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Europe still napping

Europeans fail to take real action in face of growing terror threat

Everyone knew hurricanes hitting the Gulf of Mexico are becoming increasingly more powerful, and that a direct hit on New Orleans would be catastrophic. Still, too little was done to prepare for such nightmare scenario.

 

Nobody wants to predict or even consider the possibility of mass slaughter on the streets of Europe, but there too people will be admitting at one point or another the writing was on the wall.

 

Like the Americans name their storms, the Europeans too can mark names on the map: Casablanca, May 2003 (41 killed in attacks on Jewish targets); Istanbul, November 2003 (about 60 killed in attacks on synagogues and British institutions); Madrid, March 2004 (about 200 killed in train blasts); and London, July 2005 (about 50 killed in attacks on the public transportation system and another attempted attack that failed.)

 

Terror continues to threaten Europe like a raging hurricane. Everyone knows the next strike is merely a matter of time, but the Europeans prepare at their own pace. Four years after the September 11 attacks, Europeans invest the utmost efforts in discussing, or is it debating, what can be done to fight terrorism.

 


Terror in London (Photo: ATP)

 

They introduce initiatives, establish bodies, commission reports and gather in palaces to sign conventions, while devouring hors d’ouvre and sipping wine. In practice, there is almost no problem purchasing industrialized explosives in the Polish black market, for example, loading up the car, and with no interruptions heading right into the crowded square at the foot of the Tower of Pisa.

 

Europeans find it easy to agree on cooperation, but implementing the agreements is a more complex task. Sometimes it takes years. Other times, it just doesn’t happen.

 

Back in 2001, for example, the European Union decided to formulate procedures for issuing pan-European detention orders in order to make the transfer of terror suspects from one country to another easier. Italy only ratified the initiative in April of this year.

 

Another example: Following the Madrid attack in 2004, European leaders convened for an emergency session and agreed on a series of counter-terror measures. A year passed. Following the London attacks, European foreign ministers convened for yet another emergency session, where they agreed to invest efforts in implementing some of the measures agreed upon earlier.

 

In December 2003, following Casablanca and Istanbul, a terror attack in the heart of Europe seemed remote. Italy’s former interior minister said “hitting Europe in the same manner would be much more difficult.” Several months later, Madrid was shaken up. The following months showed not only how easy it was to hit Europe, but how easy it was to exploit Europe in order to act against it.

 

Ahmed’s 'European tour'

 

Rabei Osman Ahmed, known as “Mohammed the Egyptian,” was signaled out as the brain behind the Madrid attacks. He was first detained in June 1999 by the French border police. He claimed he was Palestinian but carried no documentation.

 

Officials thought he was an illegal immigrant and until his expulsion he was transferred in 2000 to a German camp for Arabs seeking political asylum. The camp was in fact a fenced, unguarded neighborhood where incitement was not monitored. Nobody noticed when he left in August 2001 and traveled to Madrid.

 

There, he frequently met with radical activists and came under police surveillance. In July 2003, he was suspected of being an al-Qaeda member and surveillance efforts were boosted, but that didn’t stop him from traveling to Italy and disappearing.

 

Italian police only discovered his presence there in April 2004, a month after the Madrid bombings. The Italians were quick to talk with the Spaniards and then it turned out his phone number appeared in the memory of two phones belongings to the Madrid terrorists. At that point, the Italians began wiretapping him as well.

 

The recordings provided unequivocal evidence. He admitted to planning the attacks in Madrid for a long time and praised the terrorists. He was detained on July 8, 2004, and was put on trial in Italy.

 

“I know who they are, but they don’t know who I am,” he told a friend in Milan a few days before he was detained. “You confuse them. They don’t know where you’re from and meanwhile you can continue moving freely.”

 

European liberalism a two-edged sword

 

Ahmed’s “European tour’ demonstrates how the continent turned not only into a target for attacks but also a convenient operational base. The open borders and ability to move from one place to another without identifying oneself are good not only for Europeans and tourists, but also for those who wish to harm them. Only a few border control stations stand in the way of a radical from the Balkans or the Russian republics on his way to Rome or Paris.

 

European liberalism, which discourages unnecessary questions, serves as a two-edged sword. The large immigrant communities in European countries allow terror elements to infiltrate society without being discovered and also makes it more difficult for security officials to spot the real terrorists hiding amidst the masses of potential suspects without resorting to ethnicity-based discrimination.

 

Then there’s the European character, which encourages dialogue and strategy. As a result, more European initiatives focus on the roots of the problem, terrorists’ motivations, and the recruiting and radicalization of youngsters, and too few deal with immediate steps.

 

The European Union, that giant, awkward hybrid, is finding it difficult to decide and even more difficult to act. Positive initiatives hit a dead-end only because of the need to coordinate positions with 25 countries all having different needs and facing different threats.

 

Other initiatives, such as European monitoring of money-laundering, are thwarted due to foreign considerations. Commentators also say that some friction over the matter was a result of support by some European states for the United States.

 

So what has changed in Europe four years after September 11? Not much, aside from the vague realization perhaps that the forefront of the anti-terror battle is found not only in Iraq, the Middle East, or Pakistan and Indonesia’s religious schools. Indeed, it’s right outside the door.

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.10.05, 21:01
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