A Bad Weekend for Law Enforcement

By Douglas Farah

Well, it was a bad weekend for law enforcement officials on several continents, and a good one for the _jihadists_ and their support network. Thanks to Josh Lefkowitz of the NEFA Foundation for flagging these items.

These cases illustrate key advantages the Islamist groups have over those operating in a state-centric legal framework. The laws simply cannot, and have not, kept up with the changing realities of the world in which we live. Our legal systems, here and abroad, are extremely slow in defining new threats as crimes and providing a legal framework in which to prosecute and punish them.

This is, of course, a great strength of democratic systems-there has to be a consensus before certain types of behavior are criminalized. But the flip side is that we get dangerous ruling while the overall process is sorted out.

The other advantage is in the sphere of religious sympathy and/or corruption that allow laws to be bent beyond recognition.

Of course, corruption is not limited to Pakistan and elsewhere "out there." There have been many cases in this country where money louder than the law or one's conscience.

The most egregious case is the escape of Rashid Rauf from Pakistani police custody. Rauf is a British-Pakistani suspected of being a leading figure in the plot dismantled in London in August 2006, designed to blow up several transatlantic flights.

Rauf, who had fled to Pakistan, was due to be extradicted back to the UK in a few weeks to stand trial for murder, as well as investigations for terrorist activities. My full blog is here.

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