BONNER LEADS U.S. DELEGATION AT OAS ANTITERRORISM MEETING

BONNER LEADS U.S. DELEGATION AT OAS ANTITERRORISM MEETING    U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert C. Bonner will lead the U.S. delegation at the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism meeting in El Salvador, Jan. 22-24.
   The meeting will build on the momentum created by the adoption in June of the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism, the first international legal instrument against terrorism adopted since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
   “This meeting will expand the cooperative counterterrorism efforts undertaken thus far in the hemisphere and result in formal recommendations on counterterrorism issues to the Special Conference on Hemispheric Security planned for May,” the agency said.
   U.S. Customs chairs the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism, a technical body of the Organization of American States.
   During the El Salvador meeting, U.S. Customs is expected to address cyber-terrorism and ways to increase regional cooperation for border security.
   U.S. Customs said Bonner’s leadership of the delegation “reflects the United States’ interest in developing a regional strategy to improve border security and disrupt terrorist operations throughout the hemisphere by staunching illegal trafficking in weapons, narcotics, money and people — all without inhibiting free trade and legitimate travel.”