We will do all we can to deter and prevent destructive and threatening forces such as terrorism, NBC weapons use, disruption of our critical infrastructures, and regional or state-centered threats from endangering our citizens. But if an emergency occurs, we must be prepared to respond effectively at home and abroad to protect lives and property, mobilize the personnel, resources, and capabilities necessary to effectively handle the emergency, and ensure the survival of our institutions and infrastructures. To this end, comprehensive, all-hazard emergency planning by Federal departments, agencies and the military, as well as a strong and responsive industrial and technology base, will be maintained as crucial national security emergency preparedness requirements.
Fighting Drug Trafficking and Other International Crime
Broad ranges of criminal activities that originate overseas threaten the safety and well being of the American people.
Drug Trafficking. Drug use and its damaging consequences cost our society over $110 billion per year and poison the schools and neighborhoods where our youth learn and play. Aggressive law enforcement is dramatically weakening the domestic perpetrators of organized crime who have controlled America’s drug trade for much of the past century. Today, international drug syndicates based abroad challenge us. The criminals who run the international drug trade continue to diversify and seek new markets in the United States — moving beyond large cities into smaller communities and even rural towns. All Americans, regardless of economic, geographic, or other position in society, feel the effects of drug use.
The National Drug Control Strategy, both at home and abroad, integrates prevention and treatment with law enforcement and interdiction efforts. We aim to cut illegal drug use and availability in the United States by 50% by 2007, and reduce the health and social consequences of drug use and trafficking by 25% over the same period.
Domestically, we have engaged in a wide range of treatment and prevention efforts. We seek to educate and enable our youth to reject illegal drugs, increase the safety of U.S. citizens by substantially reducing drug-related crime and violence; reduce health and social costs to the public of illegal drug use; reduce domestic cultivation of cannabis and production of methamphetamines and other synthetic drugs; and shield America’s air, land, and sea frontiers from the drug threat.
The Drug-Free Community Support program and the Drug-Free Schools and Communities program promote citizen participation in anti-drug efforts and help to provide drug-free learning environments for our children. The Office of National Drug Control Policy is leading the implementation of a $2 billion, multi-year, science-based, national media campaign on the consequences of youth drug use. In the law enforcement arena, we have assisted communities in their law enforcement efforts; are committed to stemming the flow of drugs into our country; and have enhanced coordination among Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute drug traffickers and abusers. Concerted efforts by the public, all levels of government, and the private sector, together with other governments, private groups, and international organizations will be required for our strategy to succeed.
Internationally, our strategy recognizes that the most effective counterdrug operations are mounted at the source where illegal drugs are grown and produced. Our efforts therefore center on supply reduction in major drug exporting countries. In these “source nations,” we act to bolster the capabilities of governments to help them reduce cultivation by eradicating drug crops, develop alternative crops, destroy drug labs, and control chemicals used in illegal drug production. As a second line of defense, in the transit zone between source regions and the U.S. border, we detect, monitor, and communicate with partner nations on the movement of suspicious surface, sea, and air traffic outside the United States. We support interdiction programs to halt the shipment of illicit drugs. In concert with allies abroad, we pursue prosecution of major drug traffickers, dismantling drug trafficking organizations, prevention of money laundering, and elimination of criminal financial support networks.
In an example of such cooperative effort, the United States is providing $1.3 billion in support for Plan Colombia, President Andres Pastrana’s effort to fight Colombian drug trafficking and strengthen democracy, as well as promote legitimate economic endeavors in Colombia. Since Colombian drug traffickers supply approximately 90% of the cocaine used in the United States, U.S. assistance to Plan Colombia’s interdiction, eradication, and alternative crop development efforts will be necessary if we are to stem this deadly drug’s flow into the United States. As an additional measure, we continue to strongly support interdiction programs to halt the flow of drugs across the U.S. border either by independent means or exploiting the U.S. transportation system.
Other International Crime. Economic globalization increasingly makes all nations and peoples vulnerable to various unlawful activities that impede rational business decisions and fair competition in a market economy. Such activities include, but are not limited to, extortion, corruption, migrant smuggling, trafficking in persons, money laundering, counterfeiting, credit card and other financial fraud, and intellectual property theft. Many of these activities tend to impede or disrupt the safe and secure international movement of passengers and goods across international lines. They also attack the integrity and reliability of international financial systems. Corruption and extortion activities by organized crime groups can even undermine the integrity of government and imperil fragile democracies. And, the failure of governments to effectively control international crime rings within their borders or their willingness to harbor international criminals endangers global stability. There must be no safe haven where criminals can roam free, beyond the reach of our extradition and legal assistance treaties.
Open markets must be preserved, laws and regulations governing financial institutions must be standardized, and international law enforcement cooperation in the financial sector must be improved for the benefits of economic globalization to be preserved.
The United States is implementing a number of initiatives and strategies tailored to combat various forms of international crime. For example, we launched the National Money Laundering Strategy, under which the Departments of Treasury and Justice work to disrupt illegal profit flows to organized crime groups. The Presidential Decision Directive on International Organized Crime directs close coordination among Federal agencies to identify, target, and disrupt the activities of criminal groups, and the President’s International Crime Control Strategy establishes the broad goals and implementing objectives for this effort. Finally, in December 2000, the United States published its first-ever comprehensive International Crime Threat Assessment detailing criminal activities around the globe that impact our national security.
The United States is pursuing efforts to combat international crimes that are economic in origin, but the effects of which transcend economics. They include crimes that result in the contamination of the environment, such as the illegal international movement of chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs) that attack the ozone layer, thereby endangering all life on earth. They also include crimes that threaten the world’s diversity through illegal trafficking in endangered and threatened species of flora and fauna. The United States continues to work with nations around the world to counter these crimes.