FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2002
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
|
AG
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888
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ATTORNEY GENERAL ORDERS NEW STEPS TO SHARE INFORMATION
RELATING TO TERRORISM WITH FEDERAL AGENCIES
AS WELL AS STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON, DC – Attorney General John Ashcroft today directed Justice
Department components, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), the Department's Criminal Section, the Marshals Service
(USMS), as well as the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force (FTTTF), to take
additional steps to increase coordination and sharing of information relating
to terrorism. Today's initiatives, developed following the terrorist attack of
September 11th, are designed to further increase the effectiveness of the
federal government, working together with state and local governments, to
coordinate the use of information that could help prevent future acts of
terrorism.
"Information is the best friend of prevention," said Attorney General John
Ashcroft. "The September 11 attacks demonstrate that the war on terrorism must
be fought and won at all levels of government. To meet this continuing threat,
law enforcement officials at all levels -- federal, state, and local -- must
work together, coordinating information and leveraging resources in the joint
effort to prevent and disrupt terrorist activity."The prevention of terrorist
activity is the overriding priority of the Department of Justice. Last fall,
the Attorney General directed Department components to review their policies
and procedures to ensure information sharing, information analysis, and
coordination of activities with other federal agencies and our state and local
partners in the joint effort to prevent acts threatening public safety and
national security. Following the recommendations and progress reported to the
Attorney General by Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, the Attorney
General today commended the components for their substantial progress, and
directed them to take several additional steps in analyzing information,
sharing intelligence, and coordinating activities in the multi-front effort to
combat terrorism. These steps include the following:
- Expand Terrorist Information in Law Enforcement Databases. The Federal
Government maintains a number of databases that provide real-time information
to government officials in foreign diplomatic outposts, at border points of
entry, and to officials engaged in interior domestic law enforcement.
Expansion of information in such databases relating to known and suspected
terrorists will greatly enhance the ability of federal, state, and local
officials to prevent terrorists from obtaining visas to enter the United
States, to deny them entry into our borders, to detect and apprehend those
already in the country, and to gather intelligence on the plans and activities
of terrorist conspiracies. Accordingly, the Attorney General directed all
investigative components within the Department of Justice to establish
procedures to provide, on a regular basis and in electronic format, the names,
photographs (if available), and other identifying data of all known or
suspected terrorists for inclusion in the databases maintained by the State
Department, the FBI, and the U.S. Customs Service. These procedures may allow
for case-by-case exceptions where disclosure would compromise national
security or criminal investigations.
- Coordinate Foreign Terrorist Information. The international response to the
September 11th attacks has been defined by multilateral cooperation and
resolve to restore security and liberty to freedom-loving people of the world.
The success of the response has depended in large part on improved sharing
among governments of information relating to terrorists, their associates, and
their activities. Continued vigilance requires procedures to institutionalize
such information coordination. Accordingly, the Attorney General directed the
FBI, through its Legal Attaches, to establish procedures to obtain on a
regular basis the fingerprints, other identifying information, and available
biographical data of all known or suspected foreign terrorists who have been
identified and processed by foreign law enforcement agencies. The FBI shall
also coordinate with the Department of Defense to obtain, to the extent
permitted by law, on a regular basis the fingerprints, other identifying
information, and available biographical data of known or suspected foreign
terrorists who have been processed by the U.S. Military. Such information
shall be placed into appropriate law enforcement databases to assist in
detecting and locating foreign terrorists.
- Establish Secure System for Information Coordination with State and Local
Partners. Effective information coordination requires sophisticated mechanisms
for expanded database searches using methods other than a name search. Federal
agencies, unlike state and local governments, have the benefit of classified
systems that enable keyword searches of relevant documents, secure e-mail, and
other important collaborative information sharing tools. Last fall, the
Attorney General directed all U.S. Attorneys to develop protocols for
coordinating information to, from, and among our state and local partners in
law enforcement, and encouraged the use, where practicable, of technologies
already available and currently in use by the Department to facilitate
information-sharing. Today, the Attorney General directed the Deputy Attorney
General to coordinate among the applicable components the development of a
secure but unclassified web-based system to enable local, state, and federal
users to post, retrieve, and read information, restrict access to certain
products, send secure e-mail, and receive automatic e-mail notifications when
new items are posted. This integrated system should also allow for future
capabilities, such as imagery and photographs, instant messaging and improved
access to federal databases.
- Analyze Foreign Terrorist Data. On October 30, 2001, the President directed
that the Department establish the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force
(FTTTF) to help keep foreign terrorists and their supporters out of the United
States by providing critical and timely information to border control and
interior enforcement agencies and officials. To do so requires electronic
access to large sets of data, including the most sensitive material from law
enforcement and intelligence sources. The Attorney General directed the FTTTF
to identify the agency information systems and data sets needed to fulfill its
mission, and subject to any legal restrictions on the sharing of such
information, asked each agency to provide to the FTTTF unfiltered, timely and
electronic access to the information systems and data sets deemed relevant by
the Director of the FTTTF.
- Standardize Procedures for Sharing of Sensitive Information. Sections 203 and
905 of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools
Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001, Pub.
L. 107-56, authorized and required sharing of foreign intelligence and
counterintelligence information in new ways, subject to limitations otherwise
provided by law and exceptions delineated in regulations to be issued by the
Department. Accordingly, the Attorney General directed the Assistant Attorney
General for the Legal Policy, in consultation with the Justice Department's
Criminal Division, the FBI, and other relevant components, to draft for
consideration and promulgation, procedures, guidelines, and regulations to
implement sections 203 and 905 of the USA PATRIOT Act in a manner that makes
consistent and effective the standards for sharing of information, including
sensitive or legally restricted information, with other Federal agencies.
Those standards should be directed toward, consistent with law, the
dissemination of all relevant information to Federal officials who need such
information in order to prevent and disrupt terrorist activity and other
activities affecting our national security. At the same time, the procedures,
guidelines, and regulations should seek to ensure that shared information is
not misused for unauthorized purposes, disclosed to unauthorized personnel, or
otherwise handled in a manner that jeopardizes the rights of U.S. persons, and
that its use does not unnecessarily affect criminal investigations and
prosecutions. The standards adopted will govern the coordination of
information directed by this memorandum, and well as other voluntary or
mandated sharing of criminal investigative information.
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