ANTI-IMMIGRANT LEADER QUITS
The leader of a German organization against the perceived “Islamization” of Europe stepped down Wednesday after online posts surfaced in which he used derogatory language to refer to refugees and posed looking like Adolf Hitler. Lutz Bachmann, co-founder of the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, announced his departure after German media published the comments , in which he called refugees “filthy” and a photo showing him with a Hitler mustache. The group has staged weekly demonstrations that reached their peak last week, drawing 25,000 people.
— Associated Press
Prime Minister Manuel Valls laid out the counterterrorism initiatives just as the Paris prosecutor announced preliminary charges against four men for allegedly providing logistical support to one of the attackers behind a three-day spree of violence this month that killed 17 people before the three gunmen were shot dead by police.
France plans to spend almost $500 million over the next three years for the new measures. They include leaning on Internet companies and social media to help in the fight, creating an improved database of suspected extremists, and increasing intelligence-gathering on jihadis and other radicals — in part by making it easier to tap phones. About 2,600 counter-terrorism officers will be hired, 1,100 of them specifically for intelligence services.
Meanwhile, at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, new efforts are being made to overcome privacy objections and make the sharing of air passenger information easier. But continental leaders warned also about going too far, at the risk of undermining individual rights that are a cornerstone of the European way of life.
“The last thing” is for Europeans “to change the nature of our open societies as a reaction to this threat. Because then, we would play into the hands of these terrorists,” EU Vice President Frans Timmermans said.
Some calls have emerged for a European equivalent of the U.S. Patriot Act, which was passed within weeks of the Sept. 11 attacks, to strengthen the hand of authorities to prevent terrorism. Some of its components were controversial — like the unprecedented authority to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in pursuit of suspected terrorists.
“That is not the way to go,” said Sophie In’t Veld, a leading Liberal civil rights lawmaker at the European Parliament. “We should use more than two weeks to think about this, instead of rushing things through.”
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