The Foreign Service Journal, September 2005

murder). His wanted poster noted that as a gang member, he sported a Grim Reaper tattoo and went by the nickname “Big Man.” Webster, a Belizean who grew up in the United States and was now on the U.S. Marshals’ Top 15 Wanted List, had recent- ly returned to his home country. Osterhout dispatched his secret investigative weapon, a former Belizean policeman now work- ing as a Foreign Service Nation- al at the embassy. Keith Hamilton promptly began chasing Webster all around the country. “He was hop- scotching from location to location,” says Hamilton. Osterhout later learned that Webster’s father had driven him to Belize all the way from Chicago after a warrant was issued for his release. But he was difficult to track. In the month of May 2003 alone, Webster moved three different times. For a while, he was even sleeping outside, amid tall reeds. At one point, Osterhout and Hamilton tracked Webster to a particu- larly rough neighborhood in gritty Belize City. The pair tried to scout out the rundown apartment complex where he was apparently staying, but quickly had to turn back when things turned dicey. “The streets cleared out,” recalls Osterhout. “It was obvious we had been had.” By late June 2003, Hamilton had traced Webster to a rickety home on stilts right next to a swamp in Ladyville, a suburb of Belize City. But they needed to be sure. “If you jump prematurely and get the police charging in, then the person really goes into hiding,” says Osterhout. “We’re always trying to pre- serve the element of surprise.” Hamilton cased the neighborhood and staked out the house. It looked like Webster was there to stay. “He was known in the area for his violent tendencies,” says Hamilton. So Osterhout worked with the Belize police to set up a raid. First, he briefed them on the dangers of going after Webster. “We warned them that he might fight,” says Osterhout. For a police force that has few, if any, bulletproof vests, this was particularly risky. But on June 30, 2003, Osterhout and Hamilton went along for the ride and got lucky this time. Just as the police were pulling up to the one-room shack in two unmarked trucks, Webster hap- pened to walk outside with one of his friends. He was so caught off- guard that he surrendered with- out incident, while his friend jumped into the swamp clutching a small bag of marijuana. Police had to fish him out. Osterhout recalls that life on the run was not kind to Webster. A big man once weighing in at 235 pounds, he had lost lots of weight. With no screens on his house and huge gaps in the wooden walls, Webster was covered with mosquito bites. Since Webster was a Belizean citizen, Osterhout had to work through the lengthy extradition process. Webster fought it every step of the way. It took more than five months, but the order was finally approved and a pair of U.S. marshals came down to escort Webster to Illinois, where he remains in jail today. On-the-Job Training The 34-year-old one-time ski patroller from upstate New York spent his first three years in DS (starting in 1997) based in New York City, where he served on pro- tective details for dignitaries ranging from the late Yasser Arafat to the Dalai Lama. He next went to Peru for two years as the assistant RSO. A quick survey of the four photos that hung above Osterhout’s desk in Belize reveals the variety of a typical DS career. The first shows the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz , for which he had to help arrange a Peruvian naval escort as it sailed around South America shortly after the 9/11 attacks. “I joked that I slept through the day of RSO school when they taught us how to protect a nuclear aircraft carrier,” he says. The second depicts Osterhout with a group of DS agents on temporary duty in Yemen protecting the U.S. ambassador. He was in full tactical gear for the third pic- ture, escorting a congressional delegation through Shining Path country in Peru. And the fourth shows him guarding former Secretary of State Colin Powell in Peru on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. “If you don’t like what you’re doing,” says Osterhout, “in two years, you can go halfway around the world and do something else.” F O C U S S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 39 The U.S. Marshals Service traditionally has the lead role in hunting fugitives, but with field offices in only three foreign countries, it leans heavily on DS. Kevin Whitelaw covers national security and foreign affairs for U.S. News and World Report.