European nations broaden police powers

Antinuclear campaigners are worried by a clause dealing with nuclear facilities that would make it a crime to publish the details of the movement of nuclear-waste trains.

In Germany, where a number of the alleged ringleaders of the Sept. 11 plot lived and studied for several years, the government is planning new steps to strengthen its antiterrorist legislation.

Parliament has already passed a law giving the authorities the power to ban organizations using their religious status for criminal ends, and is due to consider further measures soon.

Security legislation is especially sensitive in Germany, both because there are 7 million foreigners there, and because of the country's experience of totalitarianism. "People are very cautious about anything to do with identity cards and police powers," says Cem Ozdemir, a spokesman for the Green party, the junior coalition partner in the government. "There is always a tendency to see if something reminds us of our history."

Germany's proposed legislation would make it easier for the authorities to deport suspected terrorists, broaden the federal police force's investigative powers, and introduce new, more detailed identity cards, incorporating biometric elements.

The Greens fought hard to keep even harsher provisions out of the legislation and say they will oppose any move to put citizens' photos on the new ID cards.

With closed-circuit surveillance cameras a common feature in public places, "faces on ID cards would mean we would have a George Orwell state," worries Mr. Ozdemir. "It is not the business of the state to see who is going where when."

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the French government hastily tacked new provisions onto a security bill to widen police powers of search. They may now search car trunks at will, and do not need to go to an investigating magistrate to get a warrant to search houses or business premises.

Though minor compared with the changes envisioned in British law, these measures worry Mr. Dubois because of the way he expects them to be used.

"Police already do identity checks in a very discriminatory way, always checking people who look Arab, and we are concerned that these new measures will be enforced in the same way," Dubois says.

It is not certain, however, that all the new laws against terrorism envisioned in Europe will stand. A British High Court judge this week ordered a judicial review of a government decision to freeze the assets of a Saudi businessmen accused of financing terrorism.

"It is crucial," the judge told the court, that "when there are question marks about orders of this kind, which are of a Draconian nature, that they are properly tested in the courts."

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