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Cell Phone Ban for Terror Suspects?

by Terrence O'Brien on July 10, 2007 at 12:41 PM

Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schauble, is taking some heat after he made comments on Sunday suggesting that Germany institute a secret and warrant-less information-gathering program similar to the one President Bush set up in the United States that has become the center of controversy.

Schauble was lambasted further for suggesting that terrorism suspects should be subject to the death penalty. Capital punishment has been abolished in all of Europe, except for Belarus, and it is pretty much political suicide to suggest reinstating it.

He continued to dig himself into a hole by suggesting increased public surveillance similar to the type used in London (and soon, possibly, New York City), as well as declaring that terror suspects should be banned from using cell phones.

The last declaration is particularly confusing. If a person is a serious target in a terrorism case, wouldn't he or she be in jail? Maybe in Germany things are a bit different, but in the U.S., no prisoner is allowed a cell phone. Secondly, it would be all but unenforceable. Prepaid phones that require no contract would easily escape detection.


From Textually.org and Earth Times

Related links:

Tags: ban, cell phone, CellPhone, death penalty, DeathPenalty, germany, mobile, Schauble, surveillance, Wolfgang Schauble, WolfgangSchauble

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