Yes sure you had IRA, ETA in Spain. Although they were making regular appearance in the media, that was not a daily drivel.
Suddenly 9/11 and everything any government in the world does not sanctify is labelled terrorism, and adequate action as demonstrated by the US is required. Break a window during protest: terrorism, complain loudly about stuff: suspected terrorist.
You cannot deny that since 9/11 lot of freedom have been given up in the name of fighting terrorism ? How is it that Spain/UK with active terrorist movement did not have those laws before ? How is it that we are dead scarred of this "muslim terrorist leaving in a cave in Afganistan/Syria/Irak/ next target", but we were fine living next-door to our homemade ones ?
Long before 9/11, I travelled with bottle of wine from spain to the uk and bottle of whisky to spain from the uk. Both when the IRA and ETA were active.
Nowadays, it is not possible in case some terr'ist muslim (sorry no racism, but that's the current media scapegoat) want to "blow our freedom away".
How is it that Spain/UK with active terrorist movement did not have those laws before ?
They (the UK) did. They had the Prevention of Terrorism Acts in the 1980s. They had interment without trial. They had aggressive police on the streets. They had police shooting at protesters. They had the head of government (Thatcher) saying "We don't negotiate with terrorists". They had secret service spying on people of the wrong ethnicity.
I remember going to Northern Ireland in the 90s and being questioned by military with machine guns at the border. These things did exist.
Omagh is NI; but the important point here was the militarized police force was (for better or for worse, given the number of mainland attacks) confined to NI. Much of the special powers granted only applied to NI. I'm not saying it wasn't a problem on the mainland — by any measure, it was — but one must realize the extra powers granted were limited.
Suddenly 9/11 and everything any government in the world does not sanctify is labelled terrorism, and adequate action as demonstrated by the US is required. Break a window during protest: terrorism, complain loudly about stuff: suspected terrorist.
You cannot deny that since 9/11 lot of freedom have been given up in the name of fighting terrorism ? How is it that Spain/UK with active terrorist movement did not have those laws before ? How is it that we are dead scarred of this "muslim terrorist leaving in a cave in Afganistan/Syria/Irak/ next target", but we were fine living next-door to our homemade ones ?
Long before 9/11, I travelled with bottle of wine from spain to the uk and bottle of whisky to spain from the uk. Both when the IRA and ETA were active. Nowadays, it is not possible in case some terr'ist muslim (sorry no racism, but that's the current media scapegoat) want to "blow our freedom away".