Prepared Remarks of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the Project Safe Childhood Conference

Gonzales, Alberto, Justice Department, US Newswire, December 4, 2006

The following is the text of prepared remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales at the Project Safe Childhood Conference.

Good morning

My favorite time of the day is when I tuck my sons in bed. I hold them and ask if they're doing ok, I hear their prayers and kiss them goodnight. I try to listen carefully to what they say and study how their eyes light up when telling a story. Sometimes we laugh. These are magical moments for any parent. Life feels pure and sweet... and everything seems possible. The breadth of a child's imagination and the depth of their dreams knows no limits in those twilight
conversations.

But the morning dawn pulls back the curtains and reveals a harsher reality. A child's innocence is under siege every day from images, sounds, movies and music. And by far, the greatest threat is the one posed by sexual pedophiles and predators. We are here today to discuss what else can be done to protect our children from these cowardly villains, who hide in the shadows of the Internet.

I know that you are already doing a lot to safeguard the innocence of our children through Project Safe Childhood. Thank you and God Bless you.

Now I am going to ask that you and I do more ... because quite honestly, what we are presently doing is not enough. It is not enough for us to become educated about child exploitation. It is not enough for us to be sickened. It is not enough for us to condemn. This is a national problem, requiring a national dialogue and creative thinking.

I think it is time to take Project Safe Childhood to the next level by asking that all of its partners -- everyone here in this room today and your colleagues back home -- join together in building a foundation for a national, zero-tolerance attitude towards pedophiles and sexual predators.

As a society, we already share a revulsion for what these criminals do to our children. The crimes are so terrible, that people are uncomfortable talking about them.

But if we are to make real progress...

If we are to really stop pedophiles and predators before they strike...

We need to move our country past revulsion and on to determination fueled by outrage, and finally on to action by parents, community organizations, law enforcement and victims groups. It is now your responsibility to inspire everyone in your communities to face this brutal threat with the same boldness that you do.

I have a vision for Project Safe Childhood that will make it the foundation on which we will build a national, zero-tolerance culture.

Today, I wish to share that vision with you ... and I will ask for your help because no man or woman can do this alone.

First, to put it in the simplest of terms, we need to get pedophiles and predators off the street.

This means being aggressive in the cases you bring - show the world that there is no gray area when it comes to hurting kids.

We must transform ourselves before we can transform America into a place where children's safety is a guarantee.

We must therefore train ourselves so that no lead will ever cross the threshold of a U.S. Attorney's Office, local police precinct or advocacy center without some kind of follow-up and action. If there is evidence that a child has been hurt, I want to see an arrest, a thorough investigation and a merciless prosecution if you have the evidence.

I know this is a tall order. It's asking you to pour even more
blood, sweat and tears into this work than you already do -- and what you already do is a lot.

But if we work together, we can make it happen. Remember -- that's the structure that Project Safe Childhood has given you.

As I have said before, I see Project Safe Childhood as a strong, three-legged stool: one leg is the federal contribution led by United States Attorneys around the country; another is state and local law enforcement, including the outstanding work of the Internet Crimes Against Children task forces funded by the Department's Office of Justice Programs; and the third is non-governmental organizations, like the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

We must embrace the strength of this structure. We must talk to each other. Brainstorm and be creative. And go after these criminals with the full force of our laws.

Second, once we get them off the street, we need to keep the
pedophiles and predators behind bars.

We must seek stiff penalties for these criminals. If your state
penalties are more aggressive, it should be a state-level case. If the federal law will put a pedophile behind bars for longer, I want it to be a federal case.

Again, when we work together, we can make that happen. I've seen it. Under the Project Safe Childhood structure, state, local and federal partners are getting creative and seeking the toughest sentences possible. We have seen some great examples of this.

I'm very pleased to be able to announce today some additional funding that will help you make tough sentences a reality.

We're making half a million dollars available for a Project Safe Childhood program -- a program that will bring state and local law enforcement together with federal prosecutors from their regions. We are determined to equip law enforcement with all the knowledge they need so that they can work their cases and present them to our U.S.
Attorneys' offices when necessary. When state and local law
enforcement can work as easily with federal prosecutors as they already do with their district attorneys, a major obstacle to genuine cooperation will be overcome. Constantly expanding our ability to work together quickly and effectively is what Project Safe Childhood is all about.

The training program will be kicked off at the NCMEC headquarters in early 2007 and, thereafter, delivered around the country.

Because I don't want just a few great examples of cooperation. I want it to be the standard operating procedure for everyone involved in PSC, nationally.

I am also interested in taking advantage of the mandates that
Congress has given us on this issue.

We've had outstanding support from Capitol Hill over the past six years. They've given law enforcement additional tools to remove this blight from our neighborhoods.

For example, I will support the development and implementation of new regulations for the Bureau of Prisons to pursue the civil commitment of mentally abnormal or disordered sex offenders who would pose a serious danger to others if released. Congress has been creative; they've given us the right to pursue that path and others like it, and we are going to.

We're already implementing a number of other mandates that were included in the Adam Walsh Act. For example, I'm proud to say that the President just appointed Laura Rogers to be the Department's first SMART office coordinator. With her appointment, the Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking Office will now be able to get to work on numerous important functions relating to the sex offender registry. Improving that registry, and giving the requirement to register some teeth was a creative step that is going to help all of us protect America's children.

Cooperative law-enforcement work on the registry has already led to some great stories of success. The first case brought under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act involved a fugitive who was arrested by the Social Security Administration for allegedly using a false name and another man's Social Security number as he tried to set up a new identity for himself. It turns out that this individual was convicted for assaulting a police officer and possession of
sexually exploitive material in Idaho in 2003... and he was wanted on a probation violation in another state for failing to register as a sex offender. He had done so at his first address, but did not re-register when he moved and then fled the state.

Deputy U.S. Marshals -- working with the Social Security
Administration and the local U.S. Attorney's office - built a case against the man, and he was charged via criminal complaint for failing to register as a sex offender. The charges were brought in October, making his the first case charged under the new act.

It's clear that cooperation is working - and we're going to make it work even better.

The third, and potentially most important step we all need to take to achieve this zero-tolerance vision is old-fashioned communication -- raising our voices, together, to raise awareness and teach prevention.

When he talked about the importance of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King said that

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

That is still true today. For us to be silent on this issue is to
fall short of our responsibilities as leaders of a battle to protect society's most innocent and most vulnerable: our children.

We must seed our communities with our knowledge and our passion. Remember that this communication starts with each other, the Project Safe Childhood partners. U.S. Attorneys' offices need to be calling their state and local partners constantly - and we at the Department should be hearing from you.

I don't ever want to hear that one of our U.S. Attorneys didn't return your call. And I don't' want to hear that an ICAC commander didn't return a U.S. Attorney call.

When we work together, when we talk to each other, we save kids from unthinkable abuse -- it's that simple.

In a recent District of Minnesota case, the importance of community involvement, communications and the strength of the Project Safe Childhood structure was evident when a tip from a concerned citizen led to the indictment of a registered sex offender on five counts of production of child pornography. The defendant was observed at a public park with a group of young boys and a digital camera. The
concerned citizen called the St. Paul Police Department, who
ultimately requested assistance from the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, who then included the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, Midwest Children's Resource Center, the Ramsey County Attorney's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the investigation.

With all hands on deck, it was discovered that the defendant had been manufacturing child pornography for years. The Project Safe Childhood coalition in Minnesota was ultimately able to rescue several boys from continuing abuse and exploitation.

That, my friends, is a true success story.

It reminds us that we can't communicate too much when it comes to investigating and prosecuting these crimes. We can't have too many partnerships or too much help from everyday citizens when it comes to protecting our kids.

That is why Project Safe Childhood exists, and that is the power of its potential.

But as I said earlier, even more is needed. We need to take this effort to the next level.

We all need to be on the same page and we should be talking to parents, teachers and other community groups as often as we can. Keep learning from your partners, then keep sharing with your communities -- teach them how to recognize trends and signs of abuse, and how to take action if they suspect that a child is being abused.

This message needs to be heard at the local Chamber of Commerce meeting as much as it does at the school board meeting. Because every adult is responsible for protecting the next generation of children. And we can't succeed in protecting them unless we establish a true zero-tolerance culture.

I think the President put it very well when he signed the Adam Walsh Act. He said: "Protecting our children is our solemn responsibility. It's what we must do. When a child's life or innocence is taken it is a terrible loss -- it's an act of unforgivable cruelty. Our society has a duty to protect our children from exploitation and danger."

As leaders, our duty is clear. We must not only arrest, investigate and prosecute -- we must speak, and speak again, and speak more loudly and more clearly if we aren't being heard.

It's uncomfortable to describe the rape of a three-year-old. It's
uncomfortable to hear about it.

But we must tell the stories, and we must make it okay to listen.

Because when responsible citizens stop and see what is being done to our kids ... and how determined pedophiles and predators are to get access to children and continue committing these unthinkable crimes... they, like you, will be moved to help.

The average citizen will step between molesters and their victims.

They will notify authorities when they think something 'just isn't right.' They will follow the example of Tracie Dean, whose story was shared by Oprah Winfrey earlier this year. Tracie took action when she couldn't stop thinking about the little girl she saw at a convenience store who "just didn't belong" with the man next to her.

Tracie couldn't put the child's face out of her head. Maybe it was the look in her eyes, she didn't know... but she returned to the convenience store -- hundreds of miles from her home - and worked with the store manager and ultimately with local police to find out the story of the little girl she had seen, the girl she was so worried about and she didn't know quite why.

As it turns out, Tracie was right. The man who she'd seen with the child was arrested and has been charged with statutory rape, sexual abuse and sodomy in connection with that girl and a 17- year-old boy also found living with him. Doctors confirmed that the young girl had been severely sexually assaulted. Thanks to Tracie, that little girl is finally safe from the man who was hurting her. She is now in foster care and we pray that her wounds -- both physical and
emotional -- are healing today.

We have the infrastructure, we have the desire and we have the responsibility... to create a nation of Tracie Deans.

If everyone acts like she did, the number of people actively
protecting children every day, everywhere they go, will absolutely dwarf the number of twisted souls who are trying to hurt them.

We have the power to change the battlefield, and the victory of safe childhoods will be our legacy.

Conclusion

People often ask me what keeps me up at night. Obviously the threat of a terrorist attack never leaves my mind, and it is the top priority of our government to keep that from happening.

But it is the faces of child victims that haunt my dreams. I can see their eyes, that awful emptiness, as if their tiny souls are trying to detach themselves from their desecrated bodies.

I see the victim's images as part of my work. But now they are part of my heart, and I am not going to tire in this fight to protect them.

I know you are with me. That is why, today, we are brothers and sisters in a common cause -- you and me, standing shoulder to shoulder, like sentinels at the watch.

President Bush has talked to the American people about the need for armies of compassion to rise up to battle the evils of our society.

We are not yet there on this issue, but our band of soldiers grows stronger every day. Parents and community groups will be our infantry. The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces will be our cavalry. And our prosecutors will be our artillery.

The next time I see you all, I want our battalion ready to go.

I look forward to meeting with you on that day, when we are
routinely catching and prosecuting the criminal who is buying child pornography and has signed up to be a summer camp counselor... but hasn't yet touched a child.

A day when justice is served before an already-abusive parent invites his daughter's friends over for a slumber party.

A day when we never hear from the people who brag on the Internet about being revolutionaries, fighting for the so-called "sexual rights of children" - as though they are doing kids a favor by sexually molesting and exploiting them. I want these pedophiles off the streets.

I want them put away for as long as the law will allow.

And I want society to act as one united front against this threat.

You and I won't tolerate the continued victimization, exploitation and desecration of our children.

And soon, with your help, no one else in this nation will, either.

May God bless and guide your important work, and may he continue to bless this great nation. Thank you.