WELCOME to Guam, Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder. Welcome to America in Asia. You’ve flown so far west you are in the Far East.

We appreciate your visit and the fact you will spend some time with the attorneys and judges who work for the Department of Justice, and in these two federal courts on Guam and in the CNMI. The current federal judges, Frances Tydingco-Gatewood and Ramona Manglona, are both native Chamorro women, and we’re really proud of them!

Of course we know your staff has apprised you of the fact that neither court is a United States District Court. Both are territorial courts, created under federal law. Their judges are appointed to 10-year terms, not lifetime, and there are some other variations between these two courts and United States federal courts in the 50 states.

But never mind. The judgeships are presidential appointments, and the federal government pays the salaries and bills. So our court is housed proudly in a building called a federal court building, under the words “United States District Court” even though that’s inaccurate.

You’ll find here a proud American community. Guam has been a United States possession since 1898, and although you may encounter some independent spirit and anti-colonial agitation, for the most part people here cherish their United States citizenship, and wear it with pride.

We’re approaching our proudest holiday, in fact – July 21st, the 68th anniversary of the day Guam was liberated from Japanese occupation during World War II. We’re the only populated American place in modern times occupied by the enemy during wartime, and our people suffered greatly under Japanese brutality. We’d be happy if you could stay for our parade, but we realize that’s probably not possible.

We have just one tiny request, Mr. Attorney General, and that is to allow your U.S. Attorney and her staff here to go back to investigating white collar crime and political corruption, the way they used to. Your folks do a terrific job of investigating and prosecuting drug crimes, immigration infractions, firearms violations, even federal wildlife protection rules violations.

But political corruption? Nope. We don’t think that’s because there is any less around to investigate than there was back when one of our previous U.S. Attorneys publicly stated: “The government of Guam is riddled with corruption from top to bottom.” No, we think it’s because the Department of Justice, which you now head, made a decision to look away from evidence of corrupt practices here, and take no action.

After awhile, this became so obvious that the FBI simply stopped looking into allegations of white collar crime and political corruption. At least, we think they did. It’s never easy to figure out just what the FBI is doing, but we haven’t had a good corruption trial since, oh ... when was that, exactly?

Anyhow, General Holder, we hope you enjoy your brief visit to Guam, where the legal jurisdiction of the United States begins. Have a great Guam day!