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Paul Bremer: Security and Iraq

Paul Bremer spoke to CSO about his experiences in Iraq and about the 'war on terror'.

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March 23, 2007 — CSO —

Prior to his service in Iraq, Paul Bremer served as chairman of the Bipartisan National Commission on Terrorism, and recorded a 23-year career in the State Department including serving as Ambassador to the Netherlands under President Ronald Reagan and postings in Afghanistan, Malawi and Norway. Before going to Iraq, Bremer was chairman and CEO of Marsh Crisis Consulting Co., a branch of Marsh & McLennan. In 2006, Bremer published a book, "My Year in Iraq" about his experience leading the CPA.

In his speech (see coverage of Bremer’s speech here), Bremer re-asserted that he and his team achieved some important economic and political goals while acknowledging that the security challenges facing Iraq were then -- and still are -- a major obstacle to success.

Later that day, Bremer sat down with CSO’s Scott Berinato and Michael Goldberg to discuss how private sector security executives should view their role in the War on Terror and why he’s concerned about the ongoing debate in Washington about the war in Iraq.


Paul Bremer
Bremer speaks at CSO Perspectives.


The following is a transcript of the interview.

CSO: One of the points you made for this audience of business executives was to be aware of the War on Terror and what that means for U.S. policy. You have a lot of experience in the private sector as well. Are there tips or questions or guideposts that you would give to security executives for looking at those issues as time marches on?

Bremer: One of the things I think is very difficult, and [CSO Publisher Bob Bragdon] mentioned it earlier this morning, is to have a sustained and steady approach from corporate leaders, whether it’s C-suite in the corporation or the Board of Directors, because -- and this is not just true in [the private sector] -- this is also true in government.

There is a tendency in fighting these terrorist issues for attention to spike when there’s an incident and then it has sort of a short half life, a fall off. And in the National Commission on Terrorism report, which we issued back in June of 2000, we drew attention to this problem more as a political matter than a business matter, but it’s the same. It’s important to have a sustained degree of attention. You can’t really have a coherent policy, whether you’re a government or a business, if you’re just being driven by the daily headlines, because it goes like this, goes up and down. So it’s important for people who are dealing with security to try to encourage their leadership, whether it’s, as I say, the CEO or the Board or both, to take a long view of whatever the threat is. And it could be not just terrorism, it could be avian flu, it could be whatever -- take a long view.

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