Embassy Row

High-tech appeal

Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon knows that the safety of his country relies as much on high technology as on a low-tech security fence on the border.

Mr. Ayalon appealed to U.S. high-tech firms to join Israeli experts in ventures to develop programs to protect both countries from terrorist attacks.

“For us, homeland security is a daily interest, and it is at the top of our agenda,” the ambassador said at a Washington symposium sponsored by the Israel Export Institute last week.

“Our small but vibrant democracy stands at the forefront of the war on terror. It is most important for us to share this experience and related technologies and methodologies with freedom-loving countries and especially the United States.”

Mr. Ayalon said Israel also needs to learn from the United States’ experiences with homeland security.

“We in Israel are interested to learn from your experience … whether in protecting our airplanes from missiles and hijack threats, our airports, ports and borders from unwanted intruders or even our city centers, schools and fresh-water resources,” he said.

“These are challenges that are today faced by the entire world; but it is clear that by joining forces using the best of our human and technological qualities, we can rise to these challenges and succeed in providing security to our homeland and safety to our citizens and to people worldwide.”

Praise in Philippines

The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines has congratulated President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for her commitment to crack down on corruption, as the U.S. Embassy pledged to maintain tight control over aid to a military tainted by a corruption scandal.

Ambassador Francis Ricciardone praised Mrs. Arroyo’s “forceful expressions of commitment to root out corruption within the military and other institutions of government,” the embassy in Manila said last week.

The embassy also insisted that the United States will monitor military aid to the Philippines to ensure it is used for its “intended purpose” and not “transferred to a third party or disposed of without Department of State approval.”

A joint inventory conducted by U.S. and Filipino officials this month covered all U.S. aid provided in the past three years to a light-reaction company trained and equipped to fight Islamic terrorists, the embassy said.

The Philippines is prosecuting its former military comptroller, Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, on embezzlement charges based on evidence provided earlier this year by U.S. investigators.

The United States accused Gen. Garcia of trying to launder $700,000 through a U.S. bank.

Diplomatic traffic

Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:

Today

• Four members of the Scottish Parliament — Dennis Canavan, Irene Oldfather, Keith Raffan and John Swinney — who are here to promote U.S.-Scottish cultural ties.

Tomorrow

• Maj. Gen. Suren Baasankhuu, state secretary in Mongolia’s Ministry of Defense, who leads a delegation for annual defense talks with top Pentagon officials.

Wednesday

• Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, archivist and librarian for the Roman Catholic Church at the Vatican, who speaks at the Catholic University of America.

Thursday

• Shiro Sadoshima, deputy director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Economic Cooperation Bureau and Multilateral Cooperation Department, and Juichi Inada, an economics professor at Japan’s Senshu University. They discuss their country’s development assistance in Asia at a forum sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.