Terrorism, Intelligence, and the Law (From Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, P 185-201, 1997, Cindy C. Combs -- See NCJ- 170150)

• NCJ Number: 170160
• Author(s): C C Combs
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: Prentice-Hall, Inc
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter examines the benefits and risks of using domestic law and intelligence operations to counter terrorism, using country case studies to examine the relevant issues.

Abstract

Some countries have attempted to fashion a broad spectrum of legislative initiatives designed to make it clear that terrorists and groups that resort to terrorism operate outside the law and can expect neither sanctuary nor leniency under the law. These efforts have met with mixed success, depending largely on the determination of the government to enforce the laws and also on the degree of entrenchment that the terrorists enjoy within the society. Among the case studies examined, for example, Canada's efforts to curtail the activities of the Front du Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) have met with considerable success. Italy's offer to pardon "penitent" terrorists, combined with its efforts to close all havens in which those engaged in terrorism might hide, also enjoyed some measure of success. In both cases, legal initiatives were combined with efforts at social reform designed to reduce the grievances that terrorists cited. The points made in the case studies of Canada, Italy, Great Britain, and Germany are that legal initiatives alone are insufficient to eliminate a terrorist problem, and the use of extraordinary legal measures is not without risk, particularly to democracies. One other coping strategy that nations have used to counter terrorism involves intelligence collection. The sharing of intelligence among nations interested in combatting terrorism has been effective when this is combined with a national legal system with established guidelines for the treatment of terrorist suspects or an alternative method of compelling cooperation among nations in the prosecution or extradition of persons arrested for terrorist acts. Both laws and intelligence that target terrorist activity pose risks to democratic values. If democratic values and practices are undermined by counter-terrorist tactics, then terrorists would have achieved one of their goals, which is to foster dissension and mistrust between citizens and their government. 7 suggested readings and 15 notes