Prepared Remarks of Attorney General

Alberto R. Gonzales at Malka Brender

Hall "Kes Hamishpat" Trubowitz Law
Building, Tel Aviv University
June 27, 2006
Good afternoon.

It is a privilege to be here, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today
about issues of great importance to both our countries. Specifically, I’d like to
discuss the importance of international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and
transnational crime.

Every day, American and Israeli law enforcement officials are engaged in a
common campaign against terrorism and transnational crime. We strive to keep our
citizens safe from terrorist and criminal threats. We toil against the evils of the
international narcotics trade. We fight to protect our children from human traffickers
and child pornographers. We battle against corruption.

But the bond between America and Israel is about more than sharing these common
struggles against injustice. Israel, like America, is a nation with a deep respect for
the rule of law. We both enjoy open and democratic societies anchored by civil
liberties and individual rights. And Israel is a nation that believes, as America does,
that terrorism and transnational crime is best combated through international
teamwork.

Prevailing over the forces of terror and transnational crime requires a strong and
continued partnership, not only between America and Israel, but among all peace-
loving nations around the world. As the Attorney General of the United States, I
have seen first-hand the power of international cooperation on a wide range of
national security and law enforcement challenges.

For example, in the fight against terrorism, international cooperation can disrupt
violent and extremist conspiracies, degrade their ability to commit terrorist acts, and
ultimately bring terrorists to justice. And in the fight against transnational crime
more broadly, international cooperation can help to defeat organized crime, capture
and extradite fugitives, reduce global corruption, and stem the flow of illegal drugs
across our borders.

It is because I believe so strongly in international cooperation that I have traveled to

the Middle East and Israel this week. I have come to talk, face-to-face, with my
counterparts. I have come to build and strengthen the relationships that are critical
to our mutual security. And I have come to discuss the ways in which we can
improve our collaboration for the benefit of all our citizens.

Today I would like to tell you about some of the ways in which the Department of
Justice is cooperating with its international law enforcement partners worldwide.

We are, of course, working closely with many other nations in the global war on
terror. But in fighting terrorism, we have not neglected other forms of transnational
crime. In fact, despite the tremendous demands on the Department in the post-9/11
world, our commitment to fighting crime has never been stronger.

We are cooperating with our international partners to fight everything from

organized crime and drug trafficking to cybercrime, human trafficking, corruption
and intellectual property crimes. We are working as a team, and we are making
good progress. Our efforts in those areas might not always make front-page
headlines, but they are critical to preserving the rule of law.

Let me begin by saying a few words about the war on terror – the international
effort that does make front-page news every day. In this global struggle, the United
States government has reached out to our international partners and secured
unprecedented new levels of cooperation. That cooperation has often resulted in
important anti-terrorism convictions in U.S. courts.

International cooperation, however, is about more than high-profile convictions. It is

about establishing day-to-day working relationships among law enforcement
officials worldwide.

That is why the U.S. Department of Justice has posted FBI attachés to various
embassies around the world, including Israel, to aid in terrorism investigations. We
have also sent Department of Justice prosecutors to dozens of countries to provide
assistance with prosecuting all types of transnational crimes, including terrorism
offenses.

In the global war on terror, the United States is investing the time and resources it
takes to develop strong international partnerships. But those partnerships reap
rewards well beyond the war on terror. They are also critical to fighting other types
of transnational crime.

For example: one of the most harmful types of transnational crime is drug
trafficking. Illegal drugs destroy lives and endanger the public safety. But I am
proud to say the international law enforcement community is working together
every day to keep drugs off our streets and out of our communities.

Israel and the United States have a history of working together to fight drug
trafficking. I know that many of you may be familiar with the case of Ze’ev
Rosenstein, who Israel recently extradited to the United States. In March of this
year, Rosenstein appeared in U.S. federal court in Miami to face charges of
conspiracy to import and distribute Ecstasy.

The indictment covers a two-year period during which Rosenstein is charged with
heading a sophisticated drug trafficking network whose operations spanned four
continents and involved the shipment of well over one million Ecstasy pills to the
United States.

In its November 30, 2005 decision to extradite Rosenstein, the Israeli Supreme
Court stated, quote: “There is now a greater importance to international cooperation
in the fight against crime, and no state shall treat its fellow’s request for assistance
stingily. The extradition of criminals has become a most important means in the
fight against crime.”

I could not agree more. The truth is that bringing Rosenstein to justice would not
have been possible without the extraordinary joint efforts of U.S. and Israeli
authorities. In particular, the prosecution of Rosenstein has involved the close and
full cooperation of the Justice Ministry of Israel and the Israel National Police.

The Rosenstein case highlights one of the most important ways in which we
cooperate with our international law enforcement partners: our strong network of
extradition treaties and mutual legal assistance treaties. These agreements allow the
United States to share and receive assistance in obtaining evidence and bringing
fugitives to justice around the world.

In all, the United States has more than 150 mutual legal assistance and extradition
agreements, including a modern MLAT with Israel and a protocol to update the
U.S. – Israel extradition treaty pending before the U.S. Senate. Those agreements
are a central component of our international law enforcement strategy on a wide
range of issues.

The terrific advancement of technology has brought great good to the citizens of our
countries, but it has also created a vast new battleground for crime. Today, criminals
can harm citizens from thousands of miles away with a keystroke or telephone call.
This reality makes international dedication to combating cybercrime a modern
priority, we must work to out-pace the technological know-how of the criminals.

We are proud to work side-by-side with Israel in this effort. For example, both the
U.S. and Israel are members of the G8 “24/7 Point-of-Contact Network.” The
Network facilitates quick international law enforcement cooperation where
electronic evidence is involved – because such evidence can often disappear in a
heartbeat. Participating countries designate a point of contact for the purpose of
providing investigative assistance in computer crime cases 24 hours per day, 7 days
per week. This Network has been used in both high tech crimes and in crimes where
terrorists and other criminals use the Internet to communicate.

Progress is also being made to eradicate child pornography. From 1995 to 2005,
U.S. government prosecutions of child pornography rose 358%, from 344 cases in
1995 to 1,576 cases in 2005. Many of those cases are the result of successful
international cooperation.

One example of that cooperation was Operation Falcon, an international child

pornography investigation that so far has resulted in 579 search warrants, 341
domestic and 703 foreign arrests, 254 indictments, and 241 convictions. In
Operation Falcon, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security worked
hand-in-hand with our international partners to take down commercial purveyors of
internet child pornography and to protect young, vulnerable victims from the horrors
of sexual abuse.

Other forms of transnational crime also prey upon the weakest among us. One of
those is human trafficking, a modern form of slavery.

Few people disagree that human trafficking is one of the world’s most depraved
criminal practices. Yet these crimes happen more often than we would like to
believe. The global community must renew its commitment to working together to
take down trafficking rings and organizations that buy and sell human beings as
slaves and commodities.

The sharing of information and evidence is critical to fighting this battle. It is also
imperative that we help each other extradite human traffickers so that they face
justice for their abhorrent actions.

Here is a compelling example of this: In one case, a Mexican national was accused
of recruiting uneducated women and girls from impoverished areas of Mexico and
forcing them into a high-volume prostitution business in both Mexico and New
York. The trafficker’s victims were enslaved in the most horrible way, their lives
and bodies torn apart, beaten if they did not make enough money.

With the assistance of Mexican authorities, the Department of Justice was able to
obtain the evidence it needed to indict the trafficker in federal court in New York.

We are also working closely with our international partners to fight human
trafficking in less visible ways. Just this month, I submitted an annual report to
Congress regarding the U.S. government’s efforts to combat human trafficking.

The report detailed Department of Justice efforts to assist with the drafting of anti-
trafficking legislation in countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia and Mexico.
Department experts conducted training with law enforcement officials around the
world – including in Israel – regarding sex trafficking prosecution. And the
Department’s overseas prosecutorial and police training programs helped nations
from Costa Rica to Indonesia to strengthen their ability to investigate and prosecute
human trafficking crimes.

In addition to violent and abusive crimes such as child pornography and human
trafficking, we are also working with our international partners on a range of other
transnational crimes, such as intellectual property theft.

Intellectual property crimes have become terribly common. Counterfeit and pirated
goods are too easy to access – from bootleg CDs, DVDs and games, to fake watches
and sunglasses on street corners, to online file sharing. Although these crimes may
appear harmless to some, the fact of the matter is that this manner of theft is one of
the most damaging to our global economy.

Criminals who manufacture and sell fake merchandise steal business from honest
merchants, defraud innocent customers, illegally profit from the hard work of
employees and entrepreneurs, and undermine our shared values of competition and
creativity. This underground economy costs legitimate businesses billions of dollars
every year, and causes significant harm to our economies.

Intellectual property crime is now undeniably global in nature. The digital age has
created a world without borders for large criminal conspiracies, so our law
enforcement efforts must be global and borderless as well. Every member of the
global economy has a responsibility to keep counterfeit goods out of the world
market.

America and Israel are working together to meet that responsibility. In 2004, the
U.S. and Israel were two of 12 countries to participate in what was then the largest
multi-national law enforcement effort ever directed at online piracy, called
“Operation Fastlink.”

Operation Fastlink included the simultaneous execution of over 120 total searches in
27 states and 12 countries. This unprecedented international effort resulted in
hundreds of computers and illegal online distribution centers being confiscated or
dismantled, and more than 50 million dollars worth of illegally-copied copyrighted
software, games, movies and music being seized. Operation Fastlink has already
resulted in 30 felony convictions in the United States.

I’d like to end by talking about international efforts to combat corruption around the
world. President Bush has stated that corruption, quote: “hinders sustainable
development, erodes confidence in democratic institutions, and facilitates
transnational crime and terrorism.”

It is that link between terrorism, transnational crime and corruption that makes
fighting corruption such an important priority for the United States.

For example, we are aggressively investigating violations of our Foreign Corrupt

Practices Act, which as you may know makes it illegal for U.S. companies and
individuals doing business overseas to bribe foreign officials. We are also working
extremely hard to root out bribery in the Iraq reconstruction process.

And in partnership with the Department of State, we are working with our
international partners to build and strengthen the ability of prosecutors around the
world to fight corruption.

Additionally, we are working within the framework of international organizations

such as the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development to help other countries fight corruption. The OECD Anti-bribery
Convention and the OECD Working Group on Bribery, for example, provide
important avenues to cooperate with our counterparts to combat bribery in
international business transactions.

Just last week, a Department of Justice witness testified before the United States
Senate in favor of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. The U.N.
Convention Against Corruption, which both the U.S. and Israel have signed, will
create new opportunities for international law enforcement cooperation to combat
corruption around the world.

Among other things, the Convention requires countries to criminalize offenses such
as domestic and foreign bribery, embezzlement, money laundering and obstruction
of justice. The Convention also provides new mechanisms for extradition and
mutual legal assistance related to corruption and money laundering offenses.
Finally, the convention makes it easier to freeze and seize the ill-gotten gains of
corrupt officials.

We believe that all of these measures will have a direct impact on international
efforts to prevent, investigate and prosecute corruption. And they will create new
avenues for international cooperation on corruption-related crimes.

By fighting against corruption on a global level, we restore confidence in

democracy and the rule of law. We bolster the global economy by encouraging open
trade and investment. We strengthen the stability, integrity and transparency of
government and economic systems worldwide.

For that reason, we will continue to work with our international partners to
prosecute corruption crimes and seize ill-gotten assets of corrupt officials.

In closing, I would like to thank you once again for the opportunity to speak to you
today. And on behalf of President Bush, I would like to thank Israel for being such a
strong partner in the global war on terror and the fight against transnational crime.
In 1967, I was twelve years old and although many years have passed since then, I
still recall the turmoil as the Six Day War played out before the world. Israel has
been shaped and sharpened by the many challenges it has faced over its life. I am
optimistic about the future of this country and by the vision for peace articulated by
President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert when they met this past May.

Although we each might face our own domestic challenges – and require unique
solutions – the mandate for international cooperation and joint law enforcement
efforts is stronger today than ever before. We therefore must embrace multilateral
solutions to the challenge of transnational crime.

Freedom, security and prosperity are not just for Americans or Israelis. They are the
enduring hopes of all humanity. To secure those ideals, America and Israel must
continue to cooperate closely with each other and with our partners in the Middle
East, Europe, and around the world.

I look forward to continuing our strong partnership. Thank you.

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