Two weeks have past since German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere warned of what he claimed to be a specific threat of terrorist attacks. Since then, the public has learned nothing more about the origin, nature or cause of the threat. A bomb, supposedly loaded onto a German plane in Namibia, proved to be a dummy. Nevertheless, leading government and opposition politicians are exploiting the terrorist alert to expand the use of armed police and attack democratic rights.
Infringements of personal liberties—such as a data retention law requiring telecommunications companies to store data on their customers—will now be pushed forward. The same applies to the deployment of armed forces within the country, which has also until now been hampered by opposition from the Supreme Court.
Federal police, the Federal Criminal Police Office, the intelligence service and other police agencies are to be expanded, restructured and closely linked in order to create a powerful, centralised juggernaut.
During Wednesday’s general debate in the federal parliament, Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said that the terrorist threats were “unfortunately a reality.” She immediately went on to outline the need for new legislation on data retention. A similar law, requiring telecommunications companies to retain the data of all telephone and internet connections for six months and pass it on to the police agencies on demand, had been blocked by the Federal Constitutional Court in March.
Hans-Peter Uhl, spokesman for the CDU/Christian Social Union parliamentary group, called for the authorisation of spying software. “Terrorist networks usually communicate using encrypted internet telephone calls,” he said. “So we need to enable law enforcement and intelligence agencies to crack the encryption and eavesdrop on what is said.”
Volker Bouffier, CDU vice-chairman and prime minister of Hesse, also demanded Thursday the legalisation of data retention and military deployment within Germany. “We have to prepare for an attack with the utmost seriousness,” he told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper. “When the army can do something that the police can’t and it is beneficial for national security, then military forces should be used, too.” As an example, Bouffier cited the protection of property and the “fending away and incapacitating” of aircraft.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/germ-n30.shtml
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