*EPF406 04/22/2004
Text: Crime Requires Global Law Enforcement Cooperation, Mueller Says
(FBI director addresses Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce) (2520)

Crime and terrorism have gone global and so must law enforcement cooperation, says the director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In a speech delivered April 22 to the Hong Kong American Chamber of Commerce, Robert Mueller said: "The threats we face today have an increasingly international dimension, from telemarketing fraud and identity theft to computer viruses and corporate espionage to the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and human beings."

As a result, divisions of responsibility and jurisdiction that once existed between U.S. law enforcement agencies -- and even those between and among other countries -- are becoming less and less relevant, he said.

The FBI, he noted, now has 47 legal attachés -- or "legats" -- around the world. "Increasingly, these legats are helping stop crime and terrorism from being exported to the United States," Mueller said.

The FBI's working relationship with Hong Kong law enforcement is "excellent," the director said. "Hong Kong has a Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement with the U.S. and has provided regular assistance to the FBI on law enforcement matters. Hong Kong's senior government officials have given strong support to the global anti-terror campaign and are actively cooperating with the U.S. on anti-terrorism matters. Hong Kong has played a leadership role in the anti-terrorism finance effort, serving as the President of the Financial Action Task Force and then as a Steering Committee member," he said.

Although the U.S.-Hong Kong law enforcement relationship is strong, similar relationships must be forged around the world, Mueller said. "Aside from fighting terrorism, we must also work together to address a number of other threats: organized crime, partnerships between criminals and terrorist organizations, and lone actors," he said.

"Not only are these partnerships necessary to prevent terrorism, they are also essential for our fight against other transnational threats," Mueller said. "Cooperation is the key to success."

Following is the text of Mueller's remarks, as prepared for delivery:

(begin text)

"INTERNATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT COOPERATION"
Remarks by Robert S. Mueller, III
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Conrad Hotel, Hong Kong
April 22, 2004

(As prepared for delivery)

Good morning. It is an honor to be here with you today. Over the past six days, I have flown halfway around the world and traveled throughout China because of the importance of the topic you asked me to address today -- "International Law Enforcement Cooperation in Asia."

Given the current environment of complex transnational threats we face -- everything from online organized crime to franchised global terrorism -- our relationships with our law enforcement partners overseas have never been more important. With that in mind, today I want to talk to you about the excellent working relationships we have with our partners in Hong Kong and why we must forge those kinds of partnerships around the world.

The emerging threats we face from Al Qaeda and others require a new kind of strategy from the FBI, and from our law enforcement and business partners overseas. Here in Hong Kong and elsewhere, that strategy starts with cooperation. The FBI's legal attaché office in Hong Kong enjoys an excellent working relationship with the Hong Kong law enforcement community, as well as with other U.S. law enforcement agencies operating in the region.

Given Hong Kong's strategic location and its status as a major international center of trade and finance, our relationships here are among our most important in the world. They are also among the most successful, thanks to Hong Kong's elite law enforcement agencies. The citizens of Hong Kong are protected and served by one of the finest police departments in the world. Hong Kong's law enforcement officers are honest, sophisticated, and highly professional, and have made this one of the world's safest cities. And they stand poised to become even more efficient and effective, with a gleaming new police headquarters in a 44-story state-of-the-art tower complex that will open later this year. I will be thinking of it days from now when I am back in the FBI's headquarters building in Washington, which is currently strung with miles of orange cable as part of our agency-wide technology upgrade.

The FBI is now catching up to where we needed to be in the 20th century era of technology. But at the same time, we are moving into the next century, which promises to be the era of globalization. Nearly a century ago, Americans worried about crimes that crossed county and state lines, and they created the FBI to address those new threats. Now, with jet travel, faxes, cell phones, and the Internet, the FBI is called on to address threats that cross countries and continents.

Crime and terrorism have gone global. The threats we face today have an increasingly international dimension, from telemarketing fraud and identity theft to computer viruses and corporate espionage to the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and human beings.

The era of global threats has moved the Bureau into an era of global partnerships. The clear-cut divisions of responsibility and jurisdiction that once existed between agencies -- and even between the United States and other countries -- are becoming less and less relevant. We cannot defeat international terrorism, for example, without the help of old World War II allies and even Cold War opponents. The governments of Great Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and others are all united in protecting our citizens against shifting and elusive new threats from cyber criminals and transnational terrorists.

That is why the FBI, like many institutions, has had to become more international. In 1940, we established our first international office -- what is called a legal attaché or "legat." Today, we have 47 legal attachés around the world. Not only in cities like London and Hong Kong, but also in places like Islamabad and Riyadh.

Increasingly, these legats are helping stop crime and terrorism from being exported to the United States. FBI agents today are working with their counterparts here in Hong Kong and in places like Romania and Russia to track down cyber criminals. They are joining forces with the Hungarian national police to tackle organized crime syndicates. They are gathering intelligence in Iraq and Afghanistan and hunting down terrorists in concert with partners in countries like Pakistan, Morocco, and Indonesia.

Last May, after nine Americans lost their lives in the bombing in Riyadh, the Saudi government allowed the FBI to send a large forensic team to assist in their investigation. The result was unprecedented cooperation. One reason was because the FBI had trained more than 100 Saudi police in the National Academy. We were using the same methods of evidence collection and the same terminology. As they told us, "We were taught together, now we can work together." This kind of cooperation is increasing.

Thankfully, we have been learning and working together with law enforcement in Hong Kong for many years. The FBI has been training with our partners in the Hong Kong police force since 1969, when the FBI National Academy accepted its first members from the Hong Kong law enforcement community. Since then, more than 60 Hong Kong law enforcement officials have graduated from the Academy. Eighteen additional law enforcement officials from Hong Kong and Macao have graduated from the International Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok. And we have been working together through our legat in Hong Kong for nearly 40 years.

Hong Kong has a Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement with the U.S. and has provided regular assistance to the FBI on law enforcement matters. Hong Kong's senior government officials have given strong support to the global anti-terror campaign and are actively cooperating with the U.S. on anti-terrorism matters. Hong Kong has played a leadership role in the anti-terrorism finance effort, serving as the President of the Financial Action Task Force and then as a Steering Committee member.

We must have this cooperation and this shared focus if we are to combat international terrorist groups that continue to evolve and threaten our countries. For Al Qaeda, terrorist strikes are tools -- tools to take lives, to destroy economies, and even to upset governments. Their targets include skyscrapers and trains, power plants and nightclubs. And the global presence of American-owned businesses has created a world of targets for our enemies.

There are more than 1,000 American firms in Hong Kong and approximately 50,000 Americans who call Hong Kong home. This is a testament to the wonders of this city and its strong bonds with the United States. Unfortunately, Hong Kong's success and the fact that it is one of the world's busiest ports also means that it must remain vigilant.

Fortunately, leaders here are responding to the threat. The Hong Kong government has been very cooperative about dealing with requests for assistance in ensuring the security of Americans and American interests. Hong Kong's police, customs, and immigration officials are continuously on the lookout for terrorist groups and individuals. And Hong Kong has joined the Container Security Initiative developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. The program, which became fully operational in May 2003, deploys U.S. inspectors to work alongside their Hong Kong counterparts to protect shipping containers from terrorist exploitation.

Our relationship with Hong Kong is strong, and we must forge similar relationships with our partners around the world. Aside from fighting terrorism, we must also work together to address a number of other threats: organized crime, partnerships between criminals and terrorist organizations, and lone actors. I will briefly address each of these in turn.
In recent years, organized crime has diversified into telemarketing fraud, stock manipulation, and cyber crimes, and is very much an international problem.

Crime czars are still running drug and prostitution rings and trafficking in human beings -- but now they have gone multinational. Thankfully, law enforcement is learning to operate internationally as well. For example, in April 2000, the FBI and the Hong Kong police force were finally able to put a stop to the activities of Sister Ping, a leader in the Asian organized crime underworld who trafficked in human beings. Sister Ping was the mastermind behind the smuggling of boatloads of Chinese illegal aliens into the U.S., including the 1993 Golden Venture that ran aground off Queens, New York, with 300 passengers. Ten of the passengers drowned during the incident. Sister Ping employed the New York-based Fuk Ching Gang to act as enforcers, coercing and extorting her human cargo and their family members after the aliens' arrival in the U.S. Ping was arrested by the Hong Kong police force after fleeing from justice in the States and was extradited to the U.S. in July of last year.

In addition to organized crime, we are coordinating with our international law enforcement partners to address a convergence of new threats. To Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, drugs, stolen credit card data, or million-dollar trade secrets are all the same -- potential funding sources for attacks. And what this means for you is that the private sector must also partner with law enforcement to guard against these threats -- threats from old-fashioned business espionage to new computer-related crimes. We are seeing money laundering for drug groups; drug groups selling weapons to terrorists; terrorists engaged in cigarette smuggling or credit card fraud to raise money for their operations. For example, in September 2002, two Pakistani nationals and one Indian-American traveled to Hong Kong in order to meet with FBI undercover agents to negotiate an illegal trade: drugs for Stinger missiles and cash. According to the subjects, the Stinger missiles were to be sold to the Taliban and Al Qaeda for the purpose of shooting down American airplanes. The three subjects were extradited from Hong Kong to San Diego, California, in March 2003. Last month, two of the three pled guilty to conspiring to distribute five metric tons of heroin and 600 kilograms of hashish; and to material support of a foreign terrorist organization. They are scheduled for sentencing in June of this year.

Finally, thanks to our increasingly interconnected world, we must also be prepared to deal with isolated individuals -- lone actors -- who are now independently capable of launching devastating assaults, from suicide attacks in Israel to virulent computer attacks in Antarctica. Yes, Antarctica. Last spring, a United States scientific research station in Antarctica called us for help after their systems had been hacked into and their data corrupted.

Due to sub-freezing temperatures, it was impossible to send agents to the scene. No aircraft could land or take off from the site for months. But working from thousands of miles away, our investigators were able to trace the source of the intrusion to a server outside Pittsburgh. From there, we identified two Romanian suspects. With the help of the Romanian authorities, they were arrested outside Bucharest shortly thereafter.

As threats continue to evolve, the FBI must evolve with them. In an age where attacks can come from anywhere in the world -- from the streets of Detroit to the shores of Yemen -- the FBI must be able to call upon a full range of capabilities. We must combine our traditional law enforcement tools with new intelligence community tools to prevent attacks. We must combine old-fashioned detective work with state-of-the-art technology. And, most importantly, we must learn to work and think both locally and globally.

We are making progress, but we will need your help. Terrorists cannot hide forever in mountain ranges and deserts. They have to interact with society, particularly if they intend to strike inside the United States. They will go shopping and set up bank accounts. They will rent cars. They will buy equipment, make mobile phone calls, set up meetings, and try to cross borders -- each of which is an opportunity to identify and stop them from doing harm. You can play a significant role by reporting suspicious activities to the Hong Kong police force.

Not only are these partnerships necessary to prevent terrorism, they are also essential for our fight against other transnational threats. We can and must work together. I encourage you, if you have questions, concerns, ideas, or issues, please do not hesitate to contact us. Cooperation is the key to success.

And with that, I want to close by thanking you for your cooperation and support and by expressing the FBI's particular gratitude to the government of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong law enforcement community. They have been remarkable partners in the fight against international organized crime and terrorism -- not only protecting people here in Hong Kong, but by extension protecting people in the United States. Thanks to their investigative efforts and their success in securing the city's port and its borders, they have ensured that terrorists and criminals know that they are not welcome to do business in Hong Kong.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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