History Book: Interpol turns 100

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, September 4th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up: the WORLD History Book. Today, the backstory of a word we often use to describe what is ailing our malfunctioning computers. Also, the ongoing search for the Loch Ness monster. But first, an international crime fighting organization marks a significant milestone this week.

Here’s WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Interpol is the world’s largest international police organization. It celebrates 100 years of global crime-fighting this week. The International Criminal Police Commission formed on September 7th, 1923, in Vienna the goal was to be a politically neutral data-sharing group for police.

But in 1938, Germany’s Third Reich seized control of the organization—using it to strengthen its influence and coordinate intelligence. After the war, the International Commission was essentially defunct. But it reorganized in 1956 and changed its name, dubbing themselves the International Criminal Police Organization. It adopted the abbreviation ‘Interpol’ because that’s how telegraphs identified the group.

AUDIO: Meanwhile, I have been summoned to help on a case with Interpol. You know the one. From the DVDs?

Despite how movies and TV shows like this episode of Psych characterize Interpol, the group primarily works as a criminal database. Their employees don’t have the authority to arrest anyone or conduct independent investigations, and they don’t have undercover agents. They do contribute by managing crime-fighting information and operating 19 different forensic databases—accessed by police internationally about 16 million times a day.

MAIL & GUARDIAN: The verdict is finally in: the former head of police is guilty of corruption.

Interpol has come under scrutiny in the past fifteen years for corrupt officials and violating their political neutrality.

In 2010, former Interpol president Jackie Selebi was found guilty of accepting bribes. It wasn’t an isolated incident, happening in leadership again in 2019.

CNN: Meng Hongwei, who also was a vice minister of public security in China, has been accused by the Chinese government of accepting bribes and committing unspecified crimes.

Authoritarian countries such as China, Russia, and Iran are suspected of using Interpol to target their political opponents. Russia is currently responsible for flagging 38% of the nearly 7 thousand most wanted individuals and entities in the database.

Next, we head to Scotland's Loch Ness.

90 years ago, a well-to-do businessman and his wife are driving along the north shore of the loch when something catches their eye.

As the couple watches, an enormous whale-like creature heaves above the waves, then disappears, leaving a turbulent wake behind. A local newspaper publishes their account, describing the waves as “cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron.” A year later, a British surgeon snaps a grainy picture of the supposed sea serpent, looking like a plesiosaur. He later admits it was a hoax.

Many nearby Inverness residents are skeptical, yet the legend grows year by year. Audio here from the History Channel:

History, Loch Ness Monster: We all want monsters. We want things that are bigger than we are, frightening and hidden. But to be hidden, they have to be in Lost Worlds. And to some extent Loch Ness is a lost world.

In October 1987, marine biologist Adrian Shine leads a weeklong search of the loch—dubbed Operation Deepscan.

ITV COVERAGE OF DEEPSCAN: To believers, Lochness is the home of the world’s most famous monster. To skeptics, just a monster sized myth.

A flotilla of 24 boats use sonar to map the entire lake. The data includes three unknown contacts that can’t be explained. Skeptics claim it’s likely a seal or group of salmon, while believers see what they want to see.

Recently, a large group of volunteers descended upon the large body of water with more sophisticated tools—hoping to settle the debate once and for all. Audio here from NPR:

NPR: Hundreds of Monster Hunters have gathered in the Scottish Highlands to carry out what's probably the largest search for the Loch Ness Monster in 50 years. It’s dubbed, The Quest.

Armed with thermal scanners, infrared cameras, and an underwater hydrophone, volunteers from Loch Ness Exploration searched the waters from 17 observation points.

ANC: Things have happened over the centuries at Loch Ness that we can’t explain.

No official word yet if they found anything conclusive. Regardless of what they do find—or don’t find—the legend is sure to continue, if for no other reason than the search itself is good for local business.

And finally today, a little history behind a common phrase.

MONTAGE: The threat of losing the internet is a very real concern whether that's by a computer bug | the danger lies in the so-called millennium bug | researchers discovered a new internet bug | the year 2038 bug could wipe out computers.

When computers fail, we typically attribute the problem to a “bug in the system.” It’s really just an unknown failure in the code or hardware. Well, this week marks the anniversary of one of the first times the phrase was used. It happened on September 9th, 1947.

The Harvard Mark II was a massive computing system. It took up over four thousand square feet—about the size of 6 tennis courts.

One day, the computer repeatedly failed to start. So operators began inspecting the 50,000 pound computer and soon discovered the problem. It was an actual computer bug. A tiny moth was stuck in the hardware. While the term “bug” had been previously used in mechanical engineering, it became a playful computer reference for how the tiniest of things can cause an entire system to fail.

My thanks to WORLD interns Emma Perley and Noah Burgdorf for their help researching and writing this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

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