On anti-terrorism and civil liberties

When the Cold War ended, most of the world's democracies cut military spending. With no real enemy to target, their intelligence services stopped monitoring "ordinary citizens" and started focusing on industrial espionage instead.

Governments gave the private sector, civil society, human and environmental rights groups more space to act in areas that were once off-limits to all but the state.

With the passing of the ideological conflict between East and West, new social struggles took center-stage -- the right to privacy, the rights of women and children, the humane treatment of animals and the scrapping of Third World debt.

But in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the state has reconquered lost ground. The United States scrapped the right to a fair trail in court cases dealing with immigration. President George W. Bush banned several Islamic charity organizations without providing evidence of their alleged wrongdoing. The British government has authorized detention without trial for indefinite periods. The European Union has rushed to adopt wide- ranging international arrest warrant measures.

The fight against terrorism is not an excuse to curb civil rights.

-- Corriere della Sera, Milan, Italy