FBI, Cyber Slackers? Taiwan Says Yes

Law enforcement officials in Taiwan are calling the FBI slackers when it comes to fighting cyber crime in Taiwan and other countries abroad, even when the cases directly affect the U.S.  Because Taiwan doesn't have any FBI agents, Taiwanese law enforcement must go through the American Embassy in Tokyo when they want to pursue cyber crime involving the U.S.  But Lee Hsiang-chen, director of the High-tech Criminal Center of the National Police Agency, said Taiwanese requests for help from the FBI representative at the American Embassy in Tokyo routinely go unanswered, though they involve serious crimes such as child pornography or major fraud scandals.  The U.S., he says, is simply unresponsive. 

Lee's complaint appeared to stem from the deliberately low profile assumed by the U.S. representative office in Taiwan, which was set up when Washington transferred its recognition to Beijing in 1979. The mainland and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and the U.S. operates according to the principles of the "one China policy," which keeps its presence in Taipei deliberately low key.  The FBI's cyber crime division promises to investigate the problem.  Story from Forbes.com. . . [Michele Berry]