The Iraq Question by Doug Melvin, Homeland Security

In early 2004, Doug Melvin volunteered to serve as the first Country Director for Department of Homeland Security in Iraq. As Security Director for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Doug’s experience and work in Iraq from May 2004 – July 2005, was some of the most difficult, treacherous, and gratifying work that he’d ever done on international migration and counter-insurgency work.

During this assignment Doug faced a number of exciting challenges, which he talks about in this blog.

I was in Iraq from May 31, 2004 through June 2005. I worked 7 days a week, at least 18 hours each day. I traveled extensively, and at great risk throughout Iraq, both by air and by land. Over the course of the year I had a number of very close calls where a few seconds may the difference between life and death. I and my colleagues were subjected to constant mortar attacks, some of which killed friends, the constant concern and fear of being kidnapped or killed, and had to endure some of the worst environmental conditions in the world. It was a long year. My tour was scheduled for one year.

Department of Homeland Security in Iraq On the Job Accomplishments Include:

• Developed and implemented a highly successful border security plan for the Iraqi government and coalition forces. The "Border Support Team” (BST) concept was enthusiastically approved and implemented by the Minister of Interior and coalition forces and was credited with dramatically improving security along the Iraqi/Syrian border;
• Developed and implemented the technical (IT and document inspection) country wide for the Iraqi government;
• Directly responsible for developing the Iraq national standard and strategy for training Iraqi Border security forces, immigration, and customs personnel. Implemented a highly effective training program in Amman Jordan that produced 80 Iraqi border security instructors and over 2000 Iraqi border security forces. Responsible for establishing future capacity for training and developing migration, customs, and border security personnel.