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By MARK LANDLER,
New York Times

Published: July 11, 2007

FRANKFURT, July 11 - While the British public reacted to the latest
terrorist strike there with stoicism and a practiced determination to get on
with their lives, Germany has erupted in a rancorous dispute over how to
deal with a terrorist threat that has yet to materialize here.

The debate, which has simmered for months, flared up again in the wake of
the botched car bombings in London, after Germany's top security official,
Wolfgang Schäuble, said Germany should consider detaining potential
terrorists and sanctioning the killing of terrorist leaders abroad.

Mr. Schäuble, a conservative politician who is the country's interior
minister, also said that the police should be allowed to conduct clandestine
searches of private computers by way of the Internet, a practice now
forbidden.

"The old categories no longer apply," Mr. Schäuble said in an interview with
the magazine Der Spiegel. "We have to clarify whether our constitutional
state is sufficient for confronting the new threats."

Mr. Schäuble's remarks, which were confirmed by his spokesman, have set off
a storm of protest from opposition leaders, and even from Social Democratic
members of his own "grand coalition" government.


Alting skrider jo, hvis man ikke ved hvem der er demokrater, og hvem der er
det modsatte. 007 med licens til at dræbe, er jo fra en anden tid, som meget
gerne skulle være et overstået kapitel, - ellers begynder man jo at ligen
Putins Rusland.