PALO ALTO, California, Jan 10 (AFP) - Police around the planet must share resources to catch "cyber criminals" who commit crimes via the Internet. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said Monday, "Cyber criminals should get the message that there is no place to hide in this world. There must be consequences to crimes such as information theft or cyber terrorism, even if the culprit is halfway across the world." Speaking at a National Association of Attorneys General conference at Stanford University here, Reno urged state attorneys to become part of a global network to battle criminals who use computers.
The U.S. Department of Justice has established a round-the-clock computer crimes network with the G-8 nations, she said. To deal with cyber criminals, countries must streamline extradition, share data from criminal investigations and make interviewing witnesses via video common practice.
Reno proposed a Justice Website as a clearinghouse for information. Police in each state would share databases, expertise and equipment. She said, "Instead of each state needing to hire an expert, we would only need one expert. If we have a gadget that costs $2 million, there is no sense in 50 departments needing to buy it when we could share one."
"We are ready to pick up the challenge," said Christine Gregoire, District of Columbia attorney general and association head. "Many of us plan to go to D.C. to work with you on making this happen."
Earlier Monday, a panelist in San Francisco's Chinatown urged Reno to lobby for bail in the case of Wen Ho Lee, a scientist being held in federal custody facing charges of providing nuclear secrets to China. Attorney Diane Chin told Reno at a discussion with community activists, "The most pervasive stereotype we deal with as Chinese is that of being disloyal foreigners." In response, panelists urged the attorney general to protect immigrants' rights, reduce gun violence and abuse of police power. Reno declined to discuss the Lee case.
Chin said hundreds of people from the Bay Area Chinese community had called her to say they want Lee granted bail or allowed out of solitary confinement to speak Chinese with family members. Among those were six demonstrators who held a banner calling for Lee's release and chanted outside during the hour-long meeting.
Reno wants a framework for the computer crimes network, which could become part of a global system, in place by March. However, officials must be careful to allay privacy concerns, she added. "Privacy advocates don't trust us very much," Reno said. "We must assure people that the Constitution can be defended with technology Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson never dreamed of."
Reno's address came as word spread about an extortionist who threatened to release thousands of credit card numbers gleaned from the Internet unless he was paid off. The extortionist was believed to be working from Eastern Europe.
"If we can find his assets, we will freeze them," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said when asked what U.S. police can do to a criminal that far away. Lockyer's response to the question was, "If he ever takes his kid to Disneyland, we will be waiting at the airport." 
