Interesting History of Interpol

From Wikipedia entry:

The first significant move towards creating INTERPOL was in 1914 at the First International Criminal Police Congress. Police officers, lawyers and magistrates from 14 countries gathered in Monaco to discuss arrest procedures, identification techniques, centralized international criminal records and extradition proceedings.^[6] However World War I delayed this initiative and it was not until 1923 that Interpol was founded in Austria as the International Criminal Police (ICP).

Following the Anschluss (Austria's annexation by Germany) in 1938, the organization fell under the control of Nazi Germany, and the Commission's headquarters were eventually moved to Berlin in 1942. From 1938 to 1945, the presidents of Interpol included Otto Steinhäusl, Reinhard Heydrich, Arthur Nebe, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner. All were generals in the SS, and Kaltenbrunner was the highest ranking SS officer executed after the Nuremberg Trial. Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by Czech (Kubiš) and Slovak (Gabčík) patriots in 1942.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the organization was revived as the International Criminal Police Organization by European Allies of World War II officials from Belgium, France, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Its new headquarters were established in Saint-Cloud, a town on the outskirts of Paris. They remained there until 1989, when they were moved to their present location, Lyon.

Until the 1980s Interpol did not intervene in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in accordance with Article 3 of its Constitution forbidding intervention in 'political' matters.^[7]

On 2 July 2010, former Interpol President Jackie Selebi was found guilty of corruption by the South African High Court in Johannesburg for accepting bribes worth $156,000 from a drug trafficker.^[8] After being charged in January 2008, Selebi resigned as president of Interpol and was put on extended leave as National Police Commissioner of South Africa.

SS officers, eh..?

1914. The year the World War I started, and one year after the US Federal Reserve was created. Interesting.

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