speeches 2008

Remarks by Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Michele J. Sison at the ISF Graduation

April 15, 2008

I am so pleased to be with you today. 

It is an honor for me to address the first graduating class of U.S. trained cadets at the Internal Security Forces Academy.

You are the first group of 200 police selected to benefit from the U.S.-sponsored Lebanese Police Training Program.

I congratulate you on your achievements. 

I know you worked hard and long to earn this certificate.

Over the last ten weeks, your U.S. and Lebanese police instructors, curriculum developers, and language assistants have all worked together to help train you to become skilled policemen, capable of maintaining security throughout Lebanon.

Your American and Lebanese instructors and their assistants take great pride in how well all of you have performed.

You have had the benefit of a state-of-the-art training program which has taught you the latest policing and law enforcement skills and, perhaps most importantly, you have been taught how to apply your new skills to your work throughout Lebanon. 

You all have worked hard to make this first graduation a reality and to make this police training program one of the best.

As you know, the training you received will help Lebanon and the Internal Security Forces develop its capacity to protect the Lebanese people.

In celebration of your graduation, I am pleased to announce a new Police Visitor Program to honor your high-achieving students and instructors, as well as those officers who have played a significant role in your training.

For this United States Police Visitor Program we will invite a small, select group of Internal Security Forces police trainees, instructors, and officers to the United States to meet with their professional colleagues.

This new bi-annual visitor program will strengthen the knowledge trainees have gained and complement all of the academy’s training.

The group will spend ten days visiting law enforcement agencies in several U.S. cities.

The visit will begin in Washington D.C. with a welcome briefing by the U.S. Department of State’s officials responsible for law enforcement assistance programs. 

The participants will then visit model police departments, academies, and criminal investigations units throughout the United States to observe their operations and to exchange best practices with U.S. with their police counterparts.

These high achieving students and officers will bring their knowledge back to the academy where they will share it with their Lebanese colleagues. 

The first group of visitors will depart for the United States in July, and will include honorees from this class and the next training class scheduled to begin on April 21.

Again, let me offer you my congratulations.

We are all working together to support the Internal Security Forces as a highly professional police force, protecting and serving citizens of Lebanon in a democratic society.