Last week in Australia, 230 suspected jihadists were prevented from flying to the Middle East, highlighting a trend among governments (Canada and France are others) to implement tough new counterterrorism laws. While these laws have a purported purpose of improving national security, there is a risk that punitive measures that widen police and intelligence powers will have limited utility and narrow the political freedoms and human rights protections that many in these societies consider essential. More significantly, they could prove counterproductive to fighting terrorism by increasing the marginalization of communities.”
Read the rest of the article published by the Global Observatory on 31.3.2015, written by David Cortright here.