That Ameria would not utilize this agancy to help with the war on terror is absolutely shocking and I think shows that our government does not care all that much for our safety.
Those of you with short attention spans will probably skip this post and move on to another blog, but if you really care, and are truely worried about the safety of our nation, you will read this.
It will surprise you and if you're like me, it will piss you off!!!
Interpol is one of the worlds oldest, largest, and most famous law enforcement agencies in the world. The only problem is that what most people think Interpol does is fiction. The agents are not allowed to make arrests, carry guns, and rarely leave the office, and until the last few years the agency was not even opened on weekends.
Their real job is behind the scenes collecting and disseminating information to law enforcement agencies all over the world, and until Ron Noble became the first ever American (the first ever non-European infact) to run the global organization, it played almost no role in fighting terrorism.
Mr. Noble has been trying to change all that since he took over as Secretary General 7 years ago, less than a year before 9-11 happened.
When asked if his phone rang off the hook following the 9-11 attacks Noble replied "I only received a phone call from my brother telling me to turn on the TV just in time to see the second plane fly into the building".
When asked why he thought nobody called Interpol Noble replied "because we were irrelevant".
Since Noble took over he has worked hard to change this, and Interpol played a role in 4,500 arrests last year worldwide.
Interpol is the worlds largest clearinghouse for international criminals and maintains the world's largest database of known terrorists, some 11,000 names, it also has the worlds ONLY database on lost or stolen passports and travel documents. There are over 15 million of them and every week some 3,000 people try to use them to enter a country illegally.
Noble says "Every significant international terrorist attack that has occured has been linked in some way with a fraudulent passport"....."so by catching the people with stolen passports you get yourself closer to catching terrorists".
Noble says they have 187 countries telling them what is happening in their countries.
NOW HERE IS THE SHOCKING PART..............
Noble says the US is reluctant to cooperate with international organizations, when it comes to terrorism. The US Dept. of Homeland Security has 250,000 employees and NOT one of them is based at Interpol. When asked why he thinks that is, Noble replied "You know, I ask myself that question. I just feel like they don't get it. They just don't get it".
Reporting or providing data to Interpol is voluntary, and many nations don't want to share sensitive information with the agency because they believe it could end up in the hands of other member countries, like Iran, Libya and Cuba.
But Noble says there of ways of sharing information without undermining the security of that information.
Security isn't the only reason that countries don't cooperate with Interpol. Sometimes they're just embarrassed.
Last year, when 23 people escaped from a prison in Yemen, including the mastermind of the al Qaeda attack on the U.S.S. Cole, Interpol found out about it only by monitoring Arab television.
"Worldwide in the last two years, we've had 43 countries where escapes have occurred. And zero of those countries notified Interpol. That can't happen. That shouldn't happen", Noble says.
Not only is Interpol underutilized, Noble says, it is also hopelessly under-funded. The U.S. contributes $5.5 million to the organization's $50 million budget, a pittance compared to big city police departments.
"NYPD, $3 billion a year. FBI, $6 billion a year. DHS, $42 billion a year.
Interpol is about $50 million," Noble points out. "About the same amount that the Los Angeles Galaxy is paying for David Beckham to play football.
That's what the world is contributing to Interpol to keep the citizens of the world safer that they otherwise would be".
Noble says the US and the world is not doing enough to prevent another 9-11 type attack, and that governments need to get over their differences and start working together.
Noble is so worried that another major attack will happen that he actually broke down into tears during the interview.
"I keep thinking about September 11th and all the other terrorist attacks. I’m seeing the mistakes that are being made every day, and I think one of these days its going to happen again," Noble says. "And I've gotta be able to persuade people before it happens."
He stated that the problem is a billion dollar problem not a million dollar problem and that he simply can not get the US and other countries to understand that.
Because of his frustration, Noble wants to raise $100 million from the private sector.
Noble is not just looking for money, he is looking for a different mindset, an understanding of what is really going on in this world.
He says "I've been doing this now for six and a half years, I get up every day and I think about how can I make the U.S. understand this?' And I just can't. I can't. I can't"...."we know that terrorist activities are being planned, and we know that if we don't respond, people will die".
5 comments:
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If we do not utilize the largest database in the world for names of known terrorists, and the only database in theworld for stolen passports and the largest database in the world for terrorist activities, prison breaks, etc....
then our government is NOT doing all it can to protect us!!!!!
does that answer your ?
yes
Excellent!
lol
I cant believe we are not more involved with interpol
I thought we were be in real tight with them
this is unbeliveable
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