Indian Police Service Officials Briefed by the FBI New York’s JTTF

January 28, 2010 - Today, members of the FBI New York’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) provided a briefing to delegates from the Indian Police Service (IPS). The IPS, which replaced the Imperial Police (IP) in 1948, is an entity composed of senior police officers from all agencies. Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs New Delhi and IPS delegation leader Bhamathi Balasurbramaniam was present for the briefing in addition to other members of the IPS. The purpose of this meeting was to provide IPS members with an overview of the JTTF. Last year, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram also visited the FBI’s New York Office. In light of the Mumbai attacks, one of his Ministry’s main objectives was to develop a JTTF infrastructure similar to the FBI’s. Today’s meeting included discussions on related topics.

For more than six decades, the FBI has stationed agents and other personnel overseas to help protect Americans back home by building relationships with principal law enforcement and intelligence services around the globe and facilitating a prompt and continuous exchange of information. Today, we have legal attaché offices—commonly known as legats—and smaller sub-offices in 75 key cities around the globe, providing coverage for more than 200 countries, territories, and islands. In 2000, the FBI opened a legat in New Delhi covering the following territories: India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The legat in New Dehli works closely with law enforcement officials abroad to ensure the safety of its territories. Our legal attaché program is managed by the International Operations Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This office keeps in close contact with other federal agencies, Interpol, foreign police, and security officers in Washington, and national and international law enforcement associations. International liaison and information sharing are conducted in accordance with Executive Orders, laws, treaties, Attorney General Guidelines, FBI policies, and interagency agreements.

Joint Secretary of The Ministry of Home Affairs Bhamathi Balasurbramaniam said, “It was a pleasure to meet with various members of the FBI’s New York Division. We share a similar mission to protect our citizens and our infrastructure from acts of terrorism and enjoy the cooperation that we share with the FBI.”

Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Aristedes Maharias added, “Our relationship with the IPS is one which we continue to expand as we work toward common goals and objectives. We were happy to host members of the IPS for today’s briefing to discuss critical topics shared by both the FBI and our partners abroad.”

Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the New York Office’s Counterterrorism Division Rich Frankel added, “Discussions with our partners from the IPS improves cooperation between our organizations on a wide variety of issues. Many of our investigations focused on terrorism have an international nexus, and the best way to deter such activity is to work together with our partners from foreign nations to neutralize threats to our societies. These visits will help to fortify our relationships with international law enforcement and intelligence agencies who share our common goal of protecting both of our nation’s most valuable resources.”