Fergie's Tech Blog

Germans Wary of Security Measures

Jeffrey Fleishman writes in The Los Angeles Times:

Depending upon one's political persuasion or level of anxiety, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is either a dogged defender against terrorism or a man out to strip away civil liberties by hacking into computers and bank accounts in pursuit of militants.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, governments around the world have confronted the balance between individual rights and national security, but that dilemma is particularly sensitive in this nation, where spying during the Nazi era and the Cold War left bitter memories of state interference.

Opposition lawmakers say Schaeuble, who told a German magazine recently that suspected militants should be denied the presumption of innocence, is exploiting Germans' fear of terrorism to expand the powers of police and intelligence services. Some officials here view the debate as similar to the one in the U.S. over constitutional questions raised by the Patriot Act.

posted by Fergie @ 5/08/2007 11:56:00 PM