Transcript of Press Conference with

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales,

Secretary of Homeland Security
Michael Chertoff, and European Union
Officials on Agreement to Improve
Efforts to Fight International Crime
November 7, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Good afternoon. I'm joined today by

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Minister of Justice of Finland
Leena Luhtanen, Minister of the Interior of Finland Kari Rajamaki, Vice President
of the European Union Franco Frattini, and Secretary of State of the German
Federal Ministry of the Interior August Hanning.

We've had a very productive meeting today to discuss a variety of criminal justice
issues of great importance to the people of the United States and the European
Union, including terrorism, border security and human trafficking. The United
States and the E.U. are strong allies in the fight against international criminals, and
we grow stronger because of meetings such as this one.

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice signed an executive agreement with

representatives of EUROJUST, the judicial cooperation unit of the E.U. This
agreement will improve coordination between prosecutors in the United States and
prosecutors and magistrates in E.U. member states and it will enhance our ability to
fight international crime.

Recently, I visited the headquarters of EUROJUST in The Hague and I was able to
see firsthand how such collaborations are helping us to gain the upper hand against
criminals around the globe and make our people safer. I am pleased that we have
been able to reaffirm through this agreement the importance of international
cooperation and criminal prosecutions.

Under the principles we've set forth today, we will be able to strategize together on
cases and enhance the exchange of evidence to combat transnational crime. This
agreement is one more example of our efforts to work in concert with our European
allies to attack the evil of international terrorism. It is also a strong
acknowledgement that we must carefully balance our security needs as nations with
the preservation of civil liberties for our citizens.

I thank our international colleagues for joining us here today and I look forward to
the full implementation of this agreement.

And now I would like to invite our colleagues from Finland, Leena and Kari, to
make a few remarks. They will be followed by Vice President Frattini and then
August Hanning, Secretary of State of the German Interior Ministry.

MINISTER LUHTANEN: (As translated.) Dear media representatives and all

those present, we have just had a conference and discussed matters of legislative
areas and personal data exchange between the E.U. and on the other hand the U.S.
In other words, we are -- have discussed with the E.U. and Russia and the E.U. and
the U.S.A. the easing of exchange of personal data and the new directions we are
taking are now very visible.

We are talking about the starting points and we have agreed to certain technical
principles and the -- these different points of view. We have reached a joint
agreement and we will put into effect the -- in this morning's discussion we agreed
on a high level contact group to investigate the steps we will take in this connection
and the technical problems.

We have good cooperation and evidence of this is the fact that we succeeded in
reaching an agreement in October about the safety of air travelers and with these
security interests in agreement, it is a real challenge to succeed. This new high-level
contact group, which is being set up, will carry this matter forward.

I'd like to mention also that there have been concrete measures achieved. My
assistant, criminal division assistant -- deputy attorney is Alice Fisher (phonetic).
We can say that we have in practice a joint element, a joint basis on which to go
forward with the exchange of data. Therefore, I am very happy that we have -- our
joint cooperation will improve.

MINISTER RAJAMAKI: (As translated.) My dear colleagues, the international

environment has changed and some matters have come forward. The suddenly
increased security matters, the fraternization and recruiting of terrorists, the
chairman's -- considers important that we can -- we can go forward in preventing
human trafficking. And in this case, the U.S. has done a lot. And they have -- there
has been prevention of child abuse over the Internet. On the other hand, it is very
important that the EUROPOL also be part of this cooperation. And I trust that this
will bring additional value to our cooperation and will help us to achieve greater
steps forward and strengthen our security internationally.

There was also in the discussions the (inaudible) group about movement within
borders and we are now considering that matter in the European Union. There is one
important thing that the joint cooperation between officials, immigration and in the
matter of terrorism, will increase the security of citizens. We will also make an
evaluation of the future cooperation and will be part of our future program together.

We will have new member states in the E.U. and we are making very careful
preparation for the arrangements in their case so that we will be able to remove
border barriers so that the U.S. can also trust our actions in this regard, in this visa
waiver agreement.

These are a couple of matters that we discussed. Consider it very important that we
reject and overcome human trafficking. Thank you.

VICE PRESIDENT FRATTINI: Well, I think that we had indeed a very fruitful
meeting. I will be very brief because I think it's very -- what is very important to
say, that today we all agreed on the importance of strengthening our Euro-Atlantic
cooperation on security, justice and on protecting fundamental rights of people. This
is the first political message to be launched. That is a message, a positive message
of cooperation.

That's why we decided to establish a high level contact group, not to carry out a
bureaucratic exercise but to try to identify how our common values, our common
principles can be translated into common proposals. That's the practical cooperation
we need. The positive spirit of cooperation is not only possible but absolutely
indispensable.

The areas where we need to strengthen our cooperation are of course prevention and
fight against the terrorists, which is the first threat against our democracies. Europe
and United States should continue to stay very firm on defending values, principles
of democracy and fighting terrorism, including prevention of radicalization,
including exploring the best way to tackle recruitment of young people, apparently
educated and integrated, but ready to become suicide bombers, as it happened
recently in Europe.

Cooperation also on practical measures on exchanging data. In this particular field,

which is a very sensitive one, we need, on one hand, to explain, first of all, to our
public opinion that there is no contradiction between more security and more
protection of fundamental rights, including privacy protection. There is no
contradiction because, for example, we can find the best way to improve, thanks to
technologies, protection of -- from misuse of personal data while increasing
protection of lives of our citizens. So no contradiction. We do want more security
while protecting in a better way fundamental rights.
Of course, I'm not talking about specific dossiers. I'm talking about a comprehensive
approach towards cooperation, operational cooperation and improving mutual trust
between law enforcement authorities, between judicial authorities and police
authorities, as well. This contact group will have an important role to play, identify
-- if I may say -- commonalities, not focus on divisions and different approaches.

The second point, which is also important in my view, is the necessity of

encouraging a better public/private cooperation on security. It's absolutely
impossible to succeed on fighting for more security without getting involved private
sector, industry, private companies and so on.

I've informed our American friends about the launching of a permanent European
platform for cooperation between public institutions and private sector on detection
of explosives, on protection of critical infrastructures, on risk of misusing biologic
and chemical materials and so on. And my view is that building on such experience,
which is starting now in Europe, in the near future we could also envisage a
permanent transatlantic forum for the cooperation between private and public sector.
This is the second message to be launched as a result.

And the third and final point is the importance of addressing together regional
issues of common concern. We talked about some key areas, key areas for Europe,
key areas for United States as well, for example, how to tackle illegal immigration
and trafficking of human beings or trafficking in drugs. In the eastern dimension of
Europe, like the region of Balkans, the region of Caucuses, or how to tackle illegal
migration and trafficking in human beings from the south that is Euro-African
cooperation. I think is very important on this too, regional, extremely important
issues to improve our capacity to exchange data and information, for example,
about countries of origin of illegal migrants or about the roads of drugs coming
from Afghanistan, through central Asia to Europe and finally to the United States as
well.

This is just an example on how we intend, thanks to improving cooperation between

our institutions and bodies like EUROJUST and EUROPOL and American
structures like FBI, for example. Thank you.

MINISTER HANNING: Yes, from my point of view from the next German
presidency, I think it was really a very fruitful and successful meeting here. We
have discussed a lot of issues of common concern and my impression is that we
have reached really considerable results, especially in the question of terrorism.

I think terrorism is one of the most important threats we are all facing. We are
facing these threats in Europe, we are facing these threats here in the United States.
And we have seen during the summer that we have faced threats against air traffic.
We have seen in Germany that we have faced threats against our public transport
system.

And to tackle these problems, it's so important to have an exchange of information.

I think information is the most important tool for fighting against terrorism. And we
have reached here considerable progress. We have to go forward and that will be a
very important issue during our presidency.

And one point: Internet. Internet is so very important. Internet is an important

platform for recruiting of terrorists, as a communication platform. And therefore, we
want to stress the surveillance of Internet as one of the most important points of our
presidency.

But on the one side, we have to fight against terrorism with all the means of police,
of intelligence services. But the other point and I want to stress it is to win the
hearts and minds of the moderate Muslims. And for us in Germany, therefore, we
have our Islam dialogue, so called. We do more in Europe and we have discussed it
and I've learned that we all have -- we have agreed that we have to do more on
behalf of this dialogue in order to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim
population worldwide.

And again, it was a very fruitful meeting. And I'm looking forward to our
presidency and I'm very optimistic that we achieved -- will achieve further results.
Thank you very much.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Okay, we'll take some questions. It would

be helpful if you could address your question to the specific minister.

Questions? Yes.

QUESTION: I have one question for the European delegation on the CIA program.
With the military commission the U.S. has said it would go ahead with its CIA
program. And given that the European Parliament is now investigating whether this
was legal, the detention of terror suspects in alleged secret prisons, I'm just
wondering what your reaction to that is.

And another question for the American delegation is, on visa waiver program, I'm
just wondering did you discuss that today? Because on the European side, there are
calls for 10 member states to be added onto the visa waiver program and I'm
wondering what progress there is on that point.

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: On the visa waiver, this is obviously an issue that we

know concerns European countries which are currently seeking to be admitted to the
program. As you probably know, the requirements are set forth in law by an act of
Congress. We have a roadmap for countries that are seeking admission to the
program. We are currently working with a number of those countries to see what we
can do to help them meet the milestones that are necessary to be admitted to the
program.

I certainly want to commend the European countries that are currently part of the
program for the way in which they acted expeditiously to meet the October 26
requirement of an E-passport with a biometric. So I'm optimistic we can continue to
make progress and to help the countries that want to join the program do what they
need to do to become eligible.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: I'm not part of the European Union but
let me just say the United States engages in activities that are absolutely necessary
to protect our security, consistent with our domestic and international legal
obligations. We are no different than any other country in the world. Every country,
every government takes positions to ensure the security of its people consistent with
its domestic and international legal obligations.

We will continue to work with our European friends and allies and explain to them
exactly what we're doing and try to reassure them about our commitment to the rule
of law. But again, there's no disagreement amongst any -- between the United
States and the European Union that we are united together against a common enemy
who is determined to inflict great harm upon our citizens. And we all understand
that we have the right, under our laws, to protect our citizens. And we take that
obligation very seriously. We also take equally serious our obligation to do so in a
way that is consistent with both our domestic and international legal obligations.

In this particular case, the Military Commissions Act, our Congress has spoken. Our
Congress sets policy for the United States of America, for the people of the United
States, in terms of what it is that we can do and should be doing to protect America
from another attack.

QUESTION: What type of information exchanges are going to be set up? What
kind of law enforcement data or intelligence information are the two sides willing to
share? And is that spelled out in the treaty?

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well, one of the things we're working

through is trying to get as much information as we can that's absolutely necessary to
help us identify potential threats. We're not interested in personal information that is
of no value at all to governments in conducting investigations and identifying
threats. We're not interested in keeping information any longer than we absolutely
have to. But what we're trying to do is establish mechanisms, a framework, that we
can share information.

And let me just say that we've done so pretty much on a case by case. I don't want
to say "ad hoc," but generally looking at specific issues and problems that arise and
working out solutions oftentimes on a bilateral basis. And what we all agree today
to do is to look at this more strategically. The sharing of information is something
that is going to simply continue to grow.

And so to the extent that there are issues because of different traditions and
different legal systems that make it more difficult to share information, because of
privacy concerns -- which, of course, we all very much respect and want to protect,
the privacy rights of individuals -- these are things that we need to work together on
and look at this thing strategically and collectively. Again, with the goal, as Vice
President Frattini said, with the common objective of the protection of privacy rights
but also the security of our respective countries.

QUESTION: Will the United States provide FBI files or certain details from case
files if they're requested? Is there a specific --

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: There is already a lot of information -- I

mean, the unsung story in the War on Terrorism is the level of cooperation that
exists at the law enforcement level between the United States and European
countries. We share a lot of information across the Atlantic, back and forth. That's
going to continue.

Again, if we are permitted to do so under our laws and if the Europeans need the
information, we're going to share it. And the same is true coming the other way. If in
fact we need the information and it can be shared legally under their -- under their
laws, they try to find a way to share it. So that cooperation is going to continue. It
needs to continue if we hope to continue to protect our respective countries from
another attack.

QUESTION: Minister Frattini, I wanted to ask you whether or not the passage of
the Military Commissions Act resolves any concerns that Europe has over the
treatment of prisoners accused or captured related to terrorist incidents.

VICE PRESIDENT FRATTINI: What kind of act?

QUESTION: The new American legislation regarding the treatment --

VICE PRESIDENT FRATTINI: Yes, well, of course, we don't want to interfere

into the domestic American legislation. We are to be sure about the proper level of
cooperation at international level between authorities of European member states
and American authorities. We cannot make a judgment about an American law, of
course.

But exactly because we don't want to make compromises at expenses of security, or

at expenses of fundamental rights, we decided today to start working together,
United States and European Union, to identify commonalities, points in common,
despite differences in legislation. Differences in legislations are normal. But if you
agree, if you share values and principles, we have to -- we have to find the best way
to translate our common values into common actions.

That's exactly our aim of today's meeting, not to fall into details on commanding
one initiative or another initiative. You know very well about the CIA case. CIA
case is under inquiry in European Parliament. We are waiting for the final report to
be published, I think, beginning of 2007, beginning spring 2007 by European
Parliament. Then we will see.

Now, I think in my view, it would be very counterproductive to abandon the

strategic vision and to fall all in details about specific initiatives. We will have to
renegotiate PNR agreement, of course, because the transitional agreement will
expire by July 2007. All these issues will be part of our strategic vision for the
future, not only for short-term measures, but for mid-, long-term measures.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Let me just follow up, one final point.
One of the concerns that I sometimes heard from across the Atlantic is there was no
clear standard. And people wanted to know what standard are you bound by, what
laws are you applying. And the legislation provides guidance, provides some
standards.

So, to that extent, I would hope and I believe that members of the European
Community are more reassured as a result of the Congress speaking on behalf of the
American people as to certain level of treatment that we would provide as a matter
of law to people detained by the United States of America.

QUESTION: General Gonzales and Secretary Chertoff, and also members of the
European delegation, I would like you to comment if possible on the success of the
technology and information sharing devoted to counter-terrorism, specifically in the
context of statistics released today based on the Executive Office of U.S. attorney
that's compiled by the TRACK (phonetic) organization at Syracuse University
indicating a low and declining number of prosecutions and a high rate of rejection
of investigations by the assistant U.S. attorneys for prosecution.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Let me say first of all, I haven't read the
report so I don't want to comment too much on it. But the fact that an FBI
investigator refers a case over to the Department and the Department does not do a
prosecution, let me just say, for example, let's say what the FBI is referring is a
hoax. Well, you know, a good prosecutor is going to make an intelligent decision
not to move forward with an investigation in that kind of case.

And so I would take the numbers with a grain of salt. And again, the -- we have
been fully committed as a department to prosecuting terrorist cases where we
absolutely can. We have fought very hard to give the President of the United States
all the tools that he needs to bring to justice terrorists, whether through military
commissions, sometimes through our military courts. If there is a legitimate case
that is out there that can be brought that we can prosecute, we're going to pursue
that.

QUESTION: Would you acknowledge it's been helpful there?

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: The sharing of technology? Whether or

not -- have we had good cooperation?

QUESTION: Not only with the Europeans but among U.S. agencies in helping you
bring, you know, cases, investigation regarding terrorism threats and --

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Absolutely. I think the level of

cooperation has been very good, quite frankly. Are here still areas of improvement?
No question about it, and we're continuing to work on that every single day.

QUESTION: If I could ask you and Secretary Chertoff a question about the threat
levels? Two years ago, from August to right after the election, a certain sector was
up on orange alert. Now, this election cycle, we're up on orange from August until
whenever.

I'm kind of wondering if you all can talk about why we're still up on the orange alert
level for the airline sector and when this might come down, if any time soon?

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: The premise of the question that suggests that there's
a linkage between the fact that there's an election and there's an alert change is a
false premise. I mean, you know, I think it's now been pretty clearly explained in
the previous time there was an elevation it was based on some specific information.

I'm surprised if I need to remind everybody what caused us to elevate to orange in

the aviation area in August, because there was a plot that was disrupted. And until
we are satisfied that the -- all the threads of the plot have been fully accounted for
and everybody who was involved has been fully neutralized. And until we are
confident that we have taken steps to institutionalize some of the changes that we've
made as a consequence of that plot, we will continue to operate at the current level.

One thing, which I should explain, is much of what orange means is not visible to
the traveler. The traveler looks at the measures that are taking place with respect to,
for example, liquids or things that occur at screening and doesn't see that a great
deal of what orange means is elevated examination of workers who are operating in
the sterile area or screening of things that occur behind the scenes at the airport.
And so remaining at orange allows us to continue that enhanced set of security
procedures for the so-called back office of the airport as well as for the -- for the
area that's visible to the public.
The one thing I would point out is we have just very recently had the European
Union and the United Kingdom make an adjustment in their rules governing the
ability to bring liquids in small quantities on board. The good news is -- this is a
great example of cooperation -- we have essentially synchronized our approaches
and have -- with the exception of the difference between units of measurement --
we have essentially comparable standards for security in terms of what can be
brought on airplanes.

And I think that's indicative of the way in which we continue to work together not
only to make sure that we have seamless and well integrated security in Europe and
the U.S. and around the world, but to also make it easier for travelers, so that people
who adhere to the three-ounce rule will also satisfy the 100 milliliter rule, and vice
versa. And that's a positive step forward in terms of cooperation.

QUESTION: So is it safe to assume we won't be coming down from orange alert

any time soon?

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: We have to evaluate where we are with the existing

intelligence, with what's going on in the world every single day. And I can no more
tell you what's going to happen in a week than I can tell you what's going to happen
in a month. It's going to depend on what the circumstances are, what the facts are
and what the intelligence is.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: All right. Thank you, everybody.

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