“The EU has issued a warning about increasing numbers of young people travelling to fight in Syria,” announces El Mundo, which reports on recent declarations by the European counter-terrorism co-ordinator, an organisation which answers to the European Council.

In the absence of common statistics for all of the EU, the warning is based on data from King’s College London’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), which estimates that between 7 and 11 per cent of the foreign fighters who have joined groups combating the Bashar al-Assad regime are from the European Union —

This figure represents close to 500 young people, who have been recruited by the jihadi cells that are present in several European countries, particularly in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

“Recruitment has intensified over recent months,” and the alert level in The Netherlands has been raised in response to fears of a possible terrorist attack, continues El Mundo. The newspaper further reports that the issue will be on the agenda for discussion at the EU interior ministers’ meeting, scheduled for May 8, which is expected to adopt measures to help member states counter this growing threat.

Special units of the Belgian federal police launched a vast operation on April 16 targeting radical Islamists, notably in Brussels, Antwerp and Vilvoorde.

Police organised a total of 48 raids at the homes people believed to be involved in terrorist activity. The suspects are allegedly responsible for sending young Belgians to Syria, where they provide support for Islamic militias fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Six people, including Fouad Belkacem, a former spokesperson for radical Islamist group Sharia4Belgium were arrested.

The mayors of Antwerp, Mechelen and Vilvoorde met with Dutch and Belgian security experts on April 10 to discuss the question of Flemish muslims travelling to Syria to fight loyalist forces.

According to the Belgian press, between 50 and 80 mostly unemployed youths, who are mainly from the areas around Antwerp and Brussels, have joined Islamist militias fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The newspaper reports that the mayors decided to take coordinated action with a three-point plan involving schools, the police and local mosques.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and police in the state of Hesse are investigating an attempt by several neo-Nazi prisoners in several jails to establish a political network, disguised as a mutual aid organisation for detainees.

According to Bild and Süddeutsche Zeitung, the prisoners used coded messages in attempt to make contact with the Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund, a neo-Nazi terrorist group that has been behind a number of racist attacks.

As a result of the investigation, inspections in prisons will be more thorough, and prison officers will receive special training on the management of extreme right prisoners.

The Interior Minister yesterday announced that all of the wiretaps targeting Catalan public figures that were put in place by the Método 3 detective agency will be the subject of a “full investigation”.

News of the scandal emerged when a former policeman working for the agency passed on documents showing evidence that politicians of all parties, judges, and businessmen had been spied on.

"Abolish the Sûreté d'Etat," runs a February 13 headline in Belgian daily De Morgen, quoting socialist Renaat Landuyt who wants to get rid of the country's security service. An expert in legal issues, Landuyt argues that "secret services like the Sûreté d'Etat are out-of-date". In early February, the press published the names of several Belgian politicians mentioned in a secret report by the Sûreté d'Etat. These politicians were said to be linked to religious cults such as The Church of Scientology. This raised the question of whether the 'Sûreté d'Etat' is secretly spying on politicians.

The head of the Sûreté d'Etat, Alain Winants appeared on television on February 11 to state that no files on politicians existed. Yet, on the desk behind him, in plain view, was a file with the name of Filip Dewinter, head of the far-right Vlaamse Belang. The same day, Bart Debie, a former police commissioner and Dewinter advisor, revealed that he had been a "mole" inside the Vlaamse Belang. Yesterday, the Sûreté d'Etat declared that the file with Dewinter's name was "an old legal file".

"The parliament should control the Sûreté d'Etat and not the other way around," says De Morgen in an editorial, adding –

In the midst of the Cold War, in the fight against the Communist danger, each Western nation had an espionage sevice [...]. But the Cold War is over and today's threats come from religious extremists rather than from political extremists.

Has Germany contributed to the civilian nuclear program of Tehran, which is suspected of secretly developing nuclear weapons? That, writes Der Spiegel, is what "Operation Ventilator” is seeking to uncover, as the German authorities have called the investigation to find out if German companies have illegally sold high-tech components to Iran in violation of the sanctions imposed by the UN and the EU.

The investigation led to the arrest in early August of four people in Germany and the discovery of a network responsible for having delivered four sets of valves ("Ventil" in German) worth several million euros through Turkey and Azerbaijan since 2007. According to the German weekly they were evidently recently installed in the nuclear power plant at Arak, which is on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s blacklist –

These studies show that, despite all the sanctions, Germany is still a hub of illegal shipments to Iran.

The case could embarrass Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has always opposed military intervention in Iran in favour of strict sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program within the framework of the UN and the EU, notes Der Spiegel –

If companies in Germany are getting through the net [of controls] and being seen at the international level as collaborating freely with the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, her argument would lose weight.

The European Commission’s proposal to fight terrorist exploitation of the Internet should revive the debate between safety watchdogs and defenders of digital freedoms, writes La Stampa following the publication by European Digital Rights (EDRI) of a confidential document of the working group in charge of elaborating the CleanIt project.

This project, the Turin daily reports, aims to reduce terrorists’ use of the Internet –

About two years the European Commission launched a 400,000 euro tender for a project called CleanIT, which by early 2013 should come up with a list of principles and behaviours useful for monitoring and eliminating terrorist activities on the Internet. The initiative was supported strongly by the Netherlands and received the accession of nine other countries: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, the United Kingdom and Romania. The final result ought to come in the form not of a directive, but of guidelines that may be adopted as ‘gentlemen’s agreement’.

The provisional conclusions of the working group, however, have been leaked by one of its members to EDRI, which has put them up on its website. The NGO is accusing CleanIt of having “strayed from the goals that were initially declared, as well as from the most fundamental rules that mark European democracy and the rule of law.” EDRI denounces in particular the proposals on restricting access to Internet sites considered terrorist, on the creating of fictitious identities on social networks, and on introducing onto browsers a button to report terrorist websites. CleanIt officials were quick to point out that the proposals are only at the discussion stage, reports La Stampa.

On 19 December, Liechtenstein became the 26th member of the Schengen area, following approval by the EU in March. "It's a great day for Liechtenstein" rejoices Volksblatt. To join the freedom of movement zone in Europe, the principality of 35,000 inhabitants between Switzerland and Austria had to comply with the European Visa Information System (VIS), the Schengen Information System (SIS) and the EURODAC system for comparing fingerprints. While Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus are waiting for their applications to join the Schengen area to be approved, Liechtenstein is now the fourth country outside the EU to be part of it, after Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. “Following a press conference, the news was celebrated at Vaduz castle [the official residence of the Princely Family of Liechtenstein] and in the castle cellar," Volksblatt notes.

Süddeutsche Zeitung has revealed that the CIA had a secret prison in Romania. The German daily has collected testimony from several American secret agents, who confirmed the existence of a secret prison in downtown Bucharest, which they themselves had visited.

Similar to other sites operated by the CIA in the Middle East and elsewhere in Europe, and used to interrogate alleged terrorists in the wake of 9/11, the Bucharest “prison” was hidden in a courtyard belonging to the “Romanian NSA,” an intelligence agency created in 2002 to prepare Romania’s accession to NATO.

It was this prospect that was the motivating force behind Romanian authorities’ collaboration with the CIA, explains Süddeutsche Zeitung. Romania has always officially denied the existence of the centre, while the deputy chief of the Romanian NSA, Adrian Cămărăşan, has insisted that no Islamic terrorists were ever detained by his organisation.

“Bombmakers arrested in Berlin”, headlines Die Welt following the arrest of two suspects – a Lebanese man with German citizenship and another man from Gaza – who were in possession of products used to make bombs when they were caught. There are an estimated 1,000 dangerous Islamists in Germany: that’s not insignificant, notes one columnist at the daily, but “another Mohammed Atta [the man who coordinated the September 11 attacks from Hamburg and piloted the first aircraft launched against the World Trade Center] would probably be under surveillance today.” “Security forces in Germany are remarkably effective, working proactively and quietly,” the daily writes. “No one wants a society of fear. That is why the debate on ideological and violent Islamism and the question of Muslim integration in German society – and in democratic society – has defused tensions.” Today, believes Die Welt, “the Germans are calmer, more mature and not so easy to rattle. What worries them most this year is the future of Europe – specifically, the euro. And this fear is justified.”

Frankfurter Rundschau announces that former criminals will soon be "held prisoner by satellites." On 30 August, several Länder [Federal Regions] are to join forces to launch a project for an electronic surveillance command centre. The centre, which is to be established in Hesse, will be operational by 2012. The German daily explains that the priority target for the new monitoring technology will be newly released detainees who present a risk of perpetrating repeat offences. The former prisoners will be obliged to wear electronic bracelets that can be tracked by satellite – and by the police, although the newspaper warns that the initiative should not be used to justify a reduction in their numbers. For its part Berliner Zeitung argues that the plan to introduce a centralised system is a “reasonable” one, but it is not without its weaknesses: “the electronic bracelets do not guarantee security, they consume large amounts of energy, and are dependent on GPS technology which is occasionally unreliable. Monitoring staff will know where criminals are located, but they will not know what they are doing.”


“The state arms itself against citizens,” headlines Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, reporting on the government plan to arm more officials including railway, forest and state fishing guards with electric stun guns. There are 400,000 policemen, custom duty officers as well as border and bodyguards with firearms in Poland but clearly this doesn’t seem to be enough. “Are we safer or, quite to the contrary, more threatened by this internal army?” wonders the Warsaw daily, stressing the fact that no other EU country has such liberal laws concerning the use of tasers as Poland. Currently, nearly 400,000 policemen, body guards, city, border and prison guards are equipped with electric stun guns. And there will be some 8,000 more when the law on firearms is amended in line with the government’s proposals. Legal experts warn that such amendments would constitute a breach of citizenship rights. “We could not confirm the presence of Great White sharks in our rivers,” DGP ironically comments – an allusion to a plan to provide State Fishing Guard wardens with tasers, pointing out that the latter “can be lethal for people with heart problems, that is some 2 million Poles”.



 As La Voix du Luxembourg points out on its front page, the "Dark side of the Internet" has created closer links with the poppy fields of Laos. Reporting on the publication of the 2011 edition of Europol’s bi-annual survey of trends in organised crime. The daily quotes Europol director Rob Wainwright, who describes the Internet as an emerging "key facilitator" for multi-billion euro criminal businesses in Europe. Whether they be involved in drug or human trafficking, money laundering, counterfeiting, or fraud, “traditional criminals” are increasingly using the Internet. La Voix du Luxembourg notes that the report highlights the existence of a number of criminal hubs. These include: "groups gravitating around the Netherlands and Belgium, which coordinate the distribution of drugs in Europe: and in the Baltic States, where they handle illicit merchandise sourced in Russia. The Southwest (Spain, Portugal) has become a hub for cocaine, cannabis resin and human trafficking, while increased trafficking across the Black Sea has led to a rapid growth in criminal networks in the Southeast (Bulgaria, Romania, Greece). Last but not least, Italy continues to be a focal point for criminal activities linked to companies, counterfeiting, and human trafficking." 

"The leftist abertzale (Basque nationalists), for the first time in their history, reject ETA violence,” leads Bilbao daily El Correo, following a statement by nationalist group Sortu (formerly Batasuna, considered close to the Basque terrorist group) in which the party “rejects and opposes the violence of ETA in all its manifestations.” The announcement was made with the municipal elections of May 22 in sight: the law requires that, in order to participate, the parties explicitly reject all violence. This new nationalist left should provide “greater guarantees of its democratic vocation,” El Correo writes in its editorial. The paper does, however, recognise the “remarkable progress” made by Sortu “in their efforts to return to the institutions of state and to leave the path of connivance with terrorism.” The daily notes that the Spanish Supreme Court has yet to comment on the legality of the new party.

"Police chief says we are losing the fight against human trafficking," Politiken leads on Denmark's national police chief and former deputy director of Europol Jens Henrik Højbjerg who has voiced concern over Denmark’s failure to apply a recent  European directive to combat people smuggling. The Copenhagen daily explains that when it adopted the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, Denmark negotiated four opt-outs, which have effectively reduced its obligation to cooperate in the field of justice and home affairs. A majority in the Danish parliament is now willing to hold a referendum on the cooperation opt-out, however, Politiken notes that disagreement over the other  three exceptions means that there will probably no progress towards holding one.

"Greece calls on Frontex to extend its mission,” leads Kathimerini. “As events unfold in Egypt, the Greek authorities are on their guard, fearing a wave of immigration from north Africa," writes the Athens daily. Since the borders were closed in Spain, Italy and Malta, Greece has been getting 90 percent of illegal immigration into Europe, the paper notes, especially as Turkey does not require visas for migrants. This past November, Frontex launched Operation RABIT on the border with Turkey and POSEIDON on the Greek islands. According to Kathimerini, "the European agency for external border surveillance is likely to have agreed to extend its mission while negotiations are underway to spare Greece from the cuts planned for the Frontex budget.”

"Portugal cedes data to the US without safeguarding the death penalty,” denounces Diário de Notícias, a little over eighteen months after the signature of an agreement that grants the US access to the personal data of Portuguese citizens. As a law specialist explains to the Lisbon daily, the agreement allows for "Portugal to cooperate in criminal investigations for crimes in which death penalty could be applied.” The agreement, kept secret by the government of José Sócrates, could prove unlawful, however. Portugal was the first ever European country to abolish the death penalty as early as 1867, enshrining the “Inviolability of Human Life” in its constitution.

Concerned about the cyber assault on its institutions in 2007, Estonia has formed a volunteer cyber-army unit, the Cyber Defence League (CDL), to protect the country against such threats in the future, Rzeczpospolita leads. The first volunteer cyber army unit in the world, the CDL is part of Estonia’s paramilitary Total Defence League and in the event of a war will be put under military command. It now consists of some 80 IT specialists and engineers, who meet once a week to practice fighting off simulated hacker attacks. A leader in internet access, Estonia “was the first country in the world to offer internet voting in parliamentary elections. That is why a cyber attack could paralyse the whole country”, Vahur Made from Estonia’s Diplomatic Academy told the newspaper.

"Increased surveillance," headlines Svenska Dagbladet, in the wake of the 11 December bomb attack in central Stockholm, which resulted in one casualty –  the suspected kamikaze. "It is not the first time that the country has been a target for political violence," notes the daily. Sweden, which has had "a prime minister and a minister of foreign affairs assassinated, has been attacked by a long list of extremists with all kinds of convictions." However, Svenska Dagbladet points out that until now, "we have never seen violent acts designed to wreak carnage among Christmas shoppers." While investigators focus on the personality of the bomber, a 28-year-old Iraqi who studied at the University of Bedfordshire in the UK, Dagens Nyheter notes that Swedish authorities have reiterated appeals for calm and tolerance. On this topic, Svenska Dagbladet recalls the determined response in the aftermath of the July 2005 bombings in London, and urges the Swedish population "not to give in to the temptation of Islamophobia."

“Terrorist alert in Europe,” announces a rattled Jyllands-Posten. The Danish daily explains that the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (DSIS) has warned that members of an unknown terrorist cell are now on their way to Denmark. The DSIS has taken the unusual step of requesting that police remain on alert until the end of the year, while other European countries have also issued terrorism warnings. On 23 November, police investigating a Chechen-Moroccan network arrested 11 people in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. De Volkskrant reports that the Antwerp based organisation, which had been under Belgian police surveillance since the end of 2009, “also had a branch in Amsterdam.”

It may well be the German capital’s leading tourist attraction, but Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that until further notice the “dome of the Reichstag will be closed.” No precise reason has been given for the 22 November decision to restrict access to the building which also houses Germany’s federal parliament. However, commentators have been quick to point out that barricades were placed around the building shortly after the Interior Minister issued a terror alert. On 20 November, a Der Spiegel story about a possible attack on the Reichstag replete with hostages and a Mumbai style bloodbath sparked a storm of controversy in the media. “Hysteria prompted by fear […] has not taken hold in the population, or in politics – but in the media,” notes Süddeutsche Zeitung, which is pleased to report that the Minister of the Interior has not taken advantage of the terrorist threat to introduce more repressive legislation.

“How we have been invaded by the Mafia,” headlines l’Express, which reports on “a European economy tainted” by Italian organised crime. According to Francesco Forgione, a former chairman of the Italian parliament’s anti-Mafia commission, and the author of Mafia Export, Europe has turned “a blind eye to the presence of the Mafia. Its invasion began in the 1950s when agreements to facilitate post-war reconstruction encouraged Italian immigration to Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.” With an extensive Mafia presence, Germany is thought to be the worst affected country, followed by Spain, the Netherlands and France.

"What is Romania spying on in Russia?" wonders Gândul following the arrest of a senior Romanian diplomat in Moscow by the FSB, Russia's secret service. The first secretary of the political department at the Romanian embassy "was captured allegedly attempting to obtain confidential military information", reports the Bucharest daily. According to Gândul, it is just "the latest and most serious episode marking the growing tensions in Russo-Romanian relations since the fall of communism in 1989".

In Southern Europe, the rapid development of outlaw motorcycle gangs, and in particular the Hells Angels, has prompted fears of turf wars in the near future. Berlingske Tidende reports that the Hells Angels, who have been accused of managing the trafficking of hard drugs in Scandinavia, have made rapid inroads in south eastern Europe, Turkey and Albania, where they are now in contact with most of the biker clubs identified by Europol in the region. At the same time, large numbers of the former members of the rival gang, the Bandidos, are also moving into Turkey, which is the anchor point for the "Balkan Route" used to import hard drugs into Europe. "There is a major risk that a turf war could develop in the fight to control the market in South Eastern Europe," explains a Europol representative quoted by the Danish daily.

"Nicolas Sarkozy threatens Al-Qaeda with reprisals," reports Le Figaro. On 26 July, Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that Michel Germaneau, a 78-year-old aid worker kidnapped in Niger on 20 April has been "assassinated" in Mali. The French President described the killing claimed by the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) as a “barbarous act” and announced that it “will not go unpunished.” Le Figaro remarks that “France and Europe should assist Algeria, Mauritania, and all the Sahel-Saharan states in establishing an effective policy for the monitoring and prevention” of terrorism.

The Guardian reveals “the paper trail” on torture. Classified documents demonstrate the UK's role participating in the US programme of “‘extraordinary rendition’ and torture of terrorism suspects, including its own citizens, reports the London daily. British authorities are accused of absolving military intelligence of the duty to prevent torture, denial of consular services resulting in "rendition" to US military prison in Guantánamo and senior ministers directing prisoners' fates. The disclosures in the High Court come as a result of civil proceedings brought by six British former Guantánamo inmates against British authorities. The new government is undertaking a judicial inquiry that many believe will implicate its predecessor.

EUobserver has revealed details of an alleged covert operation by Colombia’s secret service (DAS) to undermine the EU. According to documents seized by the Colombian Attorney General’s office, a DAS mission known as “Operation Europe” sought “to neutralise the influence of the European judicial system, the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee, and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights”. News of the operation, which included wire-taps and email intercepts, first broke in Colombia in 2009, after which the then president Alvaro Uribe introduced legislation to investigate and overhaul the agency. While the European Commission has expressed faith in the current inquiry, several MEPs, NGOs and Brussels insiders critical of Colombia’s human rights record are concerned that the campaign to thwart Bogota’s critics in Europe is far from over. Paul Emile Dupret, a Belgian political advisor to the European Parliament’s United European Left group, aims to take a case against the Colombian agency this July along with victims of DAS wire taps and intimidation.

Austria has adopted a "zero tolerance" policy with regard to terrorists and radicals. On 20 April, the federal cabinet approved an anti-terrorist bill, which will make it an offence to stay in a terrorist camp or voice support for terrorist actions. Of course, "the state wants to impose more severe sentences on the ‘preachers of hatred,'" remarks Die Presse, but a two-year jail term for someone who expresses admiration for the courage of a kamikaze in private raises the question of what actually constitutes terrorism. Worse still, the Viennese daily also notes that the bill extends the concept of defamation to include "any malicious (or nasty) remark that targets an individual's sex, age, sexual orientation, ideology or handicap," which leads Die Presse to wonder about the status of "carnival speakers." The daily warns its readers "that the gradual erosion of civil liberties is a much more present danger than a sudden shift to totalitarianism," and recommends "immediate protest" against the bill.

"This killing changes everything", El Correo comments, two days after a French police officer was gunned down near Paris by members of ETA, the Basque terrorist group. The Basque-region daily points out that the operation, the first of its kind in France, "poses a real problem for ETA" because the fight against the separatist movement has now become "a priority for the French state." El Correo notes that when two gendarmes were killed by a French-based Basque nationalist group in 1988, French authorities "completely dismantled the group (known as Iparetarrrak) in the space of a few months". The paper expects the French to show "more determination" in the fight against ETA and demands "effective action" from the government.

Several European countries, including the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Hungary, and Germany, have sold "tools of torture" to third party countries in violation of EU law, according to joint report released March 17 by Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation, writes euobserver.com. Thumb cuffs, electric shock cuffs, spiked batons and other torture instruments were exported despite a EU law enacted in 2006 forbidding such trade. The EUobserver notes the countries cited in the report apparently used loopholes in the law to make the sales, for example exporting instrument components separately or giving them names designed to fool customs agents. "Those who wish to practice torture always find the means," comments Zbyněk Petráček in Lidové noviny, pointing out that the equipment cited is also regularly used by security forces in the exporting nations. A human rights sub-committee will be making a progress report on the application of the law on 18 March.

Lady Ashton intends to merge three intelligence-sharing bureaus to create a single EU intelligence hub, reveals euobserver.com. The head of the European External Action Service, the EU’s foreign “ministry” established by the Lisbon Treaty “aims to merge into one new department the EU Council's Joint Situation Centre, its Watch-Keeping Capability and the European Commission's Crisis Room to help guide EAS decisions on security matters.” The Joint Situation Centre, “contains a cell of secret service agents seconded from EU capitals”, and “pools classified information sent in by member states”. Watch-Keeping Capability “pulls in news from the EU's 23 police and military missions” while the Crisis Room “operates a secure website with breaking news about the world's 118 active conflicts from open sources and from the commission's foreign embassies”. The mandate for the new department is so far unclear, but it will not have undercover operatives in the field. Said one EU official, "Belgium and Austria proposed this [creating an EU secret service] after Madrid,” referring the 2004 terrorist attack. “But we are still light years away."

Further controversy on the issue of airport security was sparked by an incident in Munich on 20 January, when a portable computer set off an explosives detector. The owner of the computer was able to take back his machine and make good his escape. The police, who were not notified until ten minutes later, sealed off the terminal building and evacuated most of the passengers, but the man could not be found. "Where is laptop man?" demands the mocking headline in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The daily remarks that at the meeting of Europe's interior and Justice ministers in Toledo on 21 January, "the German ministers probably had to deal with sarcastic comments and even some worried questions about "the specifics of German proceedures."

At the meeting, which was attended by the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, the Europeans decided to reinforce checks in airports. But, as El Periódico notes, the resolution adopted was a compromise, "allowing Europe to postpone discussion on the installation of body scanners," and at the same time including a commitment to make use of high technology in line with the strategy adopted by the US.

Over the last few years, courts in Denmark have imprisoned seven Danish Muslims for planning terrorist attacks, but authorities are concerned that they may resume plotting once they are released from jail. Now the government has come up with a plan "to re-educate terrorists." According to a front page report in Politiken, the liberal-conservative coalition wants to impose an obligatory "release programme" to ensure that they change their minds about the use of violence. For example, imams will be be sent to visit inmates to explain to them that terrorism is not the solution. Quoted in the Politiken report, Conservative MP Naser Khader insists that "it is important to bear in mind that terrorist offenders may still present a threat when they are released from prison." Both the extreme-right Danish People's Party and the Social Democrats have also voiced their support for the plan.

A test carried out on 2 January by police to test security procedures at the tiny airport of Poprad-Tatry in north-east Slovakia has led to a diplomatic wobble with the Irish Republic. According to Bratislava daily SME, enterprising officers took the liberty of placing RDX, a plastic explosive, in the luggage of eight unsuspecting passengers in order to test the powers of detection of their sniffer dogs. However, an oversight led to one suitcase still carrying 90g of the explosive to make its way aboard a Dublin bound Danube Wings flight. Alerted on 5 January by the Slovak authorities, Irish police made a swoop on the Dublin apartment of the unknowing bomb carrier, a 49 year old Slovak electrician based in Ireland, not before blocking off two streets and evacuating several houses and offices along the way. It was only after his arrest that the Slovak authorities mentioned their own hand in the business. Following the electrician's release, the Slovak authorities officially apologised to the Irish government, claiming that chiefly to blame were poor communications between Poprad-Tatry and Dublin, adds the Irish Independent.

"Al-Qaeda is stocking up on European hostages in a bid to force the EU to resolve the hostage crisis in the Sahel," reports ABC. The Spanish daily notes that five Europeans are now being held in the Sahel: three French nationals abducted in Mauritania by "Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM) on 29 November, and two Italians, who were captured in Mali a few days later. "In consultation with Spanish and Italian intelligence agencies, the French secret service, which is extensively deployed in the region, is directing operations to contact and negotiate with the terrorists," reports ABC. The terrorist group, which benefits from the support of a number of Tuareg tribes as well as drug and arms smuggling gangs operating in the largely lawless region, "may even demand a single ransom payment for all of the hostages," within the framework of a "probable plan to exert greater pressure on the EU," concludes the daily.

Using body orifices to hide contraband from airport security is not the exclusive preserve of drug smugglers. Terrorists can now detonate “suppository bombs” in mid-flight using mobile phones. The French secret service is alarmed at “Al Qaeda’s latest modus operandi”, which was launched on 28 August in an attempt to assassinate a Saudi government minister, reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung. So Paris is looking into ways to beef up border controls in Europe. One suggestion is the widespread use of X-rays at airports: “But the health risks would be too high,” notes the Munich daily. A wholesale ban on mobiles: “Hard to enforce.” French interior minister Brice Hortefeux wants to require airlines to report personal information about non-European passengers to the police. Germany is disinclined, but “France is counting on Spain, which will be presiding over the EU come January,” says the SZ. “Hortefeux and his opposite number in Spain have already agreed an initiative to exchange passenger information.”

The confession presented by Fritz G. on 10 August  to the Criminal court in  Düsseldorf, in the course of the trial of the members of an alleged Islamic terrorist cell, leaves no doubt: Fritz G. is indeed the leader of the "Sauerland" group, which planned several car-bomb attacks against American forces stationed in Germany in an attempt to force Berlin to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. "They acted in the name of a terrorist group that is also known as the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU). In the light of this confession, there can be no further doubt that the IJU does exist," reports Tageszeitung. However, the daily also emphasizes that the case has revealed some positive news. The group, which had the materials to produce bombs that were 100 times more powerful than those that killed 52 innocent victims in London in 2005, suffered from a chronic shortage of personnel. The IJU delegated the four defendants to carry out the attacks because they had no other available agents – even though the defendants, who wanted to fight in Iraq, had protested that they should not be used because they knew they were being monitored by police. As TAZ notes, "information gleaned at the trial should be enough to dispel the German media myth of dozens of sleeper terrorists awaiting orders."

Not renowned for his multicultural susceptibilities, Rome’s mayor Gianni Alemanno on an official visit to New York has proved only too eager to recruit foreigners to his cause. After the obligatory call on incumbent mayor and business magnate Michael Bloomberg, Italy’s post-fascist first citizen high-fived with 9/11 NY mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the father of "zero tolerance", who now runs an urban counselling company. They discussed a volunteer police corps that Alemanno sees as an alternative to the Northern League-inspired new vigilante committees that evoke for him “a feeling of do-it-yourself justice". The recovery of abandoned urban zones and parks was also raised. A spokesman for Giuliani Partners sees here the seeds of a long-term collaboration. But for La Stampa, Roman citizens shouldn’t start celebrating, recalling Giuliani's failures outside the Big Apple. "When he ran NY, Giuliani was seen as an oracle on security matters. But when offered a 4,3 billion dollar contract by Mexico City, he only visited the city once and his recommendations didn't help reduce crime,” notes the Turin newspaper. “Not everything,” it concludes, “can be exported".

The UK government’s controversial plan to make ID cards compulsory by 2013 has been “killed off”, reports the Independent. New Home Secretary Alan Johnson has pledged that the scheme, initially put forward to tackle terrorism, illegal immigration and serious crime, will remain “entirely voluntary for UK nationals”. The climbdown comes not just after attacks by Tory leader David Cameron, who vows to scrap the scheme if elected, but also from “tensions” within the Government itself, the London daily reports. Opposition to the plan has focused much less on a possible infringement of civil liberties than on its estimated £5bn cost. Civil liberties groups point out, however, that citizens travelling outside the UK are nevertheless added to an ID register when renewing their passport. Said one group – “It’s only voluntary in the sense that you can 'choose' never to have a passport”.

Ethnic profiling tarnishes the EU’s reputation, argues James A Goldston in the Guardian. In the aftermath of 9/11 and bombings in Madrid and London, law-enforcement authorities across Europe launched surveillance of mosques, and also stop and search controls of people who appeared to be Muslim. However, the inefficiency of this form of policing has been demonstrated with the recent release of UK government figures showing that over 117,000 police stops made between 2007 and 2008, yielded only 72 arrests for terrorism-related offences. Other studies in Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and US have concluded that ethnic profiling “wastes time and resources.” A report by the Open Society Justice Initiative shows that in targeting ethnic minorities, police alienate “the very people on whom they depend for co-operation and intelligence.”