overseas Security Advisory Council’s 18th Annual Briefing.  It’s great to see everyone here again.

18 years (pause). It has been 18 years that, as OSAC constituents, we’ve been working together. Since 1985, we have been collaborating, sharing, and moving forward for one purpose––so that we can do what we do around the world as safely and securely as possible. Each of the 18 years has had its own set of challenges.  

This year has, in my opinion, been most extraordinary. Never before has our country been so committed to winning the war on terrorism. Never before have we had to confront so many threats to our interests around the globe. Never before have we been so challenged to keep our people safe and our assets secure. 

And sadly, we’ve suffered tragedies. Terrorists have murdered, kidnapped, and attacked Americans and American interests in every region of the world. The target scope of the terrorist today does not distinguish between official and private Americans. 

These threats will continue. We’ve heard predictions for the last year of another deadly attack on Americans in the U.S. or elsewhere. And, tactics will change. We’ve already seen this. Terrorists are focused now more than ever on softer targets. 

We can do much to prevent and deter attacks from occurring. It means taking the time to size up meaningfully what is happening. It means looking around corners and anticipating . . . .  Marshall McCluhan, the 20th century’s media guru, once said, “Nothing is inevitable, if you are willing to contemplate what is happening.” Prevention begins with having the right information. And, that’s what OSAC is all about––information.

I am very pleased to report to you this morning that OSAC has had a tremendously successful year. Two years ago, as council members, we contemplated how 9/11 would impact on OSAC.  The global threat environment was turned upside down. We asked ourselves several things. To be responsive, did OSAC need to change dramatically?  Were our mission and strategy still relevant and viable?  If there were to be changes, what would they be?  Would we have the resources to support change?  

In a crisis, we saw an opportunity––an opportunity to reshape OSAC so that it would best serve your needs in these changed times.  And since that time, we have taken that opportunity to heart.

In our deliberations, we decided to stick to the basics. And that is what it’s all about delivering and sharing information. We decided to do what OSAC has been doing for 18 years––but do it even better. The demands on you to make critical business and security decisions in real time are greater today than ever before. If we are to help you improve your ability to protect your people and your interests around the world, we must continue to arm you with the right information. Information that is factual, timely, and credible.

I’d like to talk to you about the initiatives that come out of our strategic planning sessions.

First, we have made significant accomplishments in our public campaign to promote OSAC nationally. The more people who know about OSAC, the more relevant and useful it can be. Our goal is that all organizations around the country know about us and have the opportunity to participate with us, and from an open letter from Secretary of State Colin Powell in the New York Times, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal, to a television feature on CNN, we are moving toward that goal.

We do want that small business in Iowa, which is expanding overseas, to know where it can get information about the security environment in countries where it may have interests. And we want universities and our national athletic teams to know there is a reliable source for up-to-date information about conditions affecting their travel. And, we want all of you to know that you don’t have to go it alone––there is a partner who can provide assistance. That’s OSAC.

And now we need your help. I would venture to say that everyone in this room knows of an organization that could benefit from joining OSAC. I want to ask that all of you promote OSAC among your business contacts and colleague organizations. Just think, if everyone in this room today got one new organization to join us, we would increase our constituency.

For the second element of our plan . . . . Our return to the basics includes further enhancements to the OSAC information exchange process.

We are working to increase the number of our country councils. Country councils, as you know, connect the local private sector community overseas with the U.S. embassy. These local councils are the backbone of our global information-sharing network. We want to expand this number. We want them established wherever there are significant American business interests. 

Here again, we’re going to need your help. Country councils depend on participation and leadership from both sides of the partnership. I have instructed our regional security officers to stand ready to work with you to create these country councils. I ask that you encourage your people overseas to get involved.  And where there isn’t a country council, have your people contact the RSO at the nearest embassy or consulate and volunteer to help get one started.

We are also improving our web site. Last year, we completely revamped it, which increased our monthly hits to 1.8 million. Just this month, we will launch a country council web site program to embassies around the world. This initiative will allow every RSO to disseminate security information pertaining to his or her region. In addition to our web presence, we are delivering up to 30,000 e-mails a day directly to our constituency.

Our third initiative is to keep you better informed so that you can look around the corner and anticipate. Our ambition is to provide you with high quality, relevant, issue-specific information.

And as part of our efforts to broaden our information capabilities, we are working to improve access to information other federal agencies may have that would be relevant and important to OSAC’s constituents.

Our final goal for the year is to ensure that our council is comprised of top national leaders representing diverse sectors of the economy. This is imperative if we are to best represent your needs. We have implemented an HR process that assures us that prospective council members are motivated, hard working, and selfless.

All of our council members are volunteers. They give of their time, not for their own interests, but for the good of the constituency, and in a broader sense, the country. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank my co-chair, Bob Littlejohn of Avon, and all of our council members for their commitment, effort, and leadership. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the new co-chair, Bill Duggan of Kellogg’s.

 
The world security environment continues to present enormous challenges to American interests. The threats will surely persist. We cannot be paralyzed by the notion that terrorist attacks are inevitable. There is much we can do to prevent them from occurring.

In an earlier visit, Secretary Powell told us that, “Staying home is not an option.”  He was absolutely right. The challenge for OSAC is to provide a relevant security information forum, to enable you to make sound business decisions. Now, perhaps more than ever, we need to continue to work together.

Thank you very much.