The Domestic Security Section (DSS) was a component of the
United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
The United States Department of Justice Criminal Division is a federal agency of the United States Department of Justice that develops, enforces, and supervises the application of all federal criminal laws in the United States. Criminal Divisi ...
that was focused on the prosecution of significant alien
smuggling organizations, complex
immigration frauds, certain
violent crime
A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful Force (law), force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, vio ...
and
firearms
A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions).
The first firearms originated ...
offenses, crimes committed under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, and serious
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
violations such as
war crimes
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...
,
genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
, and
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
. DSS was the primary
DOJ office responsible for pursuing justice against perpetrators of human rights violations.
In 2009, the section was merged with the
Office of Special Investigations to form a new unit of the Criminal Division: the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.
Former section chiefs
The Domestic Security Section, before reorganization, was headed by a section chief, who in turn reported to the assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division through a deputy assistant attorney general.
A former acting chief of the section,
John T. Morton, was appointed in mid-2009 by
President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
as the
Assistant Security of Homeland Security for the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the Un ...
.
Notable cases
* United States v.
Charles Taylor, Jr. (aka Chuckie Taylor, aka Charles McArthur Emmanuel, aka Roy Belfast) (son of
Charles Taylor, former warlord of Liberia)
* United States v.
Steven D. Green
* United States v.
Theodore Stevens (Domestic Security Section was added after allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against original prosecution team)
References
{{reflist
External links
Official DSS website
Office of Special Investigations