Intelligence Gathering
May 31, 2007
A blueprint for a plan for an initial group project has been published ahead of the meeting of EU interior and justice ministers, slated to take place in June.
Several EU member countries, led by Germany, worked together on the blueprint for evaluating the activities of the media branch of terror group al Qaeda.
Europol portal
In addition, the EU police agency Europol is constructing a Web portal to exchange information over the Internet sites of militant groups, the paper said. The Web now plays a key role in connecting terror organizations.
Interpol General Secretary Ronald Noble told Reuters news service that police were building up a computer system that would give agents around the world direct access to data bases on suspected money launderers and people who finance terror groups.
Giant databases
By creating this system, they hope to increase the efficiency and speed of information exchange, and reduce the number of mistakes made by police and other agents, Noble said.
The system would allow data like company names, telephone numbers and addresses to be compared with the entries of 186 Interpol countries.
Interpol’s database has already registered more than 11,500 terror suspects, and 15 million lost or stolen documents that suspected extremists could use for traveling.