A Plan to Make the World Safer
from the NYU In 2000, Ronald Noble took a leave of absence POL. As INTER of School of Law to assume the leadership ization organ police l ationa intern secretary general of an need to the ed stress has Noble ries, count 187 that serves fight against give police more prominence in the global ronting “Conf h, speec a in vision terrorism. He laid out his of the nges Challe Crime al nation Trans and ist the Terror Law School’s 21st Century: Are We Prepared?” at the ry. Hoffinger Criminal Justice Colloquium last Janua ry-led milita tly minan predo a from move “We must employs all approach to fighting terrorism to one that gence, and components—diplomacy, military, intelli served as undersecretary of who , Noble said vigor,” equal th policing—wi 1996. In that job he oversaw to enforcement for the U.S. Treasury from 1993 u of Alcohol, Tobacco Burea the and e, Servic the Secret Service, Customs “war on terror,” Noble argued and Firearms. Taking issue with the phrase too far in the direction of that such terminology skews counterterrorism combat strategies. Wars and ns, weapo rs, military solutions “using soldie this does not apply to but ives, object and ents oppon d have clearly define d a decentralized instea but , al Qaeda, which is neither a state nor a nation network of individuals.” tracking and neutralizing A major weapon in INTERPOL’s arsenal for allow the law enforcethat criminal networks is its collection of databases the world. INTERPOL d aroun clues and tips ment community to connect sets of fingerprints, 94,000 ed includ tly recen that y manages a librar on 12,400 persons ation inform 88,600 DNA profiles from 50 countries, and ains the only maint also It ies. activit ist suspected of being linked to terror 18.6 million docwhose ase, datab ents docum travel lost global stolen and more than five million times uments shared by 145 countries are queried
ultimately per week. How the information is used is that have plots ist terror important. Despite numerous ries syscount 51 only orts, passp lent involved fraudu ports; the their at ents docum travel n scree ically temat U.S. joined that group only recently. across Noble made the case that law enforcement terrorism. er count in role larger a y occup must globe the property is “One reckless murder or the destruction of r and murde mass too, “So, said. he a police matter,” se of an becau not rs, matte police are ction destru mass police, have abstract categorization but because we, the determithe and et, minds the ience, the tools, the exper , to pretimes at and, s crime of sorts these solve nation to investigate and vent them from happening again.” nts in the NYU@NUS Noble, who teaches criminal law to LL.M. stude er, given the current wheth of ion quest the Singapore Program, raised combating other transnaglobal financial crisis, counterterrorism and U.S. and other nations. the for y tional crimes could remain a top priorit a financial impact: has also issues those cting But, he argued, negle e physically and feel secure “Unless our citizens and businesses are secur ned economic developsustai and psychologically, there can be no solid ist attack against the terror l ationa intern major ment or recovery. Just one into a worldwide recession.” U.S. or its allies could push us even deeper the counterterrorism world in ne In the end, Noble concluded, everyo that the military only or think don’t e “Pleas has an important function: please don’t think that the diplomacy alone will solve the problem, and r, he says, effective counRathe ” intelligence community can do it alone. law enforcment has an which in effort rted terterrorism requires a conce essential role to play.—A.G.
Beyond the Academy
The Center on Law and Security funds some of the research of an impressive roster of journalists, scholars, and practitioners. Peter Bergen credentials: Fellow, New America Foundation relevant works: The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda’s Leader (2006) Sidney Blumenthal credentials: Former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton relevant works: How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime (2006) Barton Gellman credentials: Staff Writer, Washington Post relevant works: Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (2008), expanded from a Pulitzer Prize–winning series in the Washington Post Nir Rosen credentials: Journalist who has worked in occupied Iraq, Somalia, Congo, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, and Lebanon relevant works: The Triumph of the Martyrs: A Reporter’s Journey into Occupied Iraq (2008); In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of Martyrs in Iraq (2006)
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NYU SCHOOL OF LAW
Michael Sheehan credentials: Former Deputy Commissioner of Counterterrorism, NYPD; former Assistant Secretary General, U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations relevant works: Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism Without Terrorizing Ourselves (2008) Lawrence Wright credentials: Staff writer, New Yorker relevant works: The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (2006), winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction In addition to the current fellows above, former fellows whose work has been supported in part by the Center on Law and Security include: Tara McKelvey, senior editor at the American Prospect and author of the anthology One of the Guys: Female Torturers and Aggressors; Amos Elon, historian and social critic who wrote Israelis: Founders and Sons, among several other books; Baltasar Garzón, magistrate for Spain’s National Court, who has ordered the arrest of Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden; and Dana Priest, two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter for the Washington Post who wrote The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America’s Military.