SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR – Today, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca announced tough new collaborative efforts to combat transnational gangs such as MS-13 and 18th Street that operate in El Salvador, elsewhere in Central America, Mexico, and the United States. The comprehensive, four-part initiative is designed to help identify and prosecute the most dangerous Salvadoran gang members through programs to enhance gang enforcement, fugitive apprehension, international coordination, information sharing, and training and prevention.

“This initiative will enable the United States and our colleagues in Central America to share information and coordinate law enforcement efforts as we work in partnership to target and dismantle violent gangs,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “I look forward to working with President Saca and other Central American leaders to fight crime and keep our citizens safe.”

First, through assistance from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of State, El Salvador’s civilian police force (Policia Nacional Civil or PNC) will establish a new Transnational Anti-Gang (TAG) Unit to better pursue and prosecute gang members. FBI agents will provide front-line training, information-sharing, and other support aimed at increasing the capacity of PNC detectives to identify and arrest the worst offenders, who can then be prosecuted, when possible, by a Salvadoran anti-gang prosecutor embedded as a member of the new TAG unit.

Second, to better identify, track and apprehend gang members, the FBI will accelerate the implementation of the Central American Fingerprinting Exploitation (CAFE) initiative. The State Department and the FBI will collaborate to provide equipment and training to help law enforcement agencies in El Salvador and other Central American nations acquire digital fingerprints of violent gang members and other criminals who travel and commit crimes under different identities in El Salvador, the U.S. and other countries. The prints will then be integrated into a computerized system that allows law enforcement officials from participating countries to exchange information. Additionally, the Justice Department is working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), El Salvador and others in the region to implement DHS’s new Electronic Travel Document system (eTD), which will provide law enforcement officials in El Salvador with electronic information on Salvadoran gang members and other criminals who have been deported from the United States to El Salvador after serving their sentences in the United States.

Third, because international cooperation and coordination is critical to combat gangs that know no borders, tomorrow in Los Angeles, for the first time, the Chiefs of Police for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize are meeting in an international summit of chiefs of police focused on the single issue of transnational gangs. The outcome of that summit will be proposals that will be presented at the 3rd Annual International Gang Conference in San Salvador in April. In addition, at the request of the government of El Salvador, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and other law enforcement agencies will conduct a series of joint assessments of anti-gang capabilities in El Salvador, and help identify the best strategic options for El Salvador for undertaking additional steps to enhance domestic and regional anti-gang efforts in such areas as gang intelligence, fugitive apprehension, witness protection, firearms violence, prisons and drug trafficking.

Fourth, the United States has increased its anti-gang training in Central America, including efforts through the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in San Salvador. Last week the Academy completed its third anti-gang program in recent months, training police and prosecutors from El Salvador and nearby countries in the best practices of targeting and fighting gang activity and other crimes. The Attorney General announced today that the State Department is funding a new regional anti-gang program aimed at gang prevention, police training, and the development of effective law enforcement and criminal justice institutions in El Salvador and neighboring countries. The U.S. Agency for International Development is also funding a new regional program to support public-private partnerships in gang prevention and to further regional cooperation on this issue.

These joint initiatives with El Salvador are part of a greater effort by the U.S. government to combat gangs and gang-related violence in North and Central America. The Department of Justice, under the leadership of Attorney General Gonzales, has made the fight against gangs one of its highest priorities. Just last year, Attorney General Gonzales created a new, national anti-gang task force, the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement and Coordination Center (GangTECC) – led by the Department’s Criminal Division and made up of agents from ATF, DEA, FBI, USMS, the Bureau of Prisons, and Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). GangTECC works in close collaboration with the new National Gang Intelligence Center, the Gang Squad prosecution unit in the Criminal Division, and the FBI’s MS-13 National Gang Task Force, as well as with other federal, state, local and overseas law enforcement agencies.

In order to coordinate the Department’s efforts to fight gangs, Attorney General Gonzales has established an Anti-Gang Coordination Committee which organizes the Department’s wide-ranging efforts to combat gangs. Additionally, every U.S. Attorney has appointed an anti-gang coordinator to provide leadership and focus to the Department’s anti-gang efforts at the district level. In coordination with local law enforcement and community partners, the anti-gang coordinators have developed comprehensive, district-wide strategies to address the gang problems in their districts.

WASHINGTON - A former U.S. army civilian translator was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to bribe a senior Iraqi police official in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor of the District of Columbia announced today.

Faheem Mousa Salam, 29, of Livonia, Mich., a U.S. citizen, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Hon. Judge Richard J. Leon.

Salam was arrested on March 23, 2006 at the Dulles International Airport upon his return from Iraq, and pleaded guilty on August 4, 2006 to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Salam admitted that in January 2006, while working in Baghdad as a civilian translator for a U.S. army subcontractor, he offered a senior Iraqi police official $60,000 in exchange for the official's assistance in facilitating the purchase of 1,000 armored vests and a sophisticated map printer for a sale price of approximately $1 million. Salam requested the official use his position with the Iraqi police force to coordinate the sale of the material to the multinational Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT), an organization designed to train the Iraqi police and border guard in Iraq. Salam admitted that he later made final arrangements with an undercover agent of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction who was posing as a procurement officer for CPATT. Salam admitted that during the subsequent discussions with the undercover agent he offered a separate $28,000 to $35,000 to the agent to process the contracts.

At sentencing, the government argued that Salam was motivated by greed and the prospect of financial gain, rather than any desire to provide the Iraqi troops with equipment; in fact, Salam made no attempt to check the brand names, quality or source of the vests, demonstrating that his motives were anything but altruistic.

The case is being prosecuted jointly by the Criminal Division's Fraud Section Deputy Chief Mark F. Mendelsohn and Trial Attorney Stacey Luck and Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Bradley Weinsheimer. The case was investigated by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

A federal appeals court has ruled that a police officer who arrested a Michigan man for using a curse word in a public meeting violated the man's right to free speech.

The ruling reverses a lower court's decision that the officer had probable cause to arrest Thomas Leonard, who cursed while addressing the Montrose Township board in 2002. At the time, his wife was suing the town over a towing contract.

A three-judge appeals panel ruled that the use of "mild profanity" while peacefully advocating a political position is not a criminal act.

The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman also prohibits Michigan public employers from offering benefits, such as health insurance, to same-sex partners of homosexual employees. The appeals court overturned a lower court decision finding no conflict between the 2004 amendment and providing the benefits.

In its ruling Thursday, the court wrote:

It is undisputed that under the marriage amendment, heterosexual couples that have not married also may not obtain employment benefits as a couple on the basis of an agreement "recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose. . . ." The amendment is grounded in the longstanding and legitimate governmental interest in favoring the institution of marriage. . . . The amendment is narrowly tailored to further the legitimate governmental interest in protecting and strengthening the institution of marriage, and not to arbitrarily or invidiously exclude individuals from the protections of the laws of this state. . . .

Because the marriage amendment does not make arbitrary or invidious distinctions in furthering the legitimate governmental interests of the state, does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Michigan constitution. . . .

The marriage amendment's plain language prohibits public employers from recognizing same-sex unions for any purpose.
In March 2005 Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox issued an opinion asserting that the amendment's language barred public employers from offering domestic partner benefits. After the lower court ruling, the Michigan Senate approved resolutions preventing taxpayer money from being spent on same-sex benefits until the state Supreme Court decides the issue. The ACLU of Michigan expressed disagreement with appeals court decision, claiming that the voters were told the amendment would not affect domestic partnership benefits, and said that an appeal to the state high court is planned.

US Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald played portions of White House briefing room videos Thursday as the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby continued. Fitzgerald said the tapes show Libby's eagerness to publicly conceal conversations he had with reporters about CIA official Valerie Plame. US District Judge Reggie B. Walton allowed Fitzgerald to play portions of the videos that show former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan publicly clearing Libby's name and announcing that individuals responsible for the leak would be fired. Judge Walton did not allow Fitzgerald to show a heated question and answer session between McClellan and reporters.

Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation into the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Libby's defense team has indicated that they plan to call Libby's former boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, to testify and that Libby also plans to take the witness stand himself. Walton has denied a request from several news organizations seeking the daily release of audio recordings of arguments and testimony.

Former Enron prosecutor Kathy Ruemmler has joined the law firm of Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C.

Ruemmler was one of three Assistant U.S. Attorneys who took leading roles in the 2004 Enron Nigerian barge case and the criminal trial of former Enron executives Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay last year.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice in 2001, Ruemmler was Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton. She also handled white collar criminal defense cases and civil litigation at both Latham and Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington.

She joins former Enron Task Force chief Sean Berkowitz, who joined Latham in November.