QUANTICO, Va. -- Special agents from Air Force Office of Special Investigations Detachment 535, U.S. Embassy Rome, Italy joined fellow agents from AFOSI Det. 531, Aviano Air Base, Italy to host a seminar in Trieste, Italy Feb. 23 entitled “The Jihadist Terrorist Threat in Northeastern Italy: The Balkan Route.”
The seminar provided a forum for constructive dialogue and interaction between the various law enforcement and military branches of the Italian government present in northeastern Italy.
Recent events have shown the way to defeat radical violent extremist terrorism is through interagency and international cooperation, information sharing and collaboration.
To that end, Det. 535 assembled a diverse cadre of recognized and esteemed speakers from the Italian Parliament, Prosecutor’s Office, Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police), Slovenian National Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Italian think tanks to present their views on the problem of terrorism through recent developments, case studies and analysis.
The response to Det. 535’s guest invitations resulted in every invited agency sending not only their field personnel, but their provincial and regional commanders to attend what was deemed a must see event.
The seminar had a near 100% invitation acceptance rate. The more than 90 attendees represented almost every law enforcement and military agency in northeastern Italy.
“Our agents put on a world class terrorism threat seminar in Trieste,” said Lt. Col. Eric Jurgensen, 5th Field Investigations Region vice commander. “It was a resounding success.”