Germany Ponders Assassinating Terror Suspects

Germany Mulls Suspects Targeted Killing

Courtesy Of: IslamOnLine
Mon. Jul. 9, 2007

BERLIN — German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble triggered a political storm on Monday, July 9, when he suggested using "targeted killing" and indefinite detention against terror suspects.

"Let's say someone knew in which cave Osama bin Laden is sitting. Someone could then fire a guided missile to kill him," he told the Der Spiegel weekly.

"But let's be honest -- the legal issues involved are still completely unresolved, above all if Germans were to be involved," he admitted.

"We must try to resolve such constitutional issues as precisely as possible and create a legal foundation to have the necessary liberties in the struggle against terrorism."

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The interior minister also called for drafting a US-style security policy to detain terror suspects indefinitely.

"If for example potential terrorists -- so-called sleepers -- cannot be deported, what will we do then," he asked.

"One could consider introducing a law against conspiracies, as they have in America.

"The other question is whether one could treat such sleepers as combatants and intern them."

The Bush administration has been detaining hundreds of terror suspects in the notorious Guantanamo detention center and secret CIA prisons around the world without criminal charge.

Earlier this week, Schaeuble proposed banning the use of Internet and mobile phones by suspected foreigners and expanding video surveillance of public spaces.

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Last April, he suggested terror suspects should be assumed guilty until proven innocent.

Scandalous

Schaeuble's controversial suggestions drew strong reprimands from politicians and police chiefs.

"We mustn't kill liberty in an effort to defend it," Kurt Beck, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) which rules in partnership with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, told Deutsche Welle.

"I think he is overreacting. We cannot protect freedom to death."

Peter Struck, SPD parliamentary bloc leader, accused the interior minister of trying to establish a police state in Germany.

"(Schaeuble's) new proposals on banning cellular phones could only be implemented in a police state," he told the daily Frankfurter Rundschau.

Silke Stokar, a spokeswoman for the Green party, said Schaeuble was trying to lay the legal groundwork for starting a Guantanamo-style prison in Germany.

Max Stadler, an interior affairs expert for the opposition FDP party, agreed.

"I don't know why he instigated this discussion.

"There is a prohibition against killing in Germany."

Police union head Konrad Freiberg also criticized Schaeuble's suggestions.

"It's scandalous and irresponsible."

Freiberg said German laws were strict enough to fight terrorism, accusing the interior minister of engaging in "pure party politics" instead of offering solutions to fight terror.