Posted on 07/12/2007 1:02:53 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
BERLIN: German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble drew flak yesterday for considering a security policy that would allow the indefinite detention and “targeted killing” of terror suspects.
Peter Struck, parliamentary group leader of the Social Democrats, half of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s left-right ruling coalition, expressed shock at Schaeuble’s remarks, which included a call to ban the use of the Internet and mobile phones by foreign suspects living in Germany.
“(Schaeuble’s) new proposals on banning cellular phones could only be implemented in a police state,” Struck told the daily Frankfurter Rundschau.
He said Germany must draw lessons from its Nazi past, also dismissing a call made by Merkel last week to allow the military to be deployed on German soil in the event of an imminent terrorist threat. “This argumentation is wrong because it, among other things, does not take into account the horrible experiences in German history,” he said.
Schaeuble made the comments in yesterday’s issue of the news weekly Der Spiegel, when asked how Germany should deal with the threat of Islamist terrorism after the recent foiled bombings in Britain.
“Let’s say someone knew in which cave Osama bin Laden is sitting. Someone could then fire a guided missile to kill him,” he said, referring to the Al Qaeda chief. “But let’s be honest - the legal issues involved are still completely unresolved, above all if Germans were to be involved.
“We must try to resolve such constitutional issues as precisely as possible and create a legal foundation to have the necessary liberties in the struggle against terrorism.”
He added that Germany should consider classifying terror suspects as “enemy combatants” - mirroring a policy used by the US since the suicide hijackings of September 11, 2001 to justify detention without criminal charge.
“If for example potential terrorists - so-called sleepers - cannot be deported, what will we do then? One could consider introducing a law against conspiracies, as they have in America,” he said. “The other question is whether one could treat such sleepers as combatants and intern them.”
Merkel’s deputy spokesman Thomas Steg said there were no current plans to implement any of Schaeuble’s proposals but did not dismiss his ideas out of hand. “Of course such interviews are not agreed with the chancellor in advance,” he told a regular government news conference.
“The chancellor expects from her cabinet ministers that they think beyond the day at hand in their remits and confront fundamental issues. Wolfgang Schaeuble has provided food for thought and the chancellor believes that in the struggle against terrorism there can be no taboo proposals.”
The attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 were planned by students living in Germany.
Under the Basic Law adopted after the Nazi era, the military may only be deployed in the event of a disaster or to provide medical back-up during major public events.
Germany narrowly escaped a bloodbath last July when homemade bombs placed on two regional trains failed to detonate. Two Lebanese nationals have been charged in the case.
The head of the German police union, Konrad Freiberg, called Schaeuble’s proposals “irresponsible.”
“Schaeuble is preparing for the day that a terror attack is carried out (in Germany) to distract attention from his own oversights,” he said. “It is as if he wants to say ‘I told you so’.”
The head of the liberal opposition Free Democrats, Guido Westerwelle, warned against a “Guantanamo-isation” of interior policy, referring to the US-run prison camp for terror suspects in Cuba.
“I demand that the chancellor distance herself from these plans to allow a kind of shooting on suspicion in Germany,” he said. “This is not a policy that is constitutional.”
The Germans - or the terrorists?? ;-)
I like the idea of targeted killings.
Yes.
A lot do, but the Church Commission got rid of them.
Laws can be repealed. I don’t remember ever swearing allegiance to a commission of any sort.
The other option is non targeted killing.
The MSM, pols, and talking heads have struggled with this for five years, probably because to get it right would be a constant reminder of the global enemy we face.
The proper term for Muslim terrorists is "unlawful combatants," not "enemy combatants". As such they are excluded from the protections of the Geneva Conventions.
Many headaches would have been solved by declaring war against all Islamist groups on the State Dept.'s Designated Terrorist List.
Part of me has always liked the idea of quiet, targeted killings. The other part’s kind of queasy about it.
:/
“The other question is whether one could treat such sleepers as combatants and intern them.” ................ Not a bad idea, but where will they intern them, Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen???? Can you see the MSM having a picnic with this if they ever tried to do it? The past will be brought up even if they were interned in a local jail.
Good for him, a German equivalent of Lieberman.
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