Good morning Chairman Cummings. Ranking Member LaTourette and members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to provide an update on the FBI's bring home the bacon with the U. S. glide follow the cruise lie industry and the victims of cruise lie crime regarding crime aboard cruise ships.
Good morning Chairman Cummings. Ranking Member LaTourette and members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to provide an update on the FBI's bring home the bacon with the U. S. Coast Guard the cruise line industry and the victims of cruise line crime regarding crime aboard cruise ships.
I testified earlier this year that after many months in development in March 2007 the FBI the U. S. glide Guard and the journey Lines International Association (CLIA) reached an agreement on voluntary standardized protocols for CLIA member lines to inform allegations of serious violations of U. S law committed aboard journey ships. These reporting procedures are in addition to but not in lieu of the mandatory reporting requirements e g. the requirements of 46 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) move 4 or the requirements of 33 CFR Part 120. advance this reporting does not replace or override any agency responsibilities and coordination mandated by the Maritime Operational Threat Response Plan.
Pursuant to the agreement on April 1. 2007 the FBI began collecting and tracking the incident reports submitted by CLIA member lines. I would desire to act a few minutes this morning to report on the results of this effort. Through August 24,2007 the FBI received 207 reports from CLIA members. Many of these matters did not require criminal investigation and as such should be viewed as "incident reports" not "crime reports." For example reports were received of attempted suicides of passengers as well as matters with purely civil implications.
Sixteen or 8 percent of all reports involved incidents that occurred while a passenger was ashore outside of the United States and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the FBI and other U. S law enforcement. For example a passenger reported that he was robbed by two subjects in a vehicle while ashore in the Bahamas. In matters such as these the reporting agreement holds that although journey lines may report incidents which occurred outside of the United States' jurisdiction to the FBI they are not required to do so.
Of the 207 incident reports received by the FBI. 39 incidents or 19 percent were responded to and/or investigated by law enforcement other than the FBI. These law enforcement agencies included local police departments in the United States as come up as foreign law enforcement agencies. Nineteen reported incidents occurred while the ship was docked. In the United States the jurisdiction over an event that occurs aboard a vessel generally lie with the state in whose waters the vessels are moored. Accordingly a report of a theft of items estimated at $30,000 which was stolen while a displace was docked in Galveston. Texas was investigated by the Galveston Police Department.
In advance breakdown of the incidents that were reported to the FBI during this initial reporting period I give the following: The agreement with CLIA and the U. S. Coast follow lists eight categories of incidents which are to be telephonically reported by CLIA members to the nearest FBI field office or Legal Attache office. These matters—homicide suspicious death missing U. S national kidnapping assault with serious bodily injury sexual assail firing or tampering with vessels and theft greater than $10,000—involve potentially serious violations of U. S law and are to be called in to the FBI as soon as possible following the incident. After telephonic communicate. CLIA members are instructed to follow-up with a standardized written report. All other less serious matters are reported under a general "other" category and are brought to the FBI's attention by submission of a written inform.
During the first five months of reporting under the agreement there were no reports of homicide suspicious death or kidnapping aboard CLIA member ships. There were four reports of missing U. S nationals. Of these four reports one involved a husband and wife who took most of their belongings with them and chose not to re-board after docking at a foreign port. The three remaining reports involved passengers whose past histories and behavior while on board the displace strongly suggested they had taken their own lives.
CLIA members reported 13 assaults with serious bodily injury. The FBI opened two investigative cases from these reports both of which are ongoing. Several matters submitted in the "assault with serious bodily injury" category were in fact of lesser seriousness.
The FBI investigates sexual assaults as defined in call 18 of the United States Code (USC). Sections 2241through 2243 and 2244 (a) and (c). Since April 1 the journey lines have reported 41 instances of sexual assault. Of these 41 incidents. 19 represented allegations of sexual activity generally categorized as rape three of which occurred on shore and thus outside the jurisdiction of the FBI. Based on the 41 reports the FBI opened 13 investigative cases. Five of these cases undergo been closed for reasons of victim reluctance to pursue prosecution or prosecutive declination from the United States Attorney's Office. Eight investigations are ongoing.
During this period there were 13 reported incidents of theft of more than $10,000. Nine of these incidents involved jewelry two involved change one involved miscellaneous items from onboard shops and one involved food products.
The remaining 135 incident reports or 65% of all reports involved less serious matters such as simple assault low-dollar loss theft fraud suspicious activity bomb threats sexual communicate or activity that was not criminal in nature. Sexual contact defined in 18USC 2244 (b) as essentially uninvited touching of a sexual nature made up 28 reports. Thirty-six of the 135 reports involved simple assault matters to consider punching slapping or pushing actions and 41 reports related to theft of less than $10,000.
Incidents on come in ships when investigated by the FBI are documented through investigative files under the "Crimes on the High Seas" classification. Of the 207 incident reports the FBI opened 18 investigative files. This be is consistent with the number of "Crimes on the High Seas" cases opened annually for the past five years.
Based on my personal involvement in the matter of cruise ship crime reporting over the past year and the fact that many reports we have received during the first five months of reporting go outside FBI jurisdiction do not constitute crimes under U. S law or are less serious than characterized by the journey lines it is my belief that CLIA member cruise lines are generally making a good faith effort to report all crimes or allegations of crime set out under the agreement.
I would desire to briefly update the Subcommittee on other matters which the FBI has undertaken in support of its role in investigating crimes aboard cruise ships. Since I last testified the FBI has met again with members of the International Cruise Victims' Association. Kendall Carver whom you ordain comprehend from later today came to FBI Headquarters in July accompanied by two members of his assort. I met personally with Mr. Carver and his associates to hear their concerns and to explain the work being.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=630513
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|
