West Africa: US Assistant Secretary of State Visits Ghana and Liberia
By Staff Writer
Starting today 18-20, Assistant Secretary Brownfield, Assistant Attorney General Breuer, and Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is to visit Accra, Ghana and Monrovia, Liberia for discussions with host government officials on the West Africa Citizen Security Initiative (WACSI). This initiative embodies the commitment of the United States to partner with West African nations to enhance citizen security. WACSI uses a multifaceted approach to leverage U.S. assistance to fight transnational crime, which poses a direct threat to security, stability and good governance in West Africa.
Accompanying Assistant Secretary Brownfield, Assistant Attorney General Breuer and Administrator Leonhart to West Africa are: Vicki Huddleston, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Africa; Bruce Swartz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Caryn Chipman Hollis, Principal Director for Counternarcotics and Global Threats, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Russell Benson, DEA Regional Director; Tracy Hannah, Deputy Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security (DHS); David Aguilar, Deputy Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, DHS; and Tracey Bardorf, Special Advisor to the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DHS.
Early On May 16-17, Assistant Secretary Brownfield and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division participated in the Trans-Atlantic Symposium on Dismantling Transnational Illicit Networks. The Symposium is a joint U.S.-EU initiative co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the European Union. It addressed transnational crime and converging threats that have become increasingly prominent across the Atlantic. Over sixty countries from Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa, and Europe are expected to attend at senior levels, as well as representatives from international organizations, to strengthen cooperation to disrupt and dismantle transnational illicit networks.