Use the International Tools Available to Combat Terrorism
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Interpol in Europe has a significant data base of 7 million stolen passports that is unused by British and U.S. services. What more useful database could there be as we hear new warnings that al Qaeda has cells here or is sending them to attack us this summer?
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Douglas Farah
Jul 11, 08:35
International law enforcement and intelligence bodies are only as effective and useful as the people in them and the political will of various countries. Open source information is only as useful as the willingness to look for it and use it.
International law enforcement and intelligence bodies are only as effective and useful as the people in them and the political will of various countries. Open source information is only as useful as the willingness to look for it and use it.
...
As the director of Interpol, Ronald Noble, noted, there “is a clear link between stolen passports and al Qaeda-linked terrorist activity.” The United States and Europe are members of Interpol. The Islamists (as well as multiple criminal groups) are constantly looking for good, stolen documents to use to travel without attracting suspicion. It would seem like a simple and easy step to take.
Interpol can do little with the data except collect it, because member nations have to request the information from them. Interpol itself has no independent enforcement power. It is the same with a host of other data bases that contain useful information that is not accessed.
For example, the United Nations Panels of Experts reports from Liberia, DRC, Angola, Sudan and Somalia describe in great detail different arms trafficking networks, organized criminal structures, the creation of al Qaeda training facilities in Sudan and the arming and training of Islamist radicals in Somalia. The work is largely done on the ground, the reports are published and easily available.
Yet hardly anyone in the U.S. intelligence community, and (I would bet my house) no one in the law enforcement community except for a few hardy souls in the Treasury Department) even know these public documents exist, much less uses them...
As the director of Interpol, Ronald Noble, noted, there “is a clear link between stolen passports and al Qaeda-linked terrorist activity.” The United States and Europe are members of Interpol. The Islamists (as well as multiple criminal groups) are constantly looking for good, stolen documents to use to travel without attracting suspicion. It would seem like a simple and easy step to take.
Interpol can do little with the data except collect it, because member nations have to request the information from them. Interpol itself has no independent enforcement power. It is the same with a host of other data bases that contain useful information that is not accessed.
For example, the United Nations Panels of Experts reports from Liberia, DRC, Angola, Sudan and Somalia describe in great detail different arms trafficking networks, organized criminal structures, the creation of al Qaeda training facilities in Sudan and the arming and training of Islamist radicals in Somalia. The work is largely done on the ground, the reports are published and easily available.
Yet hardly anyone in the U.S. intelligence community, and (I would bet my house) no one in the law enforcement community except for a few hardy souls in the Treasury Department) even know these public documents exist, much less uses them...
posted by jillosophy at 7/12/2007 03:54:00 PM
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