http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/11/19/gen.britain.debate/index.html#ContentArea Europe debates anti-terror laws _________________________________________________________________ LONDON, England -- The UK Parliament has begun the process of approving legislation to let authorities detain some suspected terrorists indefinitely without trial. The proposal, put forward by Home Secretary David Blunkett, has drawn complaints from some lawmakers that it is being rushed through Parliament and that alternatives should be found that do not violate human rights laws. But on Monday government members of Parliament followed the Labour Party line, supported by opposition parties, and approved the first stage of the plan by 458 votes to five. The government wants the Anti-Terrorism, Security and Crime Bill approved before Christmas and timetabled just three days for members of Parliament to debate the measure. An order allowing Britain to opt out from part of the European Convention on Human Rights would make the indefinite detention of terror suspects possible. Blunkett has defended the proposal, saying it would require annual renewal and would only apply to suspects who could not be deported or extradited. "No one is going macho, no one's trying to do this for the sake of promoting some sort of vitriolic or anti-human rights agenda," Blunkett told BBC television. "The security and anti-terrorist services say that there are people ... who we would normally be able to remove from the country but at the moment they would be able to claim habeas corpus and stop me being able to remove them," he said. "I could remove them if they had a safe country to go to, I could of course extradite them where extradition has been agreed with a particular country. If I can't actually remove somebody because they would be tortured or murdered, I will detain them instead." The plan has also come in for criticism from civil rights groups. John Wadham, director of the civil rights group Liberty, said: "This is a fundamental violation of the rule of law, our rights and traditional British values." Britain is not the first European country to consider tightening its anti-terror laws in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, where a number of new laws also have been put into place -- including a presidential order allowing non-U.S. citizens accused of terrorism to be tried in military tribunals rather than civilian courts. Germany has pledged an extra $1.4 billion next year for a security crackdown, and the government has introduced an anti-terror package that includes upgrading identification cards for non-nationals living in there. The new package was agreed only after days of argument over how to prevent terror attacks being planned or executed in Germany while protecting civil liberties. But reports that Interior Minister Otto Schily wanted federal police to have the right to carry out searches without a court warrant were met with wide-ranging criticism from civil rights groups and warnings from within Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition that such powers were forbidden by the country's post-war constitution. In France, the parliament has approved a package of tougher anti-terror measures that Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant said was a response to "exceptional circumstances." The new measures, which will be in force through 2003, give police the right to search cars and access private phone calls and e-mail. The strengthened laws will allow police to search car boots on the instructions of a prosecutor in terrorist inquiries. Until now cars were off-limits to police. The amendments also allow bag and body searches at places such as airports, stadiums and stores, and enable police to carry out nighttime searches in storage spaces and garages during preliminary investigations. Previously, they had to wait until 6 a.m. The plan also allows investigative judges to demand that phone or Internet companies save wiretapped conversations and Internet data for up to a year. The 15-member European Union has taken collective anti-terror measures on a number of related issues, including money laundering. "We are taking collectively very big decisions -- for (powers of) arrest, for money laundering -- in all the chapters where we need new cooperation against terrorists," European Commission President Romano Prodi told BBC radio. Since September 11, EU finance, justice and transport ministers have jointly endorsed measures to combat global terrorism, including a move to apply money-laundering rules to various serious crimes in addition to the drugs trade. They also pledged to freeze assets of terrorists and their organisations and boost airport and aircraft security. In the United States, President George W. Bush signed an order last week giving him the option of trying non-U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism before a special military commission instead of civilian courts. Senior administration officials have told CNN that the proceedings could be secret and could be held in the United States or overseas. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has voiced his support for the decision, saying there was no reason a suspected terrorist captured in another nation should be brought back to the United States for trial. "Foreign terrorists who commit war crimes against the United States in my judgment are not entitled to, do not deserve the protections of the American Constitution," Ashcroft said. Ashcroft also has ordered law enforcement personnel to question more than 5,000 young men who entered the United States in the past two years. More than 1,100 people have been detained or arrested in the U.S. as part of the ongoing terrorist investigation. http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/11/19/gen.britain.debate/index.html#ContentArea
