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Europe Toughens Up
How do you say "Patriot Act" in Italian and German?
Monday, August 15, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
In 1998, two significant events occurred in the life of Muslim cleric Abu Qatada: He was convicted in absentia for involvement in bombings in Jordan, and he was granted political asylum in Britain. Two years later, another terror conviction for the so-called "spiritual ambassador of al Qaeda to Europe" came in Jordan--at the same time that British authorities were reviewing his petition for permanent residence. The Brits finally arrested Mr. Qatada in 2002 under new anti-terror legislation passed after 9/11. But he was released last March when a court struck down the law.
On Thursday, police detained Mr. Qatada again and arranged to deport him to Jordan. This about-face is perhaps the most concrete example yet that Prime Minister Tony Blair is serious about changing "the rules of the game" in dealing with extremists following the July 7 bombings in London and a failed attack two weeks later.
Mr. Blair is once again playing a leading role in the war on terror and, unlike in the Iraq war, most of Europe appears ready to follow this time. From Spain, which suffered the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid, to less likely targets such as Sweden, the Continent finally is waking up to the universal and very real threat that terror poses. France, for all its objections to the Iraq war, already has some of Europe's toughest anti-terror laws.
Worries of an imminent attack are particularly acute in Italy. A recent poll by the daily Corriere della Sera found that more than 80% of Italians believe that terrorists could strike within months. Since the London attacks, Rome has granted to the military search powers that previously were reserved for police. It has broadened law enforcement's scope by doubling, to 24 hours, the amount of time suspects can be detained and by making telephone and Internet records more accessible to investigators, among other measures. Police will spend more time carrying out raids against terror suspects--authorities made 200-plus raids in one week shortly after July 7--and will keep closer tabs on suspicious mosques.
Italians who think their vulnerability is the result of their participation in the Iraq war should look no further than Germany, which opposed the war yet feels compelled to step up its security. Interior Minister Otto Schily has been outspoken about his belief that Islamic terrorists are at war not just with the U.S. and its allies in Iraq but with Western society in general. Mr. Schily has called for increased search and detention powers in cases involving terror suspects who are known to be a threat but who haven't yet committed a crime.
Throughout Europe, there has been good cooperation between national intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and the European Union has pledged to seek ways of strengthening this cooperation. Yet Germany and other nations are finding that they still struggle to coordinate the work of various police forces within their own borders. Solving this problem could be the most important step in improving Continent-wide security.
Of course, the old-time religion of appeasement hasn't completely disappeared. Mr. Schily's proposals have been compared to Nazi-era tactics by leading members of the Green Party, a minority partner in Gerhard Schröder's coalition government. Some German officials have--in all seriousness--floated the idea of a new Muslim public holiday as a way of mitigating the terror threat.
Even in Britain, controversy envelops the efforts to deal with further threats. Mr. Qatada's fellow detainees reportedly include one suspected of helping to plan terror attacks abroad and another who received training in the use of explosives at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. But the chief worry of some Blair critics is that the detainees might be deported to a country where they could face torture. How that can supersede the government's duty to protect its citizens can only be clear to the likes of British journalist Yvonne Ridley, who, as reported in this newspaper last week, compared Mr. Blair to Pol Pot for trying "to eliminate free speech."
Absolutist interpretation of free-speech rights, with no injunction against "shouting fire in a crowded theater," has protected extremists such as Mr. Qatada and Omar Bakri Mohammed, who recently fled Britain after two decades of preaching hatred and violence. Allowing Muslims to practice their religion freely is the act of a free society. But looking the other way while radical clerics praise suicide bombers in Israel and America and encourage their acolytes to attack their neighbors is an abdication of governmental responsibility.
Some observers have predicted Britain's new anti-terror laws will clash with human-rights laws, and Mr. Blair has pledged to change the human-rights laws if necessary. Other European nations would do well to review whether their laws could be tweaked to close loopholes that terrorists have learned to exploit. That these measures are finally being discussed is a sign that Europe is finally giving serious thought to the balance between freedom and security.
