The Terror Threat: Dangerous Conclusions

Unattended luggage at railway stations, visitors not allowed to visit the Reichstag dome, telephone threats in schools. Hardly a day passes without new terrorism alerts in Germany. It’s all nothing more than hysterical alarm.

Anything and everything is being proposed in these frightening days because of the possibility of a terrorist attack. Some call for deploying the German Army domestically while others say the Federal Criminal Police should merge with parts of other federal police agencies. Then the Customs Administration should be included to form one mammoth agency that’s supposed to function smoothly as a single unit. As if the security agencies have thus far distinguished themselves by operating inefficiently and with great damage due to friction.

It’s all hysterical sounding of the alarm and nothing more. Germany wouldn’t be more secure just because the coalition Free Democrats think that a fusion of two gigantic agencies into one super-gigantic body would reduce any dangers. Or that they would be reduced if one commission under the oversight of former President of The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Eckart Werthebach is toying with a similar idea.

The combination of agencies is called centralization, and centralization means the hoarding of more power and a tendency to seek ever more power and authority. There is good reason why there has been, at least up to now, a separation of police and security agency missions.

But if the forces of merger are successful, demands for the creation of a German FBI will follow. The FBI is the American State Police that operates by virtue of having its own intelligence service. But it hasn’t made the United States a safer place either. And that’s already been proven.