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Europe Criticizes Bush; Follows His Lead in "War on Terror"

By Julio Godoy, IPS News. Posted November 25, 2008.


European countries are increasingly trading liberty for "some temporary security."

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Outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush has been unpopular in Europe, but his policies in fighting the 'war on terror' have found many takers.

Daniel Finke and Thomas Koenig, professors of politics at the University of Mannheim, 500 km south of Berlin, have found numerous similarities between U.S. "homeland security" and European laws since 2001.

"We do not want to attack all EU homeland security policies, but we have found there is a law-making trend across Europe that reduces civil liberties in exchange for more collective security," Koenig told IPS.

Finke and Koenig studied Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany and Sweden.

The new European laws reducing civil rights range from introducing biometric control devices such as computerised passports and the digital registration of fingerprints to surveillance and storage of all telephone and Internet traffic and transaction data, including bank operations.

Finke and Koenig say the European trend of trading off civil freedoms against homeland security goes against the rights of democratic institutions such as parliaments. "Parliaments are forced to ratify all government decisions in this matter without questioning, and without the right to discuss and eventually reject elements of the laws," Koenig said.

This means, he added, that governments have been turning off the democratic system of check and balances. "On the question of homeland security, we are facing the dismantling of traditional democratic controls."

In a new book Der Terrorist als Gesetzgeber -- Wie man mit Angst Politik Macht (The Lawmaker as Terrorist, or How Politics Foments Fear), Heribert Prantl, a former district attorney in Munich, and now leading editorial commentator at the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, says governments all over the industrialised world have "sacrificed civil rights at the altar of homeland security and the so-called war against terror.

"Inspired by the notion of preventing terror, which pervades U.S. foreign policy under George W. Bush, the new anti-terror laws consider every one of us a potential terrorist," Prantl told IPS. "Until 2001, it was the other way around: if you did not give a reason to be a suspect, you were left in peace. This was called the rule of law. Now laws are taking away our freedoms."

The French watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) said in a report last month that EU countries have been curtailing the rights of journalists to report freely on political issues. The report says the U.S. is now behind African countries such as Mali, Ghana and Namibia in the world ranking of countries on respecting freedom of information.

Some European countries have been systematically harassing journalists, it says. "France has for the past two years held the European record for police and court interventions linked to the confidentiality of journalists' sources, with five searches, two preliminary indictments and four summonses."

The report condemned particularly the arrest of investigative journalist Guillaume Dasquié by the state intelligence agency Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST), and of Bruno Thomas, a reporter for the motoring weekly Auto Plus.

Dasquié was detained by the DST in December 2007 after he published an intelligence report on Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in July in the Le Monde daily. Dasquié was released after two days of questioning at the DST headquarters in Paris.

Thomas was detained in July 2007 and is still under judicial investigation after he published a report on a new model by French automobile maker Renault that is not yet in the market. Auto Plus editor-in-chief Laurent Chiapello said the matter was "blown out of proportion" and that the journalist was "simply doing his job, that is finding new information to better inform the reader."


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Great Article AND …
Posted by: ds1st on Nov 25, 2008 12:13 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Great Article AND …

The EU purchases our products, pines for our travelers, supports NATO, and likes US Rock-n-Roll. They use United States technology and follow the United States lead.

US tactics and security measures work (e.g. last 7 years). There is no proven way that countries can accomplish terrorist security better that the US.

Lets face it there is evil in the world (Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot…) and it can be beaten down and killed, as it should be! Anyone remember World War II?

To accomplish this goal on a tight budget use American technology and procedures to eliminate the enemy that would put your children in bondage, remember unless you agree with them you are infidel. At least in the United States, if you don’t agree you can give ignorant non-working counter arguments and go home to your TV, Microwave, Computer, Stereo, books ... and enjoy your evening.

It you don’t agree with my previous statement, why don’t you fly over to Iran or any Al-Qaeda strong hold and use your MAGIC words to secure our children’s safety. Who knows maybe Al-Qaeda has a shower facility for you!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Great Article AND … Posted by: laoma
» On the contrary, students . . Posted by: pete ess
ds1st You are Confused
Posted by: pete ess on Dec 1, 2008 4:51 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Locking the USA's 350 million people up under a "Homeland Security" gilded cage is no solution. It only postpones the necessity to join the world's 6 200 million as responsible EQUAL citizens.
Thinking MIGHT can substitute for RIGHT means you are dodging the issue and leaving the growing problem for your children to solve.
As American slips down from its high perch, so the unresolved issues will explode catastrophically in your kids' faces.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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