Transcript (passports) Radio National 2007-07-13 New Window

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Prompted by the failed London & Glasgow bombings, 
Interpol's chief Ronald Noble is pulling no punches. 
In an unprecedented criticism, 
the police chief described the counter-terror effort as 
"in the wrong century".

Britain & Australia are accused of 
leaving the door open to terrorists because 
border officials are not checking the passports of all visitors 
against Interpol's database of 7,000,000 lost & stolen passports. 
Only 17 countries in the world electronically 
check all visitors' passports against the the database.
They include Switzerland, France, Spain 
and the countries of the Carribean, 
but not Australia or the UK.

Ronald Noble says Switzerland is a good example of 
the power of the system. 
The Swiss check the passports of 300,000 visitors a month against
the global database. 
Some 100 a month come back as stolen, lost or forged.
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The reason for it is that Switzerland is connected to our system 
such that every time a passport is swiped 
it is simultaeneously scanned against Interpol's database. 
So without any additional time,
Switzerland is able to do two things at one time: 
Check their own databases, and check Interpol's databases.

What is shocking and what concerns me 
as Secretary General of Interpol 
(and one of the reasons I am going public with this now)
is that we have such few resources 
to dedicate to this effort that (for the most part) 
when these passports come back with a hit 
the people are just turned away at the border or 
put back on a flight to go home.

The passports aren't checked to see the source, 
the people aren't checked to find out 
whether or not they in fact are wanted internationally;
it's really disappointing when you think about 
what should be done and 
when you realise what's actually being done.
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Why does it matter?
Well the Al Qaida training manuals recovered in places like 
Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Manchester in the UK
explicitly instruct recruits to obtain and 
use false identity documents 
when carrying out their activities.
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That means this must be considered a worrying fact.
It would point to a lack of co-ordination 
and lack of collective response 
and a lack of the use of 
the international facilities which are available 
in what has been defined as "a global war on terror" 
and if we don't act globally 
then one must assume that 
the effective response globally is 
not going to be entirely at one with
the threat that is facing us.
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So is Australia's security compromised by 
not using the stolen passort database?
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It is simply inconceivable that 
6 years after the 9/11 disaster 
that Australia is not checking every single passport 
from those people that come into Australia 
against that Interpol list.
There is no excuse for that. 
This is poor administration and 
the minister for customs needs to 
urgently explain what procedures are in place to fix this.

G TAYLOR: The Government says it actually has done some work and is going to introduce tighter border security controls. Won't that fix the problem?
Well sadly not. We are in the ridiculous situation where countries like Trinidad and Tobago can organise themselves to do these checks against the interpol database when they have major events like the World Cricket Tournament but the Australian Government in 2007 is still playing at the edges. The announcement that the Government made a week ago was big on rhetoric and short on detail. In fact there was no assurance from the government of any change in procedures that would even fix this small problem.
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This program spent two days enquiring of the government 
whether it is comparing all arrivals against the database. 
Both The Immigration and The Attorney General's Department 
knew nothing of the Intepol system and said 
it was not their area of responsibility. 

This program was only able to get confirmation that 
Australia is not screening all passports against the database 
by speaking to a spokesman at 
Interpol headquarters in Lyon France. 
The head of Interpol, Ronald Noble, cannot understand why 
the Interpol database is not automatically referred to.
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It's extraordinary that only 17 countries 
out of the world's 190 plus countries 
are doing it and the world doesn't seem to care. 
While all of us who travel have been to 190 countries; 
we travel, we get in line, 
we take off our shoes, our belts, 
we get bottles of water, 
and yet our _passports_ aren't checked against a global database 
and people are allowed to enter countries with these passports?
 
It's something that makes me very nervous.
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Of the 17 countries checking all passports against 
the stolen & lost passort database,
10 are from The Carribean. 
These tiny countries show that even small nations can implement 
this 21st century technology; 
and they did it for The World Cup earlier this year. 

But not so Australia as it prepares for the APEC summit 
at the beginnning of September [2007]. 
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Well I think each of these major events, 
whether it's a G8 meeting or 
APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation) meeting 
as is happening down in Australia... these are very important. 
These do become highlight affairs and 
highlight affairs therefore provide 
massive publicity to a terrorist attack if it is to take place. 

I think it is not insignificant that 
the attack in London occurred...

  (this may have been pure coincidence but to many of us it seems that 
   the attack in London on the 7th July [2007] occurred...)

precisely at the time of a G8 summit in GlenEagles in Scotland;

  (and actually, the day after, there had been the announcement of 
   London getting the Olympics... now that was coincidence, but...)

the fact there was this highlighted situation in Britain...

  (particularly on the G8 and 
   the global fight against poverty the day before 
   with all the international leaders gathered together)

That clearly focuses the minds of the terrorists 
and clearly in turn must focus the minds of 
those who have to deal with that problem of
intelligence at police level.

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It is a flashing light target for terrorists 
and we need to have all of our security procedures fully in place.

The fact that people can come to Australia 
and not have their passports checked against 
the Interpol database of lost passports beggars belief.