Ronald Noble
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
law enforcement
Law enforcement agency
In North American English, a law enforcement agency is a government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.Outside North America, such organizations are called police services. In North America, some of these services are called police while others have other names In North American...
officer, and the current Secretary General of INTERPOL
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
.
Biography
He is a 1979 graduate of the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics with a bachelor's degree in economics and business administration and a 1982 graduate of Stanford Law SchoolStanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
. Mr. Noble also is a tenured professor at the New York University School of Law
New York University School of Law
The New York University School of Law is the law school of New York University. Established in 1835, the school offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in law, and is located in Greenwich Village, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....
, on leave of absence while serving at INTERPOL.
From 1993 until 1996 he was the Undersecretary for Enforcement of the United States Department of the Treasury
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
, where he was in charge of the United States Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center serves as an interagency law enforcement training organization for 90 United States government federal law enforcement agencies.-Location:...
, the Office of Foreign Assets Control
Office of Foreign Assets Control
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S...
, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat money laundering, terrorist financiers, and other financial crimes.As reflected in its name, the Financial...
. He was head of the Department's "Waco Administrative Review Team" which produced a report on the ATF's actions against the Branch Davidians leading to the Waco Siege
Waco Siege
The Waco siege began on February 28, 1993, and ended violently 50 days later on April 19. The siege began when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located east-northeast of Waco,...
.
He was elected the first American Secretary General by the 69th INTERPOL General Assembly in Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, in 2000, was unanimously re-elected to a second five-year term by the 74th INTERPOL General Assembly in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, in 2005 and was unanimously re-elected to a third five-year term by the 79th INTERPOL General Assembly in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, in 2010. INTERPOL is the largest international police organization serving 188 countries with a current budget of $72.2 million for 2008.
During his September 20, 2005 acceptance speech in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, the re-elected Secretary General stated:
Less than one year after my confirmation, Al Qaeda terrorists used US soil and US targets to murder thousands of U.S. citizens and citizens from more than 70 of our member countries spread around the globe. On September 11, 2001, the entire world’s attention was finally drawn to the importance of the anti-terrorism fightWar on TerrorismThe War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. On that day, we as a world community were put on notice by Al Qaeda that our personal and national security could never again be taken for granted.
It does not matter where you were. It does not matter what you were doing. Each and every one of you can remember where you were when you first learned about or first saw images of the terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center on the 11th of September 2001.
For INTERPOL, the 11th of September was a moment of reckoning. It was the time for us to decide what kind of international police organization we wanted INTERPOL to be.
Although INTERPOL had been created over 80 years ago by police chiefs to provide operational police support internationally, something had happened to INTERPOL over the years. INTERPOL had become so slow, so unresponsive that in many police circles around the world INTERPOL was considered irrelevant to their day-to-day needs.
But, it was on September 11, 2001 that INTERPOL went operational and that we committed ourselves to working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to support our NCBs and police services. And it was on that day that we first began reaching out to you in times of crisis, rather than waiting for you to ask for help. One can say that INTERPOL was reborn on the 11th of September 2001.
Under Secretary General Noble's leadership, INTERPOL developed the world's first global database of stolen or lost travel documents (i.e., passports) from more than 120 countries and the first global police communications system, called I-24/7 as part of its international screening process for terrorists and dangerous criminals.
He created the world's first international automated DNA database and another automated database aimed at fighting the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet. During his 2000-2007 tenure, nearly 22,000 wanted international criminals were arrested, he directed the opening of a new INTERPOL office at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in 2004 and another office at the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
in Brussels, increased the nationalities of their staff from 52 to 80; created a bioterrorism
Bioterrorism
Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents are bacteria, viruses, or toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form. For the use of this method in warfare, see biological warfare.-Definition:According to the...
prevention unit at the General Secretariat in Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
and planned the formation of the first International Anti-Corruption Academy in Vienna, Austria.
In 2008, he was awarded the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
by French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
.
Mr. Noble also speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, as well as his native English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.