The Foreign Service Journal, June 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2017 11 LETTERS DS for Law Enforcement Kudos on your March edition featuring the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The role of DS as a law enforcement agency is often overshadowed by its security mission, yet the two are intertwined. The articles by former Assistant Secretary Greg Starr, acting Assistant Secretary Bill Miller and others highlight the wide variety of missions DS undertakes, as well as their importance to national security. As Ronnie Catipon noted in his article (“Law Enforcement as an Instrument of National Power”), assistant regional security officer–investigators (ARSO-Is) combine DS’ investigative prowess, in- depth knowledge of visas and passports, and an unparalleled overseas presence to investigate and prosecute cases involving terrorism, human trafficking and smug- gling, money laundering and other types of transnational organized crime. ARSO-Is also train local police, immi- gration officials, airline/airport personnel and many others not only to recognize these crimes and their severity, but also to follow proper procedures when con- ducting arrests and prosecutions. In 2016 these efforts led to more than 1,500 arrests (including 70 cases involv- ing human trafficking), the return of 272 fugitives to the United States to face justice, and the refusal or revocation of 14,000 visas. All of the work ARSO-Is do contrib- utes directly to the Integrated Country Strategy of just about every mission in the world. Preventing members of transna- tional criminal organizations from enter- ing the United States, stopping foreign terrorist fighters from reaching their destinations and building the capacity of foreign law enforcement partners are not just law enforcement goals, they are U.S. foreign policy goals. Finally, the ARSO-I program rep- resents an extremely successful partnership between the bureaus of Diplomatic Security and Consular Affairs (CA currently administers the funds for approxi- mately one-third of all ARSO-I positions). Among many other things, ARSO-Is help their consular colleagues fight fraud, return American fugitives to the United States, coordinate with local police to arrest document vendors and assist American citizens in trouble. ARSO-Is—and all DS agents—are as much diplomats as they are federal agents. Thank you for recognizing their contributions to our national security and foreign policy. Ed Allen Overseas Criminal Investigations Division Diplomatic Security Service Arlington, Virginia Refocusing the Mission An overly judgmental, reactionary and awkward display of what many perceive as disloyalty by State Depart- ment employees to our new president (POTUS), despite solemn claims about “defending the Constitution,” is now experiencing the wrath of blowback. We see threats to our funding, staffing and even our sense of mission. After reading the superlative Foreign Service Journal article by Senior FSO Keith Mines in the January-February issue, “Mr. President, You Have Partners at State to Help Navigate the World’s Shoals,” I nearly came to tears. That is because I realized how our new POTUS probably did not see that outstanding article, but was instead challenged by the now infamous Dissent Channel message. The timing of both commu- nications was very unfortunate, but the damage from the latter has been done. It effectively ban- ished from the president’s view the bright minds and rich talent, as the Mines article reflects, that make up the Foreign Service. What was displayed instead was behavior more akin to an acerebral organism than a storied institution that historically serves as chief foreign policy adviser to the POTUS. The rebuilding will not be easy, but it must be accomplished. Hopefully, our newly focused leadership will show the way. Hopefully, the Foreign Service can refocus its mission and, along with that, recapture its glory. Timothy C. Lawson Senior FSO, retired Hua Hin, Thailand Regarding “Real” Dissent In his April letter (“Dissenting from the Current Trend”), Jonathan Pec- cia deplores the “current trend toward group dissents, aired in public.” That is a curious complaint given the fact that mass protests within the Foreign Service, including hundreds of resignations over the Vietnam War, were what led the State Department to estab- lish the Dissent Channel in 1971. Nor was that the only time such groundswells have gone public. From my own days as an FSO, I recall a group dissent that became very public, over the Clinton administration’s initial reluctance to intervene in Bosnia. Mr. Peccia also casts aspersions on the State Department employees who used the Dissent Channel in January to point out the folly of President Donald Trump’s discriminatory executive order cutting off immigration from seven