International Crime Control Strategy - June 1998International Crime Control Strategy - June 1998Nothing we do will make us invulnerable, but we can all become less vulnerable if we work together.
President Bill Clinton
Speech at the United Nations
October 22, 1995
As the twenty-first century approaches with its unprecedented potential for bringing together people from around the globe quickly, efficiently and anonymously, international criminals will be increasingly able to exploit this potential -- unless effective programs thwart their efforts. Achieving U.S. national security, foreign policy and law enforcement goals requires us to optimize efforts to fight international crime.
The Strategy calls for increasing effectiveness through enhanced coordination among government agencies. It also calls for strengthening relationships with the private sector and with our overseas partners.
Enhance executive branch policy and operational coordination mechanisms to assess the risks of criminal threats and to integrate strategies, goals and objectives to combat those threats;
Mobilize and incorporate the private sector into U.S. government efforts; and
Develop measures of effectiveness to assess progress over time.
1. Enhancing Executive Branch Policy and Operational Mechanisms
National Security Council
The National Security Council (NSC), established by the National Security Act of 1947, is responsible for coordinating the U.S. response to international crime, in addition to consideration of all other national security policy issues requiring presidential direction. The National Security Council consists of the President, Vice President, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. The Director of Central Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attend meetings of the NSC as permanent advisors to the Council. By presidential directive, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy attend meetings of the NSC as principal advisors on matters pertaining to their respective jurisdictions.
The NSC oversees the implementation of Presidential Decision Directive 42, the directive that specifically targets international crime. To ensure sustained and focused attention to international crime fighting, this presidential directive establishes the Special Coordination Group (SCG), an interagency team chaired by a senior member of the NSC staff and comprised of high-level officials from the Departments of Justice (including FBI and DEA), State, the Treasury (including Secret Service), and Transportation (including Coast Guard), the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the intelligence community.
Inter-Departmental Coordination
Specific aspects of international crime fighting are coordinated by different mechanisms that include groups led by ONDCP, and the Treasury, State and Justice Departments. These groups each include representatives from the intelligence community, as well as law enforcement and foreign policy specialists. ONDCP chairs the key interagency working group coordinating implementation of international counternarcotics policy. In addition, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Treasury) and the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (Justice) co-chair a working group on anti-money laundering operations. The Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (State-INL) coordinates the overseas training and technical assistance components for these and our other international law enforcement activities. The operational component agencies of these departments also work hand in hand. Justice agencies such as the FBI and Treasury agencies such as the Customs Service regularly send liaison officers to the Department of State to help coordinate investigative and training assistance.
Intra-Departmental Coordination
Within federal departments there is also extensive coordination. At the State Department, overseas anti-crime activities are coordinated by INL, and similar functions are performed at the Justice Department by the Criminal Division in consultation with the National Security Coordinators at each United States Attorney's Office. These activities are performed at the Treasury Department by the Office for the Under Secretary for Enforcement.
Law Enforcement-Intelligence Coordination
To facilitate and improve our international anti-crime operations, federal law enforcement officials work in conjunction with the intelligence community in strict compliance with oversight laws prohibiting intelligence agencies from engaging in domestic law enforcement. The Administration has received statutory authority to permit law enforcement agencies to request support from the intelligence community to identify criminals who operate beyond our shores, track their movements and collect other information about their activities. This has added an important tool to our crime fighting efforts. To enhance cooperation and coordination between their legally separated primary functions, the law enforcement and intelligence agencies regularly exchange liaison officers and serve together on specialized teams. An FBI official serves as the deputy director of the Counterterrorist Center at the Central Intelligence Agency, and a CIA official serves as the deputy chief of the International Terrorism Section at the FBI.
Overseas Coordination Mechanisms
The placement of more than 2,000 U.S. law enforcement agents and support personnel abroad is a vital tool to combat the growing threat of international criminal activity. Our missions overseas are the forward bases for protecting and advancing U.S. national interests, including our law enforcement interests. The FBI, DEA, INS, Coast Guard, Customs Service, Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service and other federal law enforcement agencies have personnel abroad. Some of their overseas representatives are assigned regional responsibilities encompassing both the countries in which they are posted and other nations in the region. The Diplomatic Security Officers at overseas posts support operations and investigations for law enforcement agencies that do not have a permanent representative at that location. Our missions have created law enforcement teams to coordinate country-specific law enforcement policies and programs. These teams also coordinate foreign institution building and training and technical assistance efforts with their foreign counterparts. These teams then report their activities to Washington so that strategies, policies and programs are updated in light of the realities in the field.
At our embassies and missions around the world, the Chief of Mission (usually the Ambassador) has the authority and responsibility for the direction, coordination and supervision of the various activities of all in-country official U.S. executive branch personnel, except military personnel under the command of a U.S. area military commander. The Chief of Mission also has the duty to keep fully informed with respect to all activities and operations of the U.S. government within that country. To facilitate that process, the Treasury, State and Justice Departments have signed a memorandum of understanding, dated November 14, 1996, clarifying the authority the Chief of Mission exercises over many individuals from a multitude of departments and agencies. The memorandum articulates clearly defined responsibilities with respect to the coordination, by the relevant Chiefs of Mission, of law enforcement activities abroad, including agreed principles to enhance coordination between each law enforcement entity's senior representative at post and the Chief of Mission or Deputy Chief of Mission.
The Administration will strive to enhance the effectiveness of each of these coordination mechanisms by continuing to review their operations, upgrade their communications links, and improve interoperability.
We have to . . . understand what American foreign policy is about. It is to protect the security of [America] and the American people and our way of life. We have to develop a set of partnerships with countries in order to deal with global threats that we have not seen before.
Madeleine K. Albright
Secretary of State
January 7, 1998
2. Mobilizing and Incorporating the Private Sector and Foreign Governments Into U.S. Efforts
Working with the Private Sector
Broad-based collaboration between the public and private sectors is vital. Such collaboration not only harnesses the wealth of experience and expertise that exists outside of government, but it also assures that governmental programs are well suited to meet the needs of Americans and U.S. business interests. It also reduces the risk that Americans and their businesses might inadvertently contribute to criminal activity -- for instance in the unwitting provision of financial services to international criminals -- or become victims of crime themselves.
Over the last 20 years, increased terrorist and related threats against U.S. overseas interests have caused many businesses to seek advice and assistance from the federal government. The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), a joint venture between the government and the U.S. private sector, provides liaison between public and private sector security officials, recommends planning and implementing security programs abroad, and suggests methods to protect the competitiveness of overseas American business operations. The OSAC Committee on Transnational Crime identifies ways to collect and disseminate economic crime information to protect Americans from financial and trade crimes. Similarly, regulators from the Federal Reserve Bank and from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other federal officials regularly consult with bankers, financial analysts, securities specialists and related experts to take advantage of their experience and to elicit their help in fighting money laundering and financial fraud cases.
Public-private partnerships build trust, help establish consensus on goals to protect U.S. interests worldwide, and build support for Administration decisions to allocate resources. These partnerships are also of vital importance in safeguarding our nation's critical infrastructures from compromise and attack by enemies foreign and domestic. The Administration is committed to further outreach and information sharing with the private sector to meet these goals.
Governments working alone, or even in close cooperation with each other, will not be fully effective in countering international crime. Real and enduring success in this vital effort will come only when the private sector -- including both individual and corporate citizens -- joins in that effort. To that end, the Administration will develop and implement a Strategic Communications Plan to engage the private sector in assessing the impact of international crime on the private sector and determining the role the private sector should play in countering that threat.
Public Diplomacy
Another dimension in overseas coordination involves cooperation with USIS field officers responsible for crafting public diplomacy strategies to engage foreign audiences and opinion makers in support of U.S. policy objectives, including those in justice and law enforcement areas. The Public Affairs Officer frequently serves as the mission's press spokesperson and is the point of contact for all press, public affairs and public diplomacy activities. The PAO also plays an important role in advising the Chief of Mission and other embassy officials on foreign public opinion vis-a-vis U.S. policies. The PAOs and their staffs plan and implement a variety of professional and academic programs and exchanges, directed at key audiences in government, political parties, academia and the private sector, to help create a foundation of trust between U.S. and foreign societies. The USIS and PAOs will play a key role in development and implementation of the Strategic Communications Plan and other federal international crime control initiatives.
3. Developing Measures of Effectiveness
With this Strategy we undertake a long term approach to the solution of the nation's international crime problem. If we are to ensure success, measuring progress along the way is imperative. The Administration will establish a system to measure progress on the major goals of this Strategy, provide feedback for Strategy refinement and system management, and assist the Administration in resource allocation. As with the performance system currently being created and implemented by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Administration is committed to continuously reexamining and refining the goals and objectives set forth in this Strategy. It will remain dynamic, flexible and responsive as the international crime threat changes and our knowledge of how to measure international criminal activity improves.
The measurement system will track our progress on the goals and objectives set forth in the chapters above. It will seek to quantify our success in: (1) disrupting major criminal organizations, (2) reducing criminal activity at our borders, (3) improving coordination among U.S. agencies, (4) improving coordination with other nations against criminal targets, (5) increasing adoption of international standards and norms to combat crime, (6) securing passage and implementation of major anti-crime conventions internationally, (7) reducing incidence and costs to the United States of intellectual property theft and economic crime, (8) improving the coordination of international investigations into and prosecutions of high tech crime, (9) strengthening international capabilities against smuggling and raising the cost of smuggling activities to smugglers, (10) strengthening international cooperation against alien smuggling and reducing the flow of illegal migrants to the United States, (11) fighting money laundering and financial crime, (12) increasing the number of nations that extradite nationals and that provide mutual legal assistance, (13) combating illicit smuggling in firearms, (14) combating illicit trafficking in women and children, (15) decreasing the production and distribution of child pornography, (16) combating corruption and improving the administration of justice in foreign criminal justice systems, and (17) achieving the other goals and objectives of the Strategy. The system will allow us to maintain and enhance the most effective components of the Strategy, understand trade-offs that might emerge as the Strategy is implemented, improve any components of the Strategy which may have proved less effective, and undertake rigorous cost-benefit analyses to ensure that U.S. government resources are used efficiently and effectively.
Presidential Decision Directive 42 (PDD-42)
Signed by President Clinton on October 21, 1995, PDD-42 specifically addresses the nation's fight against international crime. PDD-42 recognizes that such criminal activity threatens U.S. national security and directs the federal agencies to combat international crime from the criminal barons sheltered overseas to the violence and destruction they deliver to our streets. PDD-42 also provides continuity to earlier Administration policy, complements other presidential directives on alien smuggling, drug trafficking, terrorism and nuclear materials, and mandates intensified federal efforts against international criminals. The Administration's efforts under PDD-42 are well underway. As one example, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury has identified egregious overseas sanctuaries, or "safe havens," for illegally obtained wealth and has negotiated with those governments to end the safe havens they offer. Successful negotiations have resulted in strengthened anti-money laundering regimes and weakened safe havens. If negotiations are unsuccessful, stronger measures will be employed. Also under PDD-42, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General are working together to deny visas to a broad range of international criminals and their families and prevent them from entering the United States.