EUROINTEL 99 Den Haag The Netherlands March 8

EUROINTEL ‘ 99 Den Haag /The Netherlands, March 8, 1999 OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE : THE INTERPOL EXPERIENCE Philippe Lejeune Crime Analyst Analytical Criminal Intelligence Unit INTERPOL GENERAL SECRETARIAT

General Overview t ICPO Interpol and crime analysis t Open Sources and ICPO Interpol t Open Sources pilot project t Future / Conclusions

ICPO Interpol t t t Mission : “facilitating and developing international law enforcement cooperation in the fight against transnational crime” Adding value to information to which it has access from a global perspective Information is provided by its Member States [NCB’s] and stored in a relational database : ICIS

ICPO Interpol Criminal Intelligence Directorate Sub-Directorate 1 Sub-Directorate 2 Sub-Directorate 3 • General Crime • Trafficking in human beings • Organized Crime • Terrorism • Economic crime • Financial crime • FOPAC • Drugs Sub-Directorate 4 • Criminal Intelligence ACIU

ICPO Interpol and Crime Analysis t t Centralized Analytical Function Analytical Criminal Intelligence Unit : 8 Analysts and 1 Head of Group All the Analysts are generalists Project-based tasking in close collaboration with a Specialized Officer

ICPO Interpol and Open Sources t How do Open Sources contribute to Interpol’s criminal intelligence activities ? t Towards an Interpol Open Sources policy t Open Sources Pilot Project

ICPO Interpol and Open Sources t Open Sources allow familiarization with a specific crime topic Strategic work in international environment è IPSG Specialized Officers, and particularly Crime Analysts, are inevitably confronted with types of crime and/or regions of the world which they are not always familiar with è t Putting crime in its context

ICPO Interpol and Open Sources t Ascertain whether available confidential sources are representative of the real situation Global perception of crime versus national perception è Open Sources allow to detect unreported elements and detect new investigative leads è t Timeliness of Open Sources

ICPO Interpol and Open Sources t More specific requests instead of general questionnaires sent out to Member States è t Questionnaires are time-consuming and the questions are roughly the same no matter what the subject is Assist the Member States in developing their own Open Sources practices

ICPO Interpol and Open Sources t There is a need for a structured approach in order to : avoid duplication through sharing of sources and methods (reference databases) è systematic use of Open Sources è clear distinction between classified and Open Source information è t Take into account flexibility and/or limits of Open Sources

ICPO Interpol and Open Sources t t Policy document drafted after horizontal and vertical consultations Highlights : legal : nominal information needs to be confirmed by the concerned NCB’s è organizational : decentralized, yet co-ordinated approach (by the ACIU) è tools / sources of information : Internet è output : diversification of intelligence products è

ICPO Interpol and Open Sources t Who is involved ? central role of the analytical unit [ACIU] è trained documentalists è specialized police groups è t Who is responsible for … collection ? è requirements definition ? è exploitation ? è

Open Sources Pilot Project t Topic : illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation Methodology F gathering all available data from ICIS F comparative case analysis F collection of Open Sources aimed at filling “blind spots” in the available confidential sources

Open Sources Pilot Project Methodology without open sources, the project would have ended as a negative feasibility study F Certain results. . F

Open Sources Pilot Project Open Sources provided information about : used routes (International Organization for Migration) F profile of victims / offenders F why certain countries are more vulnerable either as transit or destination countries F è Outcome

Conclusions t t t Open Sources data gathering and exploitation must be considered as essential in all domains of law enforcement and particularly in crime analysis Underestimating the importance of Open Sources is unrealistic There is a great in-house potential to exploit a wide variety of sources (e. g. access to a large number of languages)

Future Actions t t t An “awareness training package” should be developed in cooperation with all involved ; Diversification of operational and strategic products ; Exchange of best practices / new techniques in the widest possible sense !

EUROINTEL ‘ 99 Den Haag /The Netherlands, March 8, 1999 OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE : THE INTERPOL EXPERIENCE THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION