Posted on 06/24/2004 10:51:42 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Shocked into action by the Madrid train attacks, European leaders have turned to a relatively unknown police agency, Europol, in their search for new tools against terrorism.
The European criminal intelligence organization is adding 20 anti-terrorism specialists and is already closely involved in 15 international anti-terror investigations, Europol director Juergen Storbeck said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The 5-year-old agency also is thinking of introducing a U.S.-style color-coded alert system to issue warnings about potential terrorist attacks, Storbeck said Wednesday.
Last week, officials from 25 countries meeting at Europol headquarters in this Dutch city discussed adopting "a common definition of threats" that could be used to communicate among EU members in the face of a threat, Storbeck said.
No details have been worked out, and the anti-terror officials agreed to discuss the alert system with their respective governments.
But the Europol chief said he supports the idea and is also in favor of creating a European prosecutor's office for terrorism that would oversee a network of national prosecutors from European Union member countries.
Europol was assigned a pivotal role in the fight against terrorism at the first EU summit following the March 11 Madrid railway bombings, which killed 190 people. It was the worst terror attack in Europe's history.
As a sign of its expanding role, Europol sent an expert to assist in security at the Euro 2004 soccer championship in Portugal and will send a team to the Olympics in Athens, Greece.
"The main task is to elaborate good threat assessment in order to prevent attacks, to better protect person and objects, and on the other side to improve the investigations and help to find evidence - very operational work," Storbeck said.
The law enforcement challenge posed by terrorism is giving new focus to the agency, originally mandated to combat offenses ranging from drug and people trafficking to child pornography, counterfeiting and cybercrime. It has an annual budget of about $72 million and 490 employees.
Europol also is helping EU countries overcome what Storbeck called the single largest obstacle to joint anti-terrorist action - rivalry among intelligence agencies and their reluctance to share confidential information.
"We have a common responsibility and the attack in Madrid has injured nationals from all EU member states," Storbeck said. "The willingness is now much higher to share information and intelligence."
The Europol director said he expected the coordination of data to be the agency's most pressing task.
"There is too much information available for national law enforcement agencies," he said. "Nobody can handle it anymore and you need expert people with good methodology, good software, good hardware and linguistic skills to handle this."
Storbeck, a German, is the agency's first director, and his term in office expires next month. It has not been announced whether his term will be renewed or whether other candidates are being considered for the job.
fyi
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