BRAZIL: MEETING WITH SENATE PEDOPHILIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 000760 SIPDIS DHS PLEASE PASS TO ICE OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS USDOC FOR 4332/ITA/MAC/WH/OLAC/JANDERSON/ADRISCOLL/MWAR D E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EINT SOCI TINT KCRM KJUS PHUM BR SUBJECT: BRAZIL: MEETING WITH SENATE PEDOPHILIA INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE ¶1. Summary. Ambassador, Resident Legal Adviser, DHS/ICE Attache, and Poloff met on May 13 with the Chairman of the Brazilian Senate's Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (CPI) into Pedophilia and two law enforcement officials to discuss U.S. laws to protect children, prosecute sex offenders, and exploitation of children via the Internet. After a highly positive exchange of information, Mission and the CPI Chairman agreed to continue sharing views and information. The Chairman told us that, after meeting with us, he would now like to introduce legislation based on U.S. models, and would like the entire CPI of seven senators to visit the Justice Department, FBI, ICE Cybercrimes Unit, and other relevant agencies to learn about U.S. practices. End summary. ¶2. Ambassador, Resident Legal Adviser (RLA),DHS/ICE Attache, and Poloff met on May 13 at the Embassy with Senator Magno Malta (Party of the Republic, "PR," government coalition; of Espirito Santo),Chairman of the Pedophilia CPI, Ana Lucia Melo, a state prosecutor from Rio de Janeiro, and Carlos Eduardo Miguel Sobral, a Federal Police cybercrimes investigator. Senator Malta requested the meeting to discuss child pornography, tracking of sex offenders, and ways to protect children from pedophiles. Ambassador was able to stay only briefly and was not present during any of the more technical discussions. ¶3. Chairman Malta explained that he had pressed for the CPI's creation in order to change the relevant Brazilian legislation because Brazil has no specific legislation governing online child pornography and other types of cybercrime. He asked how the U.S. prosecutes sex offenders who prey on children and how sex offender registries work. He also asked for copies of U.S. legislation that could serve as models for new Brazilian legislation and asked about existing cooperation between U.S. and Brazilian authorities. RLA provided copies of the Adam Walsh Act and the Protect Act, and answered numerous questions about sex offender registries, prosecution of child pornography cases, and sex crimes involving minors. - - - - - - - Clifford Case - - - - - - - ¶4. Malta raised the case of Michael Joseph Clifford, a DHS/ICE Deportation officer accused of child exploitation at a hotel in Brazil. DHS/ICE Attache replied that the U.S. is seeking the toughest penalty possible, whether in Brazil or the U.S., and is fully cooperating with Brazilian authorities. Ana Lucia Melo gave DHS/ICE Attache a copy of the Brazilian government's accusation against Clifford. Senator Malta expressed his satisfaction with the U.S. response to this serious crime and was pleased to hear that DHS had already successfully prosecuted 10 others under federal law and had obtained a minimum sentence of 10 years per defendant. - - - - - - - Google/Orkut - - - - - - - ¶5. As part of the CPI's work, it was able to obtain over 3,000 Google records of identified child pornography that had been distributed on the Internet from Brazil. The senator voiced his concern about, in his view, inadequate cooperation from Google and its subsidiary Orkut, a relationship site, especially in the past. DHS/ICE Attache noted that Google, Orkut, Microsoft, and all other Internet service providers are required to report the discovery of child pornography on the Internet. DHS/ICE has established a mechanism to have access to this information which has been reported. DHS/ICE has already initiated the practice of sharing this information with Brazilian Federal Police. Malta was under the incorrect impression that this information would not be available to the GOB. DHS/ICE Attache explained that the information was available to the federal police and the CPI. Malta commented that he was very impressed by the U.S. judicial system and that he was going to encourage the CPI to BRASILIA 00000760 002 OF 002 rely heavily on the RLA when drafting legislation. - - - - - - - Demonstration - - - - - - - ¶6. DHS/ICE Attache demonstrated the ICE online system to retrieve and pass to Brazilian authorities information about postings of suspect materials which originated in Brazil that had been posted on the Internet. The information that can be retrieved includes the images posted, the IP address of the source sending from Brazil to the U.S., and routing paths used in distributing the images. DHS/ICE Attache explained that Mission will routinely pass all such information to Brazilian Federal Police to aid it in investigating suspected child pornography cases as soon as a protocol for such sharing is established. ¶7. Chairman Malta said he was extremely satisfied with the briefings, answers, and demonstration he got from Embassy officers, and was pleased to note the close working relationship that has been established between DHS, Resident Legal Adviser and Brazilian Federal police, prosecutors and other authorities. Malta's understanding of the Google issue is still imperfect: on May 28 he attended a PAS-organized presentation on cybercrimes by a Department of Justice specialist and made a number of incorrect assertions about Google's actions over the past four years. RLA and other Mission officers are staying in touch with him to provide information about bilateral legal cooperation. SOBEL