Not an Easy Job: Prosecuting Terrorists in Germany

Our reader David L made me aware of this piece in the National Review:

PROSECUTING TERRORISTS IN GERMANY

This Washington Post story about the difficulties of prosecuting terrorists in Germany ought to spur some self-examination on this side of the Atlantic:

After three years of failing to hold anyone accountable for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Germany is preparing to expel accused members of the Hamburg-based cell that led the hijackings and send them to countries with more aggressive records of prosecuting terrorism.

Although two criminal trials are still pending, German officials, legal experts and lawyers involved in the cases said the massive investigation into the al Qaeda cell has been stymied by this country's lax anti-terrorism laws, unfavorable judicial rulings and a lack of evidence, making it increasingly doubtful that anyone here will be convicted.

The state of affairs is apparent at the judicial complex in Hamburg, where one of the defendants, Mounir Motassadeq, is being tried on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. Despite the gravity of the charges, he is a free man, walking alone from his home to the century-old courthouse each morning, unguarded.

Motassadeq was convicted of the charges last year, making him the only person anywhere found guilty of playing a role in the Sept. 11 plot to attack targets in the United States. But he was freed in April, after an appellate court rejected the verdict as based on flimsy evidence and other legal deficiencies…

When it comes to dealing with Islamic radicals, Germany has some of the most tolerant laws in Europe. Before the Sept. 11 attacks, it was legal in Germany to belong to a foreign terrorist organization such as al Qaeda as long as it was not active inside the country...

German legislators have tried to stiffen their anti-terrorism laws in recent years and have made it easier to deport immigrants for belonging to Islamic radical groups. But police and prosecutors complain that they are still hampered by a legal code that was drafted after World War II in hopes of reining in Nazi-style abuses and places a greater burden of proof on German investigators than their counterparts in other European countries…

Legal experts said it could take several months or years to expel any accused Hamburg cell members from Germany.

If Motassadeq walks, how many lines of dovish conventional wisdom will that damage?

* Terrorism is primarily an intelligence and law-enforcement issue.
* Military tribunals are the wrong tool for dealing with terrorism - criminal courts can handle the various complications, challenges, and burdens of proof.
* Whenever possible, the U.S. should extradite its prisoners in Guantanamo Bay to their home country.
* European governments understand the threat of terrorism as well as, if not better, than the United States.

Comments

[Pamela]

Slightly OT or maybe not? This is over a year old, but I just found it and thought it , um, interesting

>For today's Europeans, there is no consolation, neither the old pagan continuity of national culture, nor the Christian continuity into the hereafter. The French know that Victor Hugo, Gauloise cigarettes, Chateau Lafitte and Impressionist painters one day will become a matter of antiquarian curiosity. The Germans know that no one but bored schoolboys will read Goethe two centuries hence, like Pindar. They have no ambition but to die quietly, no concerns except for those amusements which might reduce boredom and anxiety en route to the grave. They have no passions except hatred born of envy. They hate America, a new kind of universality that succeeded where the old Christian empire failed. They hate Israel, which makes the Jewish people appear all the more eternal in stark contrast to Europe's morbid temporality. They will pass out of history unmourned even by themselves.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/front_page/ED08Aa01.html

[Gabi]

Neuer "Trend" in Europa?!

Dienstag 14. Dezember 2004, 13:53 Uhr
Gewaltbereite Jugendliche gehen in Irak

Brüssel (AP) Gewaltbereite Jugendliche aus Europa und den arabischen Staaten gehen nach Erkenntnissen der EU zur paramilitärischen Ausbildung in den Irak. Darauf wies der EU-Koordinator im Kampf gegen den internationalen Terrorismus, der Niederländer Gijs de Vries, im Gespräch mit der Nachrichtenagentur AP am Dienstag in Brüssel hin. Angaben über Herkunft und Zahl der Personen wollte er nicht machen. «Ich könnte das, aber ich werde es nicht sagen, weil diese Informationen geheim sind.» Erkenntnisse darüber, wie viele der betreffenden Personen zu terroristischen Aktivitäten in ihre Heimat zurückkehrten, seien eher dünn, sagte De Vries weiter. «Nicht jeder, der ein solches Ausbildungslager besucht, greift danach zu den Waffen», sagte De Vries. «Was aber wichtiger ist, ist der Trend.»

http://de.news.yahoo.com/041214/12/4c5xf.html

[Chomskybot]

German legislators have tried to stiffen their anti-terrorism laws in recent years and have made it easier to deport immigrants for belonging to Islamic radical groups.

Well, in many cases, domestic intelligence agencies prefer not to deport immigrants suspicious of terrorist activities because information gathering will be mase easier.
When you deport a terrorist, he's out of the country, but his further plans and activities will remain more in the dark.
When you don't deport him, it's easier to spy on him, but he may strike right in your country.
It's a difficult decision.

[Joe N.]

Hence the old philosophy of "catch and release"... The Saudis did it with Bin Laden, the Germans, french, and italian did it with BMG, Action Directe, Red Army Faction, the IRA, etc...
One of the many brickbats that European leftists throw at the US is ending this policy - thus their fevered obsession with Camp Delta, making any sort of set of arguments availiable (no matter how self-contradictory) about them...

They have capitalized so much of the world's attention, that they're hard to take seriously anymore.

[Sock Puppet of Doom]

In Germany it is not a crime to assist the killing of US citizens and Jews. I thought everyone knew that. (I am joking.)

After the total abuse of justice during the NAZI period it is better Germany keep it difficult to convict persons under the law. The number of the non-guilty that were sent to the guillotine, hangman and firing squad after being tourtured (real torture not made uncomfortable or yelled at) then put on trial makes this necessary. Germans should not give that power to anyone in the future ever.

I do not understand however the reluctance to deport those persons to places where compentent courts can try them. I believe that is a political failure of the government not of the courts. How hard is it to revoke a visa and put someone on a plane? If someone is a guest in your country do you not have ther right to make them leave when they become poor guests?
That is how Germany is "unhelpful" to the US who wants to bring all those who had part in 9/11 to justice.