Interpol

Interpol   (Police, IGO)
Headquarters in Lyon, France
Abbreviation	ICPO
Motto	Connecting police for a safer world
Formation	1923
Headquarters	Lyon, France
Leader	Interpol/Secretary General
Staff	756
Member of	Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact
Subpage	•Interpol/President •Interpol/Secretary General
International police group. Several of the presidents of Interpol have been exposed as part of large corruption affairs, or engaged in torture.

Interpol is an international police group which may have more operational independence from The Deep State than other such international bodies.

Institute for Statecraft comment

Euan Grant, in the middle of a list of groups to which he could offer workshops or "completed packages", specifically commented "(probably not Interpol)"

History

The agency traces it's origins back to the International Anti-Anarchist Conference of 1889 and the first International Criminal Police Congress of 1914.

Activities

In May 2018 Bill Browder was arrested in Spain on the request of Russia through Interpol channels.

In May 2020 Interpol issued a red notice for Anne Sacoolas, who in 2019 fled from the UK after driving a car which killed a 19 year old motorcyclist, despite the UK government claiming she had "diplomatic immunity".

In August 2020 Interpol wrote that it had observed an "alarming rate" of cyberattacks targeting governments and corporations as employees and companies around the world.

Corruption

Several of the presidents of Interpol have been exposed as part of large corruption affairs, or engaged in torture.

Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, from the United Arab Emirates, 30th president of Interpol, was responsible for torture as a high ranking police officer in his home country.

Meng Hongwei, a former Chinese politician and police officer who was the president of Interpol from 2016 to 2018, was detained and accused of taking bribes by Chinese anti-corruption authorities. On 21 January 2020, Meng was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in jail by a Chinese court for bribery during his time at the Chinese coast guard and Ministry of Public Security.

Jacob "Jackie" Sello Selebi, president of Interpol 2004-2008, was the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service from January 2000 to January 2008, when he was put on extended leave and charged with corruption. In January 2008, Selebi resigned from Interpol in order to deal with the corruption allegations against him. He was convicted of corruption in July 2010 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

West German police chief Paul Dickopf was president of Interpol 1968-1972. The former SS spook became leader of the German Federal Police after the war, where he recruited exclusively former Gestapo and SS officers. He was also a paid "unilateral agent" of the CIA since 1948.

Agostinho Lourenço was a Portuguese officer, best known for founding and running the Portuguese political police under the fascist Estado Novo, creating a system of snitches, political prison camps, and use of heavy torture. He always kept a "good relationship" with the MI6, which allowed him in 1956 to become the president of Interpol, which he remained for five years.

Jolly Bugarin was a Filipino criminologist who was Director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) from 1967 to 1986 and President of Interpol from 1980 to 1984. He was considered a crony for the Ferdinand Marcos administration. In 1986, a case was filed against Bugarin for ill-gotten properties, including house and lots in North Greenhills and Valle Verde Subdivisions and club shares in Manila Polo Club and Makati Sports Club. In 2002, the Supreme Court said Bugarin “amassed wealth” amounting to P2.1 million between 1968 and 1980.

Predictive policing

In the 2020s, Interpol started building a vast data-processing platform called INSIGHT that is ultimately supposed to provide police forces around the globe with "predictive analytics" generated from Interpol’s internal data, information received from its member states, "external" sources such as commercial databases, and "visual, video, audio recognition, facial and bio-data matching." The third phase of the project, due to be completed in between 2024 and 2026, will see the platform hoover up "all internal sources, external sources such as commercial databases, etc." According to a video published by Interpol in October 2020, this will include "open sources and social media." The aim is for the platform to use "visual, video, audio recognition, facial and bio-data matching," to provide "advanced and predictive analytics." The US State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism has committed more than $12 million for the project.

 

Employee on Wikispooks

Employee	Job	Appointed	End
John R. Simpson	Director	1984	1988

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