Since al-Qaida's attacks on U.S. soil, "Western countries, led by the United States, have ceaselessly strengthened their arsenal [...] when it comes to criminal and judicial measures, as well as the prison regime and tools of mass surveillance", the paper wrote.
Le Monde contrasted the pace of justice in France and the United States in prosecuting those behind the attacks. It noted that in France, a verdict in the case of the November 13, 2015, Paris terrorist attacks came seven years later.
In the United States, the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks, has been scheduled to begin on June 8, 2028. The Guantanamo Bay prison, where he is being held, has become "a symbol of the abuses of American anti-terrorism after 9/11", the paper said.
"The United States' inability to try the organiser of 9/11 under dignified conditions shows how far the country has strayed from the rule of law in its 'war on terror' waged around the world. The US is certainly the Western country that has gone furthest in betraying its own principles, though it is not alone", Le Monde wrote.
The paper said the September 11 attacks and the wave of jihadist terrorism that followed across Europe over the next quarter-century triggered "a steady process of expanding the arsenal for fighting terrorism". Western nations strengthened these tools "to defend societies whose shock was justified — at the price of a constant erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law", it said, citing the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the powers of government agencies, and France's SILT law on internal security and counter-terrorism as examples.
Le Monde noted the trend predates 2001: France passed its first counter-terrorism law in 1986. But the newspaper said the "mass attacks of September 11, 2001, pushed police and judicial repression, as well as surveillance, into a new era".
The Patriot Act was partly replaced in 2015 by the Freedom Act, Le Monde said, but new legislation followed, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows US agencies to collect the communications data of foreigners outside the United States without individual court warrants. In France, human rights groups continue to criticise tightened legislation that has made counter-terrorism justice "almost a sphere that constitutes a departure from (general) rules", the paper said.
The growth of social media and online propaganda has also expanded the scope of repressive measures linked to the internet, Le Monde said, adding that in both France and the United States there is a serious risk of privacy violations.
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four passenger airplanes in the United States. Two struck the World Trade Center towers in New York, a third hit the Pentagon in Washington, and a fourth — believed to be headed for the U.S. Capitol — crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, including six Poles.
(jh)
Source: PAP