July 18, 2008
Recent years have seen increasing reports about the involvement of Middle Eastern terrorist groups -- including the Taliban, al-Qaeda, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and Hizballah -- in international drug-trafficking activities, a nexus that poses a serious threat to U.S. national security. What major challenges confront the United States and its partners in combating this threat? And what role does the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) play in the global war on terrorism?
To discuss these important issues, The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence invited Michael Braun, assistant administrator and chief of operations of the DEA, to address a Special Policy Forum on July 18, 2008.
Michael Braun, appointed as the DEA's chief of operations in
February 2005, leads the drug-enforcement operations of the agency's 227
domestic and 87 foreign offices. Beginning in December 2003, he headed the
Office of Special Intelligence and, later, the entire Intelligence
Division. Previously, in June 2003, he was detailed to the Defense
Department to serve on special assignment with the Coalition Provisional
Authority in Iraq, as chief of staff for the interim Ministry of Interior.