Terrorists Strike Fast... Interpol has to Move Faster... Ron Noble is on the Case

Pretend that it's September 7, 2001.

It's four days before the grim-faced hijackers slip past airport security with their box cutters. Four days before the world watches their awful plan unfold in a searing sequence of smoke and flames and collapsing skyscrapers. Four days before so much in the world changes.

Now imagine that a cop somewhere -- in Germany or Saudi Arabia -- thinks to contact Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France that night. (Yes, that Interpol: the international police organization that most Americans probably still associate with the Cold War.) The cop is seeking the arrest of one of the 19 men who would become hijackers, and Interpol's primary function is to help law-enforcement authorities share information about suspected criminals worldwide. No matter. It may be four days before September 11, but it is also Friday after 6 PM: Interpol's headquarters is closed for the weekend.

Now pretend that it's August 2001 -- or better yet, May, four months before Mohamed Atta becomes a household name. This time the cop gets through and requests an Interpol red notice, the equivalent of a global wanted-persons notice. The outome still doesn't change. Due to a backlog of requests -- and because those requests were sent through the mail, third class -- Interpol alerts take up to six months to process. Again, it's too late.

Ron Noble doesn't need to be reminded of how ill prepared Interpol was to help prevent the devastation. In November 2000, when he became the organization's secretary general, he recognized that the agency, which is essentially a clearinghouse for international crime, needed to reinvent itself. In fact, two major improvements -- running Interpol headquarters around the clock and sending out alerts for terrorists within 24 hours and alerts for less-threatening criminals within 72 hours -- were scheduled to launch on September 17. Instead, the new era began six days early, in the first hours following the attacks.

Transforming Interpol from a clumsy, outdated agency into a sleek, modern force is an urgent, difficult -- indeed, noble -- mission. It is also a case study in change with life-and-death consequences -- and huge implications for U.S. security. The central strategic question is as simple as it is thorny: How do large, established, slow-moving bureaucracies battle an enemy that is fast, nimble, elusive, and widely dispersed? President Bush has been struggling with that question at the FBI, the CIA, and his proposed Department of Homeland Security. Ron Noble has the same problem but with an added twist: He has to work with countries from every corner of the globe.

The challenge is onerous. Noble is reshaping an organization that is rooted in tradition and that is, in many respects, built for another time, a different way of fighting crime, and certainly a different pace. But Noble seems well suited for the job. A former federal prosecutor and law professor, and the first U.S. Treasury undersecretary of enforcement, he's driven, charming, and multilingual.

That last attribute is crucial. The organization has 179 member countries (numbers 180 and 181, Afghanistan and East Timor, join the fold this month at the annual general assembly), second only to the United Nations. Interpol relies on member countries to assist one another voluntarily in international investigations. If getting various U.S. agencies to work together sounds daunting, consider Noble's task: to foster cooperation among countries with different legal and political systems -- not to mention different languages and cultures. And there's one more catch: He must do this with an annual budget of just $28 million, or about one-tenth that of the New York Police Department.

When Interpol works, it works very well; terrorists, murderers, and other fugitives are apprehended because of the information that it feeds authorities. At other times, however, it's as though Interpol doesn't exist. A criminal flees the country, and an investigation stalls, all because the local officer doesn't realize that Interpol could help.

Lately, though, the agency's profile has been rising. In March, Noble participated in a security summit in Florida alongside U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft, FBI director Robert Mueller, and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden. "Normally, we might find out about a meeting with department heads only because we asked," says Edgar Adamson, director of the U.S. Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) in Washington, DC. "Now they understand our role."

In a world that is increasingly reliant on coordinated law enforcement, Interpol has become more relevant than ever. "In a way, we've been helped by one of the most tragic events imaginable," says Noble. Or, as Leif Halberg, Interpol's head of communications and publications, explains, "Voltaire said, 'If God didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him.' Well, if Interpol didn't exist, I think that establishing a global organization dedicated to cooperation in law enforcement would be at the top of the agenda. And it would have a much larger budget."