May 12, 1998
PRESS BRIEFING ON INTERNATIONAL CRIME BY DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY JAMES JOHNSON, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL MARK RICHARD, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE JONATHAN WIENER, AND NSC...
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release May 12, 1998
PRESS BRIEFING ON INTERNATIONAL CRIME BY
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER,
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY JAMES JOHNSON,
DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL MARK RICHARD,
DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE JONATHAN WIENER,
AND NSC DIRECTOR FOR GLOBAL ISSUES, FRED ROSA
The Briefing Room
11:00 A.M. EDT
MR. RUBIN: Good morning. This is going to be a
briefing on the President's International Crime Control Strategy.
The speaker will be Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. Also with
him is Assistant Secretary of the Treasury James Johnson; Deputy
Assistant Attorney General Mark Richard; Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State Jonathan Wiener and NSC Director for global issues, Fred
Rosa. Thank you.
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: Good morning. Today,
the President announced the release of the United States' first-ever
international crime control strategy. The strategy is a blueprint
for the United States law enforcement community and our foreign law
enforcement partners in the fight against the growing threat of
international crime.
The strategy will have a direct and positive effect on
our job -- protecting Americans from criminals, both foreign and
domestic. It's important to keep in mind that this strategy is not
about a distant threat. Every day, United States cities and
communities are impacted by international crime, whether in the form
of drug-related violence, terrorist attacks, or financial scams that
target our elderly citizens.
The growth in international crime is fueled in large
part to changes that are fostering economic and political
opportunities, improved computer and telecommunications technology,
easier movement across national borders and the globalization of
trade. The facts speak for themselves, and I'd like to share some
facts with you.
Most of the illicit drugs consumed in this country,
worth tens of billions of dollars, are grown elsewhere and are
brought here by foreign organized crime groups. Two-thirds of all
counterfeit currency detected in the United States is created abroad.
About 200,000 of the cars stolen in the United States each year,
worth over $1 billion, are taken across our land and sea borders.
Economic espionage against U.S. businesses, often involving foreign
competitors, is increasing.
Computer crime and attacks on our critical
infrastructures are up with the method used increasingly, using the
Internet. And Americans continue to be the targets of choice for
terrorist groups and kidnappers.
These are the clear and present threats we in the law
enforcement community are addressing every day. This strategy
responds aggressively and forcefully to this threat. The strategy is
an innovative action plan that will serve as a road map for a
coordinated, long-term attack on international crime. And let me
stress that this strategy is the product of an outstanding
inter-agency effort to identify the most serious forms of
international criminal activity and to reduce their overall impact on
Americans.
Can we do more? Of course we can. And the strategy
sets the course for our future efforts as well. As the President
said today, we cannot win the battle without the continued
cooperation of our international partners. But there are certainly
things that we can do that are well within our own control. We are
already devoting additional resources to the fight against
international crime. We are expanding our overseas law enforcement
presence, we are increasing the resources devoted to interdiction
along our borders. We have created, in February, a national
infrastructure protection center, headquartered at the FBI, to
counter attacks on our critical infrastructures.
Another thing we can do is to give law enforcement --
federal, state and local -- the additional tools they need in the
fight against international criminals -- and the International Crime
Control Act is a good start. It would allow for the prosecution here
in the United States of organized criminals who victimize Americans
abroad and of criminals who commit financial crimes abroad affecting
U.S.-based financial institutions.
It would make it easier for our immigration officials do
deny entry to suspected narcotics-traffickers and alien-smugglers.
The bill will provide new tools to combat contraband smuggling across
our borders in both directions, including enhanced border search
authority and a new felony that would apply to smugglers who try to
evade border inspections by speeding through border checkpoints and
endangering law enforcement and civilians. It would make -- that is,
the bill -- will make it easier to transfer to the United States
defendants and evidence, including witnesses, so we could prosecute
crimes committed here in the United States even when the case has
international ties that complicate prosecution. And the bill will
also provide new authority to investigate computer crime.
We know what the problem is, we know what our job is,
and we have a strategy to get us where we want to go. Now, we must
move forward in the same cooperative spirit that helped forge the
strategy and continue our work toward a better, safer world in which
Americans and our friends and allies abroad can prosper in peace.
Thank you, and we would be glad to respond to any
questions that you might have.
Q Are all your computers being brought up to date to
not have any problem in the year 2000?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: Well, that's certainly
an administration-wide effort. I can say that the Justice Department
is on track with regard to that effort, and it is something that is
constantly monitored. The President has made a special effort, the
administration has made a special effort so that when we get to the
year 2000 all the government's computers will be able to make the
appropriate transition.
Q The legislation that you're describing that would
make it easier to prosecute criminals who I guess would be overseas,
wouldn't that also require some cooperation from other countries?
Or, can you go into a little bit more about what the problems are?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JOHNSON: Thank you. That's a very
good question. We have a variety of methods and techniques to
facilitate acquisition of defendants and facilitation of prosecution
in the U.S. What the bill will do will enable us to obtain prisoners
who have been found extraditable, for example, who are sitting in
foreign countries awaiting termination of their sentence before
coming here.
The bill, if enacted, will enable us to work with other
countries to, in effect, borrow the body for purposes of prosecution
in the U.S. and on condition that they be returned for completion of
their sentence abroad after the completion of our prosecution.
Q Is that currently barred by U.S. law?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JOHNSON: It's not barred, but it
requires a special article in a given treaty, and rather than have it
solely dictated by treaties -- and we have over 100 treaties -- this
statutory authority would enable us to do that absent a treaty
provision.
Q Deputy Attorney General Holder, there are seven or
eight new proposals in this package; how many require new legislation
and how much money are you going to ask to implement them?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: I'm not sure how many
just off the top of my head would require new legislation. With
regard to money, there is not really the need for new money. There
is, contained in the budget request that we have made, and
specifically with regard to the Justice Department's budget, the
necessary funds to support the effort that the President has
announced today.
Q Mr. Holder, in response to the Herman independent
counsel decision yesterday, the President said it was required by the
act that the independent counsel be appointed. What you know of the
thinking behind this, was it that there were facts in the case that
required it, or the statute is so strict that there wasn't much
choice in terms of --
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: I really wouldn't want
to get into that matter. That will be something that is ongoing and
I was recused from that matter as well.
Q But you had to know something about how the act
itself acts. Is the act so specific, maybe not referring to this
case, that it's hard to avoid appointing an independent counsel in a
case like this?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: We at the Justice
Department look at the act and apply it to the facts and the law --
the facts as we develop them, and the Attorney General makes those
decisions on a case-by-case basis.
Q What new authority are you seeking to investigate
computer crime?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JOHNSON: As you know, the wire-tap
statute is applicable to specified offenses. The proposed act would
add computer crimes to those lists of authorized predicates, if you
will, for acquiring wire-tapping authority.
That is only a portion of the total effort to deal with
computer crime. The Attorney General last year met with her
counterparts in the G-7, P-8 setting and came up with an action plan
for dealing on the international level with computer crime crossing
the national boundaries. And that is set forth in the strategy, I
believe, articulating the plan and what additional steps that are
being taken to respond to computer crimes.
Q Does anyone know why Mayor Barry was at the event
this morning?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: Well, I think one of
the things you have to understand is that although this is an
international crime bill, the things that we are attacking, or hope
to attack, have a very profound effect on the average American. And
that's why I think the Mayor was here as well as members of the D.C.
City Council.
One of the things that you have to understand is that in
terms of drug-trafficking, that obviously has an effect on a
day-to-day basis on the lives of average Americans. The number of
cars that are stolen every year obviously has an effect on our
insurance rates, among other things; and that is why there were local
representatives here as well as members of law enforcement.
Q Will all these ideas be new to the people at the
G-8, G-7, whatever it is?
DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY WEINER: Hi. Jonathan Wiener
from the State Department. No, as a matter of fact, we've been
discussing most of these ideas within the context of the Eight over
the last several years. At the Halifax Summit in Canada some three
years ago, the heads of government decided that there were
potentially substantial gaps in our international efforts to combat
serious transnational organized crime and asked us all to start
looking at it -- representatives of State and Justice and Treasury
and all of the law enforcement agencies have been working with their
counterparts in the three years since then.
And the crime summit that's taking place in Birmingham
follows a Lyon summit two years ago where 40 recommendations were
adopted by the Eight to combat crime and the Denver summit, where
some specific commitments were made to start looking at illicit
firearms smuggling, border control and smuggling in people, the need
for an international convention to combat transnational organized
crime and further steps to take against high-tech crime. And, in
fact, I think the Eight will be announcing a series of commitments in
that connection following on the commitments made in Denver last
year. So this is very much complimentary to the work we're doing
multilaterally.
And, in fact, as the President and Vice President both
made very clear, these strategies cannot work in isolation. No
country -- not even the United States -- can protect itself solely
through domestic means. International cooperation is absolutely
required to deal with the transnational phenomena. There's no
alternative.
Q Are there any countries that are refusing to
cooperate?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY WEINER: In fact, what we are
building right now is literally a global network of international
cooperation. And if you talk about the countries where there is
substantial international trade, there is also substantial
international cooperation on law enforcement.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JOHNSON: I wonder if I could just
point out that the International Crime Control Act that will be
submitted has significant impact on state and local authorities as
well, because they are impacted. It's not just a federal problem, as
the Deputy indicated. This is a problem that reaches out to all
levels of government and various provisions of the act specifically
impact on state and local capabilities, including the ability to
acquire fugitives from state and local cases as well as providing a
mechanism in order to supplement on a budgetary basis their ability
to fund extradition, mutual legal assistance requests abroad.
So it is a bill that contains a variety of provisions
that impact significantly, we think, on the ability of state and
local officials to respond to this problem.
Q Will the new bill include new measures against
drug-trafficking and terrorism? Could you be more specific about it
for those?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JOHNSON: There are a variety of
provisions that will impact on all types of crimes, all serious
crimes, including drugs and terrorism. Our provisions for dealing
with the extradition, for forfeiture, for dealing with the border
protection -- all of these impact on a variety of offenses, including
terrorism, drug-trafficking, as well as arms-smuggling and the like.
So they're not necessarily just directed at terrorism or drugs,
although specific provisions are in that category. But many of the
provisions will be applicable to a whole range of crimes, including
terrorism and drug-trafficking.
Q You had said -- when I asked you about the
appointment of the independent counsel -- I'm sorry -- but you had
said that you would look at the facts and apply the law. Was there a
difference of opinion in the Justice Department whether, even under
the law, the independent counsel is necessary? The Attorney General
took until the very last moment. And also, is the law written in
such a way that the independent counsel is -- often have to be sought
-- I mean, as a former prosecutor looking at the case on the facts,
would you without the independent counsel statute have gone forward
in a prosecution, say, for instance?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: Well, again, I don't
want to comment too much on that matter other than to say -- I mean,
there is always, within the Department of Justice, a free exchange of
ideas and thoughts about a whole variety of matters, among them the
independent counsel matters, that we have to consider.
Then again, we just look at the facts as we develop
them, look at the law as it has been given to us by Congress and then
make the appropriate decision.
One of the things I'd like to just maybe amplify to give
you some statistics -- before, people had asked me about why were
some local representatives here. If you look at some of the
international problems that, as I said, have a local effect, you will
see that in 1997, $50 billion -- Americans spent more than $50
billion on cocaine and heroin, all of which originated obviously from
abroad; 123 terrorist attacks against U.S. targets worldwide; $1
billion worth of stolen cars taken from the United States. United
States companies lost up to $23 billion from the illegal duplication
and piracy of films, compact disks, computer software and other
things.
So you can see that at that level, this has a very
dramatic effect on, as I said, average Americans.
Q Can you tell us where the money is coming from to
implement this and how much will it be?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: The money is contained
in the budget requests that have been submitted to Congress for
Fiscal Year 1999.
Q And how much will that be?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: Well, it's embedded
money. I guess at least at the Justice Department we have about $280
million I think that has been allotted for this.
Q Why did you have to recuse yourself from the Herman
decision?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: I've known --
Q Personal friend?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: Yes, I've known Alexis
for a number of years. My wife's family has been very close with her
for a good number of years. She spoke at my installation as Deputy
Attorney General.
Q Mr. Holder, back on the Herman issue. The question
of race was brought up yesterday to Mike McCurry, and what are the
thoughts about the fact that many minorities in the administration
have been probed by the Justice Department? Is there a possibility
that race is playing a part in some of these investigations?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: We get allegations, we
examine those allegations. The conduct is always examined in a
race-neutral way. The decisions that are made by the Attorney
General are made in a race-neutral way. Anybody who would look at
the record of this Attorney General and the way in which she has
conducted herself not only in Washington but in Florida, I think
would be hard-pressed to say that anything that she has ever done is
done for racial purposes.
Q Just a question generically on the independent
counsel law. Do you feel that it does trigger -- that there is a
presumption in favor of appointing an independent counsel the way the
law is written now?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: Don't you guys want to
talk about international crime? (Laughter.) I think we
obviously -- the act expires in the middle of next year, I guess June
of 1999 and I think there are certain parts of the act that we need
to look at and see whether or not they need to be redone.
Q Like what? (Laughter.)
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: International crime.
International crime.
Q Mr. Holder, do you think it will be renewed next
year?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: International crime?
Q No, sir, independent counsel --
Q Mr. Holder, what about --
MR. RUBIN: If there are no more questions on
international crime, I think we'll wrap it up.
Q What would you say to Microsoft who continues to
say that the government intervention would stop them from developing
new technology on the Internet?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: The Justice
Department's enforcement efforts with regard to Microsoft have all
been designed to give the American people choice when it comes to the
computer products that they would select. We have no intention, no
desire to in any way inhibit the growth of that very important
industry to the nation generally, or to the efforts of Microsoft to
grow and to prosper specifically.
Q And when is the Justice Department going to
announce its steps against Microsoft?
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER: I would not say that we
can anticipate that the Justice Department is going to do anything
against Microsoft. We are pretty close to making a decision as to
what we will do, if anything, in that regard, though.
MR. RUBIN: Okay, thank you very much. I'd like to
thank our guests for coming.
END 11:22 A.M. EDT