The U.S. Embassy’s Regional Security officials, David Hazarian and Larry Jordan with the Bahamas’ OSAC representatives.

On Wednesday, February 19, the Regional Security Office of the United States Embassy hosted the inaugural launch of the U.S. Department of State’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) at the U.S. Embassy with participants from New Providence and Grand Bahama.  The council was established in 1985 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to promote security cooperation between American private-sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State.  OSAC has developed into an enormously successful joint venture, with U.S. companies and organizations receiving the tools they need to cope with security issues in foreign countries. 

U.S. Chargé d’Affaires John Dinkelman and the Embassy’s Regional Security Officer David Hazarian thanked the Bahamian representatives for their support and commitment to work with the U.S. Embassy to sustain a network to mitigate against any security related-issues.   

OSAC promotes effective cooperation by working to assist the U.S. private sector to better anticipate security issue, including identifying and tracking threats, particularly those targeting the private sector, facilities, investments, interests and intellectual property. The Bahamas is now fully represented as an OSAC Country Council. Currently there are over 140 OSAC Councils worldwide, with over 10,000 representatives participating in the program including businesses, faith-based groups, academia and other non-governmental organizations.