Schäuble’s Politics of Fear

The New York Times has a front-page article today about how the fear of terrorism in Germany is leading to a slow but inexorable erosion of civil liberties.  The article is sympathetic to German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s vigilence with respect to terrorist activities in Germany and Europe, but it also cites those who feel he is overreaching:

"Sensing a growing threat, Germany’s top security official, Wolfgang Schäuble, is breaking down resistance within the government to surreptitious online searches of computers belonging to people they deem suspicious. He is pushing for a law to allow security forces to shoot down a plane commandeered by hijackers. And he said this week that Germany should consider detaining potential terrorists and approving the killing of terrorist leaders abroad.

Such proposals are anathema to many in a country that has sought to eradicate any vestiges of state-sanctioned savagery by erecting a legal framework that enshrines the rights of the individual over the state. Critics say the changes would erode civil liberties and jeopardize Germany’s hard-won rule of law."

Germany is now at a crossroads.  It can follow the British model of systematic law enforcement in preventing terrorism, or it can go down the American path of "Guantanomizing" society with a lawless approach of torture, open-ended detention, and kidnapping (rendition). That is the fear expressed by the journalist Heribert Prantl in his op/ed piece  Der Angst-Mach Minister (The Fear-Mongering Minister):

"Der Minister redet so, als könne Deutschland sein Heil nur durch seine Verwandlung in einen 007-Staat finden – durch Mutation des Rechtsstaats in ein Regime der legalen Extralegalität. Er redet von Besonnenheit und praktiziert das Gegenteil; er warnt vor Hysterie, verbreitet sie aber höchstselbst; er missbilligt Guantanamo, redet aber so, als sei dringlich eine Guantanamoisierung des deutschen Rechtssystems vorzubereiten." ("Wolfgang Schäuble is making us afraid. The minister talks as if Germany could only be saved by turning itself into a 007 state – by mutating from a constitutional state into a regime of legal illegality. He talks of prudence but practices the opposite; he warns of hysteria yet propagates it himself; he disapproves of Guantanamo but talks as if it were vital to prepare the way for the Guantanamisation of Germany’s judicial system.")