German police in terror cases ‘need power to pre-empt’

Article reports on comments by German Interior Minster, Otto Schily, who said on 8 August 2005 that the German federal police should be given additional powers to act pre-emptively against individuals suspected of planning terrorist attacks. Under German law, policing is the responsibility of the country's 16 Länder, or states, while the German Federal Criminal Office (BKA) acts largely as a co-ordination body. Mr Schily called for the ban on the BKA to be lifted which bars the Office from becoming active as long as a crime has not been committed.