Overview of Euro-American cooperation on terrorism

By Olivier Guitta

I cowrote with Sally Mc Namara, the brilliant International Relations Project Director of American Legislative Exchange Council, a paper for ALEC entitled "Homeland Security in a Global Context: An Overview of European-U.S. Cooperation." You can find the entire report here.
Here is an excerpt:

"The clear rapprochement between U.S. and European intelligence services is one of the most striking aspects of this new cooperation. Former CIA official Stanley Sloan recently noted: �U.S.-European cooperation has been one of the more successful aspects of post-September 11 efforts against international terrorism.� Indeed before September 11, European services would complain of the lack of U.S. cooperation, especially regarding Islamist terrorism. But Europeans now acknowledge that cooperation is much improved. In fact, information is flowing smoothly on both ends and it is utilized more effectively now that services work to complement each other. Indeed, European services� forte � especially France�s � is human intelligence on Islamist terror groups, while the U.S.�s strength is its impressive electronic intelligence gathering capability. Combining the two in an unselfish, cooperative fashion is a win-win combination.

Interestingly enough, political disagreement from some European quarters over the war in Iraq did not impact the level of cooperation between individual European countries and the United States (it is also worth noting that 12 EU Member States were actually part of the initial coalition of the willing). For instance, France, which led opposition to the war in Iraq, has been one of America�s best partners in counterterrorism intelligence efforts. Former CIA Director John Mc Laughlin described the relationship between the CIA and its French counterparts as �one of the best in the world. What they are willing to contribute is extraordinary valuable.� According to The Washington Post, right after September 11, President Chirac advised his intelligence services to collaborate with American ones �as if they were your own service.�

Nevertheless, some rough spots remain in the transatlantic relationship over the global war on terror. Germany�s recent release of Mohammed Hamadi, the life-sentenced Lebanese hijacker and member of Hezbollah who murdered an American serviceman in 1985 and dumped his body on the tarmac of the Beirut airport, is a disgrace � nothing short of an appeasement to terrorists. This is a serious step backward for German-American cooperation in fighting terror."

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