A Lesson From the UK

"Baghad Comes to London," was the verdict of some commentators who suspect members of al Qaeda to be behind the discovery of two foiled car bombs in the British capital on Friday. As long as the perpetrators remain unidentified, speculation will continue to swirl.

What we know for sure is that Britain is in the crosshairs of terrorist groups. Whether it's Britain's involvement in driving the Iraq war, its military presence there, Salman Rushdie's knighthood, Tony Blair's appointment as the new envoy of the Mideast Quartet or just simply Britain's colonial past in wide swathes of the Muslim world, the United Kingdom offers plenty of motives for terrorism. Not to mention the fact that Britain is home to an army of discontented Muslims from whose ranks the train bombers from two years ago were recruited.

There are indications that the car bombs didn't have an internal British motive but rather that the "network" (al Qaeda) planned to strike with local help, as always. The construction of the bombs points towards that theory, and there was also apparently quite a clear warning on the Internet that London would be the target of an attack. The date too was no coincidence -- just hours after a change in Britain's leadership from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown and days before the second anniversary of the London bombings.

Thanks to a coincidence and the prudence of the British, the tragedy was averted. The exhaustive CCTV surveillance in London will also help in getting leads on the perpetrators. It's a system that's strongly opposed by many in Germany as if there was no consideration in weighing the protection of privacy against protecting the general public against terrorist attacks.

You could take a page from Britain's book. Video surveillance does not prevent violent acts, but it does deter them and eases the hunt for perpetrators. At the same time there is no panic-mongering in Britain as was the case in Germany recently when different official departments warned of a heightened danger of terrorism.

We all live in an age of heightened danger: whether it's in London, Berlin, Paris or Amsterdam. As long as crazed people don't live out their fanatical fantasies, we can't foresee their actions. We can only counter them by remaining alert. Even though victims can't be avoided sometimes, if we don't allow ourselves to be terrorized then the terrorists have already lost the "first round." Remaining vigilant doesn't just mean keeping your nerve and gritting your teeth. It also means stopping exaggerated preventive measures.

Politicians of all stripes -- even in Germany -- tend to propagate complete surveillance to counter terrorism. Video surveillance is necessary, but if we go further and place limits on our free society because of fear of violence then we would be capitulating to the terrorists.

Peter Philipp is a Middle East expert and Deutsche Welle's chief correspondent (sp)