Bürgerrechte & Polizei/CILIP 80 (1/2005)

Summaries

Old and new terrorism - an introduction

by Norbert Pütter

The terrorist discourse has resurrected a well tried legitimation for the extension of the security apparatus. Strategies of proactive and infiltrating police methods are on the rise. Police, security services and military are being conflated. Liberal democratic standards are being suspended. The consensus of powerful states in the fight against terrorism is accompanied by the creation of an 'enemy within'.

Dragnet control after 11 September 2001

by Martina Kant

After 11 September 2001, the nation-wide dragnet control in Germany led to the collection and classification of personal data from around 8,3 million people. Several "sleepers" (terror suspects) were not detected by this method and the flops and mishaps that accompanied the action are now revealed in a secret report by the Federal Crime Police Authority.

Anti-terrorism and immigration law

by Marei Pelzer

Anti-terror laws introduced after 11 September 2001 curtailed the rights of migrants and refugees. The new immigration law is a continuation of this actionist legislation. Its centrepiece is the deportation of terror suspects without prior conviction.

The fight against terrorism as politics of power

by Norbert Pütter

Since the attacks of 11 September 2001, German law makers have given security services a series of new powers. They range from anti-money laundering measures to the right for the military to shoot down civilian airplanes. This article presents the proposed laws, the reaction by the opposition and the expected outcome.

Terror alarms in Germany and what's left of them

by Anja Lederer

Since 11 September 2001, also German politicians, police and security services have started talking about an increased threat of terrorist attacks. They remain abstract warnings intended to prepare the public sphere for new security measures.

Spanish anti-terrorist legislation

by Peio M. Aierbe

After 11 September 2001, the fight against ETA and the criminalisation of the Basque left movement remained high on the agenda of Spanish anti-terrorist politics. After the Madrid bombings of 11 March 2004, the new government has empowered the security service CNI to lead the fight against Islamic terrorism as well as massively extending the police force.

Thirty years anti-terrorist legislation in the UK

by Ben Hayes

The anti-terrorist laws passed since 1974 in the UK are characterised by extensive special powers for police. When the House of Lords declared detention without trial (introduced in 2001) to be illegal, parliament passed a new anti-terror law in March this year, introducing powers to restrict freedom of movement (amongst others by house arrest) without regular procedures and on the basis of secret "evidence".

The "war on terrorism" in the U.S.

by Albrecht Funk

The U.S. "war on terrorism" has led to far-reaching changes: the National Intelligence Reform abolished the separation of external and internal security, the Patriot Act introduced new powers for the executive to infringe on U.S. citizens' right to be free from arbitrary arrest and detention. Non-U.S. citizens, who have been declared "enemy combatants", have been placed entirely outside the legal order.

Secret trials against terrorists? G8 models for the EU

by Tony Bunyan

In the "war against terrorism", the G8 is trying to enforce new global standards: particularly the U.S. favours "special investigations techniques" and the use of "secret intelligence" as evidence in court whilst not disclosing its sources. In some European circles these demands are welcomed.

Torture debate: sentence in the Daschner case

by Wolf-Dieter Narr

On 20 December 2004, the regional court in Frankfurt decided on a suspended sentence for the former deputy president of the Frankfurt police: to pay a fine, which is the lowest possible sentence in this case. In October 2002, Wolfgang Daschner had ordered his officers to threaten the kidnapper of an 11 year old boy with torture to force him to disclose the whereabouts of the child. The debate around this case portrays how relative the "absolute" torture ban really is.

Instead of emetics - prison until the "excretion of evidence"

by Helmut Pollähne

After the death of the 35 year old Laye-Alama Condé from Sierra Leone, the city of Bremen intends to refrain from force feeding emetics to those suspected of drugs dealing: in future, if suspects do not take emetics voluntarily, the authorities will imprison them until the "evidence is excreted".

Switzerland: data collection by the Federal Police Bureau

by Heiner Busch

The reaction of the law commission of the Lower House of Parliament (Nationalrat) to the publication of an overview of the federal police's data pool has been rather lethargic. The vast number of persons whose data is being stored in the Federal Police Bureau were barely taken notice of.