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| Europe |
| Is Europe Losing Ground against Radical Islam? Role of Prisons |
| 2005-06-20 |
| Is Europe losing ground in its fight against radical Islam? Recent events and trends have investigators worried that it is. Last week Spanish police broke up a network that allegedly sent radical Islamic volunteers to fight in Iraq and brought veterans of that war back to Europe to create new terror cells. 3 guesses which country they're moving through - see the 2nd last para Meanwhile, Spanish prison officials are worried that their jails have become breeding grounds for terrorists. And in coming months, dozens of terror suspects will be released from European jails because formal charges have yet to be filed. Despite a massive police crackdown in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. and improved police and judicial cooperation across Europe, investigators say the terror threat isn't diminishing. European Union counterterrorism boss Gijs de Vries says Islamist terrorism could challenge European governments for decades. Former Central Intelligence Agency counterterrorism chief Cofer Black says the endless stream of new recruits to radical Islam in Europe's target-rich environment presents a "clear risk and danger" that has grown more acute, not less. Spanish investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzón says terrorist groups exploit Europe's freedom to prepare short-term and long-term attacks. "Islamist terrorists recruit a new generation ... to continue the fight before they execute their own attack," Mr. Garzón says. In response, European leaders are reaching out to mainstream Muslim populations. In France, government officials meet regularly with Islamic councils, seeking ways to defuse the appeal of the violent minority. In Spain, the centerpiece of Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero's foreign policy is a loosely defined "Alliance of Civilizations" that seeks dialogue with the Arab world in a bid to marginalize radical fundamentalists. and keep access to oil. and show those annoying Yanquis. and maybe not get blown up we hope. Paradoxically, Europe's quick jailing of terror suspects soon after the U.S. hijackings may have aggravated the problem. In Spain, for instance, police nabbed 15 Algerian suspects with paramilitary equipment two weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington. They haven't been formally indicted, and will go free in September; Spanish law caps pretrial detention at four years. To an extent, the U.S. reliance on extralegal detention centers such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan obviates part of the problem facing Europe. By keeping terror suspects away from other inmates vulnerable to recruitment, these facilities minimize jailhouse indoctrination. They also avoid the early release of potentially dangerous inmates. gee, ya think???? But a growing contingent of U.S. lawmakers now are convinced that facilities like Guantanamo Bay fuel resentment and help drive recruitment to jihad across the Arab world, hurt! our feelings are hurt and we demand that some people get blown up to make it better! and some have called on the Bush administration to shut it down. Spanish investigators have identified a similar phenomenon: Suspects nabbed in recent years say they joined jihad out of anger at long-term detentions and sweeping police crackdowns. uh huh. and cause Fatima won't give me the time of day in this infidel country. an' I can't even get a high paying job without learning math an stuff I'd rather major in seething. In Europe, merely calling for jihad isn't a criminal offense; prosecutors often need evidence of intent to commit a violent crime to obtain conviction. In the Netherlands, a person linked to a militant Islamist network that has ties to the man who allegedly killed Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh -- Samir Azzouz -- was released in April. He was sentenced to three months for a firearms violation after prosecutors failed to make terror-related charges stick. In Germany, a veteran of Afghan training camps, Ishan Garnaoui, will be released next year. Civil-liberty advocates say the men should be set free, because prosecutors have been unable to build convincing cases despite years of investigation. Rolf Gössner, president of the German section of the International League for Human Rights, says presumption of innocence requires that suspects be charged or released in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, some European officials say throwing suspects in pretrial detention may worsen the matter. Spanish investigators say hundreds of common criminals are being indoctrinated by suspected Islamists. Prisons traditionally haven't installed their own Muslim religious leaders, so radical emirs have taken charge of informal prayer services in Spanish, French and German jails. Prison officials say radicals promise salvation through jihad, and can indoctrinate drug dealers and pickpockets to fundamentalist beliefs in a matter of weeks, preparing them to form sleeper cells when their short sentences finish. What's more, while police normally get permission to track terror suspects upon release, judges are reluctant to authorize wiretaps or other surveillance of common criminals, on the theory that they have paid their debt to society. The men often can disappear into urban immigrant communities. Spanish police broke up one cell in November, created among prison inmates, that allegedly was plotting to blow up the nation's High Court, seat of the antiterror fight. To prevent recruitment behind prison walls, officials in Spain wrote an 18-page manual last month detailing how to spot changes in prisoner behavior. Potential recruits who notably change their attire, grow beards or pray more than usual can be moved to other areas of the prison. But prison officials are skeptical they can get a grip on the situation. Investigators say the problem is compounded by a wave of holy warriors returning from fighting in Iraq. Though many recruits sent from Europe to Iraq are believed to be suicide-bomb volunteers, police and terrorism officials say there are dozens more who return to act as ringleaders. Spanish police say the 13 men they arrested on June 15 formed part of a network that recruited volunteers for Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq. Police believe Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a Syrian with Spanish papers, may have helped create the network, which shuttles recruits out of Europe and coordinates their return via Syria. Mr. Setmarian Nasar, subject of a $5 million bounty offered by the U.S. government, called on radical Islamic Web sites in early June for European volunteers to wage jihad in Iraq. "The key gauge of the terror threat is the survival rate of Iraqi-trained holy warriors returning to Europe," says Mr. Black, the former CIA official. Even if they are imprisoned, he says, many are experts in explosives, bomb-making and document forgery, and can pass on their skills in prison. |
| Posted by:too true |
| #6 Machts nicht, #5 TGA - they didn't accomplish much in the past, either. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-06-20 14:32 |
| #5 Rafael, by financial contributions to the UN it should (along with Japan). But frankly, it wouldn't matter much. We'll see a new blockade caused by the rivalry of the US and China, like in Soviet Days. The UNSC won't accomplish much in the future. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-20 14:27 |
| #4 Germany should be a permanent member of the UNSC. There I've said it. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-06-20 14:18 |
| #3 At least in Germany "calling for jihad" would qualify as "incitement of violence" and is very well punishable, and if a direct influence to a killing can be proven this can get you life. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-20 14:01 |
| #2 presumption of innocence is still important. corby case reminded aussies of that, but maybe there should be much more stringent laws about the preaching of jihad. Ie: ban it. |
| Posted by: anon1 2005-06-20 10:53 |
| #1 Note that in the past few weeks, there's been a dispute between various factions of the CFCM (official muslim representatives council set up by french gvt) about who was going to lead prison service prayers and select chaplains. Finally, french authorities wielded, and the UOIF, France's muslim brotherhood, was to be chosen! This then stalled due to more power-struggles, and is on the backburner until further notice (the CFCM has just had a new "election" of very dubious democratical value, rigged to lower the UOIF's influence vs algerian and moroccan-backed orgs). |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2005-06-20 10:42 |