Jury out on controversial database of terror informers

Date: 10/07/03

By David Cronin

EU JUSTICE officials have devised plans for police agency Europol to host a database on informers who infiltrate terrorist organizations, European Voice has learned.

Documents obtained by this newspaper show that EU states' justice officials have been discussing plans to have a database on informers who are deemed "unreliable" at Europol's headquarters in The Hague by the beginning of 2004.

The talks have been held by the Article 36 committee, comprising high-level civil servants who deal with police cooperation and penal justice.

Experts consulted by the committee have advised that the aim of the information system should be to reduce the risk in working with such informants.

It would be designed to build on existing liaison over informers between Europol and authorities in the UK, France, Germany and Belgium.

The justice officials have agreed that member state authorities would use a special classification system to assign codes to informers. These codes, though not the informers' real names, would then be passed on to Europol. In cases of a hit (where the computers show that two member states are interested in a particular informer), Europol would contact the national authorities concerned, leaving them then to work with each other on a bilateral basis.

Although Europol has been given an expanded role in fighting terrorism since the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, specialists query how effective such a database could be.

Jonathan Stevenson, a senior research fellow in counter-terrorism with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said: "I would be surprised that national intelligence and law enforcement agencies would be willing to pool that kind of highly sensitive information."

Stevenson wondered if Europol - with its €59 million annual budget and staff of almost 300 - is sufficiently well-equipped to enter into the traditional domain of intelligence services.

"Europol is relatively small, and has modest resources," he added. "It is mainly a clearing house for information and a liaison agency between governmental institutions. So far these have been law enforcement, not intelligence."

Jelle van Buuren from Eurowatch, a Dutch group which monitors Europol's activities, concurred. "The big question is "will member states really give very sensitive information to Europol?'" he asked. "Would they really tell about informants from an Islamic terrorist group, who would fear for their lives if something goes wrong?

"I would have doubts."

A Europol spokesman said the matters relating to these discussions are so sensitive that he could not divulge any information about them.

Among the anti-terrorism work which Europol is known to have carried out to date is the compilation of a dossier on European-based individuals suspected of involvement in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Additionally, it is working on a manual for police officers dealing with terrorism, designed as a reference about various subversive groups they may encounter.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Netherlands believes current plans for collaboration between member state agencies on thwarting a potential terrorist attack at next year's Olympic Games in Athens do not go far enough.

Participants in a seminar hosted by Greece's then EU presidency in April on policing major sporting events agreed that a manual of best practices on the subject should be prepared by the Council of Ministers' working groups. But a Council document on the follow-up work to the seminar says the Dutch are arguing for the cooperation to go beyond the mere production of a manual.

Justice officials from Member States are considering plans to establish a database on informers who are deemed 'unreliable' at Europol's headquarters in The Hague by the beginning of 2004.

http://www.europol.net/ http://www.europol.net/

---