European legal system
Reader comment on item: How Europe's Counterterrorism Laws Differ from America's

Submitted by gary fouse (United States), Jul 5, 2008 at 23:09

As a retired DEA agent, who was stationed in Italy 1982-1987, my experience pre-dates the anti-Islamic terrorism era (at least as we know it today). For drug trafficking, Italy, which was under the Napoleanic Code, was able to wiretap phones and arrest people for "criminal or Mafia association" much more easily than the US.

Surely, their laws were used against the "Brigati Rossi" just as effectively. I cannot state authoritatively how these laws are being applied today. Hopefully, they have just as much latitude vis-a-vis Islamic terrorists as they have had against the Mafia'

Gary Fouse

(DEA retired)

fousesquawk

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