There was a time when, with rare exceptions, a district attorney’s concerns extended only to the boundaries of his or her jurisdiction.
No more.
Even before September 11, 2001, an attorney general was warning us about another type of international crime: how a clever criminal with a computer “sitting in a room in Moscow or London” could steal money from a bank in the United States. It’s a form of high-tech terrorism involving identity theft.
“As every prosecutor knows,” Michael Chertoff, assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has said, “terrorism has no respect for national borders.” Prosecutors also know that such issues as extradition, immigration-related problems and cybercrime may involve not only situations that may be local in origin but international in application, but also situations that are international in origin and affect local jurisdictions.
The pervasive international terrorism threat that brought about creation of the Department of Homeland Security has resulted in added responsibilities for local officials, including prosecutors. It has also changed the bureaucratic “mix” in Washington, DC, adding a new dimension to certain aspects of law enforcement that were handled solely by the Justice Department, and to a lesser extent, the Treasury Department and the Department of Transportation. It is essential that local prosecutors become acquainted with these developments and how they will be affected by them.
This, as I have mentioned frequently, is where NDAA comes in. We provide that information, as well as guidance and, where appropriate, training, through the NDAA National Advocacy Center and our two affiliates, the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI), and the National College of District Attorneys (NCDA), as well as at our spring and summer conferences.
The 2003 spring Capitol Conference, for example, included an update by a DOJ official on “How the Department of Justice May Assist Local Prosecutors and Law Enforcement Officials in the War on Terror.”
At the advocacy center, APRI is expanding its courses on cybercrime, as well as in other subjects that are related to terrorism and other international crime issues. New APRI courses at the advocacy center include: “Addressing Multi-Jurisdictional Issues in Prosecuting Anti-Terrorism Crimes,” and “Emergent Issues in Extraditing Felons.”
By fortunate coincidence, the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) will be holding its eighth annual world conference next month (August 10-14) in Washington, DC—its first conference in the United States—with the theme “The Fight Against Terrorism: A Global Effort.” NDAA is a co-sponsor of the conference, along with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of State, and the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). John Kaye, former NDAA president and Monmouth County (NJ) prosecutor; and Michael Chertoff, as assistant U.S. attorney general, are U.S. members of the IAP Executive Committee; and Robert P. McCulloch, who becomes NDAA president this month, is a member of the local organizing committee for the conference.
The importance of local prosecutors everywhere in the fight against terrorism and other international crimes is reflected in IAP’s conference theme statement, which declares, “Because terrorist organizations are utilizing ordinary crimes to fund and further their objectives, the theme of the (Washington) conference reflects a world of new challenges for terrorism specialists and ordinary prosecutors alike.”
While the plenary session will deal with broad aspects of international terrorism, the workshops will deal with specific subjects of concern to every prosecutor. These will include:
- The role of the prosecutor in legislating against terrorism and its interagency preparedness to respond to acts of terrorism.
- Immigration and border issues, including the sharing and use of intelligence information to track terrorist movement.
- Identity theft, credit card fraud and other fraudulent activity.
- Terrorism, civil liberties and human rights.
Hopefully the IAP workshops will bring new perspectives to the fight against international crime.
In any event, I want to assure America’s local prosecutors that NDAA will continue to pursue every avenue and to bring to bear the latest and most effective tools and programs—whether it involves assessing national policy in Washington, DC and bringing prosecutors’ concerns to the highest levels of government; working with prosecutors abroad, or providing information, guidance, and training—to assist prosecutors in dealing with all the aspects of international terrorism that affect them in their respective jurisdictions.
