FRANKFURT (International Herald Tribune) - While the British public reacted to the latest terrorist strike there with stoicism and a by-now practiced determination to get on with their lives, Germany has erupted in a rancorous dispute over how to deal with a terrorist threat that has yet to materialize here.
The debate, which has simmered for months, flared up again in the wake of the botched car-bombings in London, after Germany’s top security official, Wolfgang Schäuble, said Germany should consider detaining potential terrorists and sanctioning the killing of terrorist leaders abroad.
Schäuble’s remarks, which were confirmed by his spokesman, have set off a storm of protest from opposition leaders and even members of his own “grand coalition” government.
Terrorist organizations worldwide, including Al-Qaeda, are watching the debate closely. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released a statement urging Germans to support Schäuble’s position of a terrorism threat.
“If the Germans decide we are not a threat, we’ll have no choice but to look elsewhere for targets,” al-Zawahiri said. “It would be a shame that all the time and effort we’ve put into planning attacks in Germany would have to be canceled, simply because Germans decide that we are not a threat to them.”
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