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Europe, US still at odds over approach to `terror'

A year after the Madrid bombings that shook Europe, questions remain in Washington over to what extent the US and its European allies are on the same page in the "war on terror."

While publicly praising cooperation, US officials are still concerned about what they call cultural and legal hurdles to boosting intelligence-sharing, prosecutions and other assistance with Europe.

More fundamental is a trans-Atlantic perception gap. If Washington has given the terrorist threat paramount attention since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, much of Europe sees it as just one serious problem among many.

"Addressing the factors that reduce long-term CT [counterterrorism] effectiveness in Europe will be a long-term process," Cofer Black, then State Department counterterrorism coordinator, said last year.

"Differing legal cultural and historical traditions and practices will complicate and slow progress," Black told a Senate subcommittee three weeks after the Madrid train attacks that killed nearly 200 people.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted shortly after the Madrid bombings showed 57 percent of French thought the US was exaggerating the terrorist danger.

Forty-nine percent of Germans and even one-third of Britons agreed.

If US officials hoped the carnage in the Spanish capital would fire up Europe to redouble cooperation, they were disappointed.

For various historical reasons, and still smarting from the US decision to invade Iraq in March 2003, many European officials shy away from referring to the fight against terrorism as a "war."

They also worry that the US focus on terrorism has eclipsed efforts to deal with a host of other pressing global issues such as poverty, malnutrition, disease and education.

US officials and analysts have not seen any quantum leap in European willingness to share data on stolen passports, implement biometric indicators on visas or take major steps to protect their own cities.

"In terms of new policy and new initiatives and international cooperation on monitoring travel and that sort of thing, from what I understand there hasn't been the big new burst of energy we would have hoped for," said Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.

The Americans recognize the Europeans have lived longer with terrorism, even if they have not experienced a Sept. 11.

They appreciate moves such as the 2003 EU-US extradition treaty and the naming of a EU counterterrorism czar. But fears persist that European laws and customs are preventing a full crackdown on the terrorist support networks on the continent.

William Pope, the State Department deputy counterterrorism coordinator, cited inadequate anti-terror legislation, loopholes in asylum laws, open borders and strict standards of evidence that made detaining suspects more difficult.

"We are concerned that some European states have at times demonstrated an inability to prosecute successfully or hold many of the terrorists brought before their courts," Pope told US Congress last September.

He also acknowledged "differing perspectives" on the line between legitimate political groups and terror sponsors. For instance, Washington has long branded the militant Islamic organization Hezbollah as a backer of terrorism, while the EU has balked.

With US President George W. Bush pledging to repair trans-Atlantic ties frayed by the Iraq war, his administration has taken a less martial tone in its campaign against al-Qaeda and other groups.

Bush did not use the word terrorism in his inaugural address in January, and officials have stressed the importance of "soft power" such as development aid or relief assistance as a component of the anti-terror drive.

"I think there is a tendency in Europe to say the United States is simplistic about this. It doesn't take into account the many other things the president has done," a senior US official said. "There is clearly an obligation on the part of the US government to be talking to European publics, to be trying to convey a better understanding, a better perception, of the way we are approaching these things."
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