DAR AL HARB - U.K.: THE U.K.'S ANTI-TERRORISM EFFORTS ARE IN THE WRONG CENTURY

U.K. Fails to Share Terrorism Data, Interpol Says
By Nick Allen

July 9 (Bloomberg) -- The head of the 186-nation international police agency Interpol accused the U.K. of failing to share information on terrorism investigations and not carrying out adequate checks on people crossing its borders.

The U.K. hasn't sent its own list of terrorism suspects to Interpol and isn't checking enough of the 30 million visitors it receives yearly against the agency's global database of 7 million stolen passports, Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said.

"My view is the U.K.'s anti-terrorist effort is in the wrong century,'' Noble said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television today. "The way to investigate terrorism now is to share as much information as you can, as fast you can, to see if the person you're interested in is of interest to others.''

Noble's comments come after a failed plot to explode car bombs in central London on June 29 and at Glasgow International Airport the following day. Bilal Abdullah, 27, an Iraqi doctor, has been charged with conspiring to cause explosions and appeared in court in London on July 7. Five other suspects are still being questioned and another is under armed guard in a hospital. The investigation stretches to Australia and India.

Noble's criticisms weren't confined to the U.K. Only 17 of Interpol's member countries systematically check the passport numbers of incoming travelers against the agency's stolen- passports database, said Noble, an American who was the U.S. Treasury Department's first undersecretary for enforcement.

The U.K. currently makes only 50 checks a month on the Interpol database, while France makes 700,000 and Switzerland 300,000, Noble said.

'Nothing From U.K.'

There is currently no British anti-terrorist officer assigned to Interpol and the U.K. hasn't shared information gleaned from the recent car-bombs investigation, Noble said.

"We have received not one name, not one fingerprint, not one telephone number, not one address, nothing from the U.K. about the recent thwarted terrorist attacks,'' he told the BBC. The U.K. has "great investigators but doesn't trust Interpol,'' he said.

The U.K. government defended its contribution to the global anti-terrorism effort, saying it does work closely with Interpol and that Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency does consult databases maintained by Interpol, which is based in Lyon, France.

"The government is committed to improving the recording and sharing of criminality data with our European partners,'' the Home Office said today in a statement.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday he wants to "tighten up'' the system.

"We do now need more information flowing internationally about who are potential terrorists and who are potential suspects,'' Brown said in an interview with Sky News.

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Pertinent Links:

1) U.K. Fails to Share Terrorism Data, Interpol Says