JINSA Report #544 Peeking

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January 18, 2006

JINSA Report #544

Peeking

Not "Peking." "Peeking." How you find out something someone doesn't want
you to know. Some people profess to be shocked that our government has
been peeking into the "private affairs" of people who talk to al Qaeda.
We, on the other hand, don't think people who talk to al Qaeda should
have private affairs.

Other governments peek as well, sometimes with salutary results. Two
weeks ago, Italy, our ally in Iraq and our friend in many ways, arrested
three Algerians and tipped our government to the fact that terrorists
were planning a series of attacks against American ships, stadiums and
railway stations. According to media sources, Italian authorities
increased their domestic surveillance - including wiretaps - after the
London bombings.

They also tipped Belgian police. The Washington Post reported, "In
wiretapped conversations recorded by the Italians, [the man] was
overheard telling another radical in Milan that he and three friends
were ready to carry out suicide attacks in Belgium."

This sparked additional Belgian peeking. On 1 December, The
International Herald Tribune reported the arrest of "14 suspects in a
series of dawn raids aimed at breaking up a terrorist network that the
Belgian authorities said was planning attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq
and included a female Belgian suicide bomber who blew herself up in
Baghdad three weeks ago... The police said they had found evidence of
planning for more attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq... ‘We have been
able to prevent attacks against other U.S. targets as a result of these
arrests...' said a senior official."

The government of The Netherlands peeks and so does that of France. In
Great Britain, the government peeks not only at the license plates of
suspects, but also at the plates of "associated vehicles." Authorities
analyze convoys of vehicles to see who is driving alongside one known to
be of interest to the police.

In November, Australian police arrested 17 men in raids in Sydney and
Melbourne, and anticipated more. According to CNN, the New South Wales
Police Commissioner said, "We believe that we've been able to
significantly disrupt a proposed terrorist attack here in Australia."
And a prosecutor added, "The members of the Sydney group have been
gathering chemicals of a kind that were used in the London... bombings."
Victorian state police had more than 240 hours of phone intercepts in
which the group discussed plans to kill Australian civilians.

These are all democratic countries in which respect for civil liberties
is an operative principle. All are countries to which terrorists and
would-be terrorists have come to wreak havoc. And all are countries that
have taken the position that peeking in on suspicious people may stop a
heinous crime before it is committed - which is preferable to arresting
surviving perpetrators after the fact.

Tomorrow, we will look at another democratic government with a model for
winning the war against terrorists that includes, among other things,
peeking.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3286

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