Interview Claude Moniquet, 2004, www.seetv-exchanges.com

00.22: On the presence of mudjahedins in BiH

01.27: On potential Al Qaida network activities in BiH

02.47: On terrorist activities in Kosovo and Serbia Montenegro, on the growing link between terrorist organizations and crime organizations

03.56: On the awareness of the international troops in the Balkans and the weaknesses of European secret services

05.02: On the link between terrorists in Kosovo and Serbia Montenegro with Al Qaida, financing, recruitment

06.19: On the penetration of terrorists who benefit from the fact that Balkan states are close to Europe

07.40: On the weaknesses of intelligence

09.0: On the financing of terrorist cells

11.0: On the presence of terrorist activities in Macedonia

11.59: On the risks of terrorist attack in the Balkan countries

Cutaways Claude Moniquet

Commentary

European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino recently declared: `Europe has prevented 16 large-scale attacks like the one in Madrid in the last three years.`
To achieve this result, collaboration between police and intelligence services from different European Union countries has had to undergo something of a revolution.
Each service has now learned to hand over names, addresses and telephone numbers to its European neighbours whenever there is a serious threat.
Suspects have been brought in as a result of this cooperation.

Interview Mr Vitorino, European Commissioner

The fact that more than 600 people have been placed in detention in several European Union Member States, that persons suspected of terrorist activities have been tracked down by the police and that court judgments have been issued against some of them; the fact that assets of more than 100 million euros were frozen during the two years following the attacks of September 11th 2001: all that is proof of the effective work we have been doing to combat terrorism. A single attack, the Madrid attack, cannot undo what we have achieved. But of course the Madrid attack means we have to do more, much more and always more, in the future.

Interview Mr G. de Vries, Counter-Terrorism Coordinator at the EU Council

Intelligence sharing in Europe is already working. We have averted several attacks in the past few months and arrested a number of suspects simultaneously in several Member States based on information exchanged between our services.

Interview Mr G. Leclair, Director of the Counter-Terrorism Unit (UCLAT) at the French Home Affairs Ministry

The work is done in a very simple way. When we have a piece of information in an investigation that can be used in another country, we share it. There you have it. If I have a telephone number tomorrow morning that is of interest to Spain, we will have it identified, we will ask them to see who's behind it and to do an `environment`.

Commentary

An `environment` in police jargon means finding an individual's address, following him, identifying his network of contacts and all his activities, examining his bank accounts and possibly `connecting` the person, namely tapping his telephone. A practice in which the Italians excel.

Interview Mr S. Guglielmino, Head of the Counter-Terrorism Unit, Italian Home Affairs Ministry

Yes, of course, wire tapping is a strong point, a key to our investigation methods.

Commentary

Depending on what is learned, it is often imperative to act quickly to keep the suspect from putting his plans into operation. A race against the clock begins, the key to which resides in the capacity for and speed of the exchange of information between services from different countries. Some concrete examples with counter-terrorist officials.

Interview Mr A. Camacho, State Secretary for Security, Spain

Some of the latest: certainly the imprisonment of Mohammed the Egyptian and the arrests that followed in Belgium are the result of this collaboration.

Interview Mr A. Spataro, Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor, Milan

Spain had identified for us a presumed terrorist who spoke about attacks in the course of taped telephone conversations. A prosecutor from the counter-terrorism group of this office, Mr Romanelli, set off immediately for Madrid, then Brussels, taking with him the tapes of the suspect's wire-taps, to pass on the information in real time to our colleagues from other countries and to mobilise them.

Interview Mr Romanelli, Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor, Milan

I wanted the countries potentially concerned to have access in real time to the tapes so I could hear their reactions, their analyses, to enable us to make deductions together and formalise such exchanges of information and acts through international cooperation instruments. This can, and, in my view, must be done. I think the result for the moment is a fine model, an excellent example.

Interview Mr Fungairino, Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor, Audiencia Nacional, Spain

Italy alerted Spain to his presence and we were immediately able to seek and obtain his arrest after delivering a request for evidence on commission. This is a good illustration of effective collaboration with the Italian judicial authorities…

Interview Mr F. Reinares, Counter-Terrorist Adviser to Spain's Home Affairs Minister

I can assure you that we have prevented several potentially very deadly attacks.

Commentary

Even if there is no such thing as zero risk, given the international situation, how can Europe be on its guard and better protect itself against international terrorism?
This is the question we asked those in charge of combating terrorism.

Interview Mr Baltasar Garzón, Counter-Terrorism magistrate, Audiencia nacional, Spain

The different countries must become aware that international terrorism is a phenomenon that affects us all and that we have to do whatever is necessary to counter its effects…

Interview Mr Antonio Vitorino, European Commissioner

Gradually building ties of mutual confidence, sometimes at personal level, which, while protecting the confidentiality of sources, will make it possible to increase the number of those who have access to classified information and which is very important for being effective in the fight against terrorism because terrorists know no borders.

Commentary

To achieve a wider exchange of information between services, there is a need to surmount national hesitations.
Going beyond the rule of the sovereignty of intelligence, in services where information is often considered a weapon of power. For counter-terrorism officials, the need for collaboration is obvious.

Interview Mr G. Leclair, Director of the Counter-Terrorism Unit (UCLAT) at the French Home Affairs Ministry

We are condemned to unite in the fight against terrorism, and thus to take information sharing further and, I think, to avoid one-track thinking and a `monolithic` approach to investigations, to have an even greater spirit of sharing.

Interview Mr Vitorino, European Commissioner

I am not naive. I know that mutual confidence is not built overnight, and it will take time. We need to create the institutional instruments and mechanisms necessary to work along those lines.

Interview Mr D. Romanelli, Counter-Terrorism magistrate, Milan

In my way of thinking, the most important things is that each of us agrees to make his own information available to the others.

Commentary

In the face of international terrorist networks, and particularly radical Islamic fundamentalists, other forms of cooperation and collaboration with third countries need to be given priority.

Interview Mr A. Camacho, State Secretary for Security, Spain

I think there is a need to build on the collaboration that already exists in Europe but we also have to set up new forms of cooperation with countries that can be concerned by this question, Arab countries, the Maghreb countries.

Commentary

It is in this frame of mind that Europe decided to create programmes for exchange, cooperation and training with the Mediterranean-rim countries. Training courses for senior police officials from 10 Mediterranean countries have been initiated by the European Commission. According to Pierre Antonmatei, in charge of this training, this will also lead to the development of information networks and build the reflex of mutual assistance.

Interview Mr P. Antonmatei, in charge of Meda training at the European Commission

Building a network, combating terrorism is first of all a question of organisation. It takes time, contacts have to be developed, ties created, relations of confidence established to allow the exchange of information in real time.

Commentary

But fighting terrorism in Europe also means refusing to pass emergency laws, striking a balance between protective measures and respect for human rights.

Interview Mr E. Metcalfe, Law Professor, University of Leicester, Director of Human Rights Policy at the British NGO `Justice`

Europe needs safety nets. I think this is the message we have to bring to the fore at European level.

Interview Mr Vitorino, European Commissioner

The search for balance between security and the protection of our fundamental rights is an ongoing effort. It is never a given. We continue it daily, in every practical measure we take. And I think that at European level we all share a common culture that is sufficiently strong and solid that we can say that all the Member States have adopted actions to counter terrorism while respecting citizens' fundamental rights and freedoms.

Commentary

To deal with the threat of international terrorism on its territory, Europe has two institutional weapons: Europol and Eurojust.
Europol is made up of representatives of the 25 European police forces. In addition to bilateral cooperation between two countries, whenever a counter-terrorism service wishes to provide information to its European counterparts for analytical or even operational purposes, it transmits its findings or its questions to Europol.

Interview Mr Vitorino, European Commissioner

The bilateral cooperation that exists is very important. It must be productive and it must be safeguarded. No such bilateral cooperation must be sacrificed. But what we need to do is to add a new area, a new dimension, the multilateral dimension. A bit of information in a bilateral process can be very important when it is used by a third party. So my plea is that, progressively, while protecting what works, and which works well at bilateral level, we progressively build a multilateral dimension in information exchange.

Interview Mr De Vries, Counter-Terrorism Coordinator at the EU Council

Terrorism is financed, for example, through trafficking drugs, trafficking in human beings, through all sorts of ways that have to be targeted by our police forces through Europol. So Europol has an important task of analysing trends in crime and the link between terrorism and other forms of crime.

Interview Mr Simancas, Director of Europol

We are getting things done, you might say in autonomous pockets, and I am not sure to what extent the coordination of these initiatives is real, is defined or not. In my way of thinking, what is lacking is a definition of a real concept of internal security in Europe…

Interview Mr Vitorino, European Commissioner

In several areas - controls on external borders, the guarantee of internal security, police cooperation, judicial cooperation - there is close coordination on the initiatives we present.

Interview Mr Alonzo, Spanish Home Affairs Minister

There is a need to move towards a simplification of bodies set up under the third pillar, namely European Union internal affairs, because for now there is a mushrooming, a sort of soup of institutions and bodies that is not easy to manage.

Interview Mr Vitorino, European Commissioner

I think there are different competences that must be respected. We are not going to ask police forces to play the role of judges. We are not going to ask judges to do the job of the police. The rule of law means respecting the balance and separation of powers. These have to be safeguarded.

In short, to be more effective, States have to cooperate with one another. In judicial matters, Eurojust, also based in The Hague, plays the role of facilitating communication between 25 different judicial areas but is also an instrument for improving the much-needed European jurisdictional harmonisation.

Interview Mr Kennedy, President of Eurojust

Investigators from the Bundeskriminalamt and prosecutors in Germany can talk with prosecutors in Paris. And national judges in Belgium can communicate with counter-terrorism police inspectors and prosecutors, with crime specialists from the Department of Public Prosecutions in the United Kingdom. They can meet. Apart from the fact that they all have specific responsibilities in each system, they can meet someone who may have a different title but similar responsibilities.

Interview Mr Vitorino, European Commissioner

We took a major step forward with the European arrest warrant and the law defining terrorism and common criminal liability and penalties for terrorism.

Interview Mr Navarete, Head of External Relations Group, counter-terrorism specialist at Spain's Guardia Civil

Frankly, we have reduced by a factor of 10 the delay in connection with an international request for evidence on commission, with getting the result of the request, having a direct relation between what we expect in real terms from a police force, the Bench, the justice system, a prosecutor from another country…I think it is working quite well.