Speaker: Ms. Sylvia Longmire

Date: Thursday, September 13, 2012

Time: Membership Social at 7:30
Program at 8:00 p.m.

Location: Coastal Georgia Center, 305 Fahm St. (behind the Visitor's Center) Directions and Map
Access: Open to the public and free for members, students and accompanying family members, educators and active military and their dependents. $10.00 charge for non-members.

Abstract:

Ms. Sylvia Longmire

Having followed Mexico's drug cartels for years, border security expert Sylvia Longmire takes us deep into the heart of their world to witness a dangerous underground that will do whatever it takes to deliver drugs to a willing audience of American consumers.

The cartels have grown increasingly bold in recent years, building submarines to move up the coast of Central America and digging elaborate tunnels that move drugs north and carry cash and high-powered assault weapons back south. Channeling her long experience working on border issues, Longmire brings to life the very real threat of Mexican cartels operating not just along the southwest border, but deep inside every corner of the United States. She also offers real solutions to the critical problems facing Mexico and the United States, including programs to deter youth in Mexico from joining the cartels and changing drug laws on both sides of the border.

Sylvia Longmire is a retired Air Force officer and former Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI).  During her eight years with AFOSI, she conducted numerous criminal investigations and worked extensively in the fields of counterintelligence, counterespionage, and force protection. During her last assignment, Ms. Longmire worked at HQ AFOSI as the Latin America desk officer, analyzing issues in the US Southern Command area of responsibility that might affect the security of deployed Air Force personnel. From Dec 2005-Jul 2009, she worked as a senior intelligence analyst for the California state fusion center and the California Emergency Management Agency's Situational Awareness Unit, focusing almost exclusively on Mexican drug trafficking organizations and southwest border violence issues. For the last six years, she has regularly lectured on terrorism in Latin America at the Air Force Special Operations School's Dynamics of International Terrorism course. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of South Florida in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, with a focus on the Cuban and Guatemalan revolutions.

Ms. Longmire has been published in Henley-Putnam University's Journal of Strategic Security, as well as in the Journal of Energy Security. Her writing has also been featured in Homeland Security Today magazine, which includes "Creativity in a Bad Cause" (March 2011), "Hitting the Narcos at Home" (October 2010) and "Al Capone's Lessons for Today's Cartels" (December 2009). Ms. Longmire has been interviewed extensively by national, international, local, and Internet news outlets, including "Geraldo at Large" on Fox News Channel, CNN International, CNN México, AOL News, BBC Radio, the Miami Herald, and the San Diego Union-Tribune.