• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence

• Security Menu                     

• Systems
• Industry
• Operations
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Space

Terrorism cooperation tops EU Home Affairs meeting

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Sept 7, IRNA
EU-Home Affairs Meeting
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke insisted Wednesday that tougher intelligence-gathering powers across Europe to combat terrorism would not erode human rights.

Clarke rejected claims that opening up access to communications data to help trace bombers, or providing detailed transatlantic airline passenger information, was an unacceptable breach of individual privacy.

The right balance had to be struck between private freedoms and fighting terrorism and serious international crime - and the British government believed the balance was not right in the current terrorist climate, he said in a speech to the European Parliament.

His call was made ahead of EU Home Affairs and Justice Minister holding a two-day meeting under the British presidency Thursday, where cooperation on anti-terrorism measures was expected to top the agenda.

The first three sessions of the meeting in Newcastle, north-east England, are devoted to counter-terrorism and the retention of communications data, according to a copy of the official program obtained by IRNA.

In his speech to MEPs, Clarke warned that until there was EU agreement, particularly on the collection and use of telecoms intelligence, Europe's leaders were fighting terrorists "with both hands tied behind our backs."
The use of intelligence was key to cracking down on the terrorist violence and serious organized crime which threatened society, he argued.

The use of the internet and mobile communications by terrorists and criminals can only be effectively contested "if we know what they are communicating," the British Home Secretary said.

He said it was because information was the "life-blood" of law- enforcement that the UK Government, in the EU presidency, was pushing hard for new rules on the retention of telecoms data, on biometric data on visas, passports and identity cards, and on the international use of air passenger data.

HC/1412