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 Prosecutors Meet on Domestic Terrorism
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Prosecutors at the annual Metro Conference in Washington, DC in May heard discussions of terrorism at the local level from more than a dozen experts, including the director of the FBI and other U.S. Department of Justice officials, and the two Virginia prosecutors who obtained convictions in the Washington, DC sniper cases.
The theme of the two-and-a-half day meeting was “Fighting Terror Within: The Realities of Prosecuting Domestic Terrorism.”
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told the prosecutors that anti-terrorism is the federal government’s top law enforcement priority. He said the FBI is working more closely with state and local officials, including prosecutors, as well as with foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies, “not only in the collection of information, but in sharing information.” He said that the number of joint anti-terrorism task forces with an FBI presence has increased from 34 to 84 since 9/11.
Because of the globalization of crime, he said, the FBI in the years ahead “will be more of a mediator among local, national and international entities” in collecting and sharing information and investigating crime.
Mueller said as the result of a revision of priorities, the FBI will be leaving more investigations of bank robbery cases to local authorities, leaving most drug cases to the Drug Enforcement Administration and local law enforcement, and will become involved in only major white collar crimes, leaving other similar crimes for local and state authorities.
The FBI director said that he is giving local FBI agents-in-charge more flexibility in determining their priorities, but that in general the FBI’s present priorities, after anti-terrorism, are public corruption, civil rights, national organized crime, major white-collar crime and violent crime.
With the theme, “Understanding the Realities of Prosecuting under the New Terrorism Statutes,” Robert F Horan, Jr., commonwealth’s attorney of Fairfax County, Virginia, and Paul B. Ebert, commonwealth’s attorney of Prince William County, Virginia, discussed their successful prosecution of the two snipers who terrorized the Washington, DC area in 2002. At the designation of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Horan prosecuted one of the snipers and Ebert prosecuted the other.
Other speakers at the conference included: Robert D. McCallum, associate U.S. attorney general; Deborah J. Daniels, assistant U.S. attorney general in charge of the Office of Justice Programs; Joe D. Whitley, general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who discussed how the Patriot Act affects local prosecutors; Harold D. Wankel, assistant administrator for intelligence in the Drug Enforcement Administration, whose topic was “Perspectives on the Fight Against Narco-Terrorism”; Carol DiBattiste, chief of staff of the Transportation Security Administration, who discussed “Locally Prosecuting Crimes Arising Out of Airport Security Arrests”; FBI Supervisory Special Agent Tracy Bradford, who spoke on “Understanding the Extent of the Militia Problem.”
Also, William L. Gibbons, district attorney general of Memphis, Tennessee, who discussed “Strategies for the Prosecutor in Attacking Gang Terrorism,” and Joshua K. Marquis, prosecuting attorney of Clatsop County, Oregon, whose subject was “The Threat of Eco Terrorism”; Ken Thompson, director of external affairs, National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism; and McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, and his first assistant, Lawrence Brown, who discussed the promotion of greater collaboration between local and federal prosecutors.
After the conference, prosecutor participants went to Capitol Hill for scheduled meetings with their Congressional representatives.
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