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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17082-2004Nov1.html?
French Push Limits in Fight on Terrorism
(Washington Post) In many countries of Europe, former inmates of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo have been relishing their freedom. Not so in France, where four Guantanamo prisoners were arrested as soon as they arrived home in July, and haven't been heard from since. Under French law, they could remain locked up for as long as three years while authorities decide whether to put them on trial. Armed with some of the strictest anti-terrorism laws in Europe, the French government has aggressively targeted Islamic radicals deemed a potential terrorist threat, with scant public dissent over tactics that would be controversial, if not illegal, in the U.S. French counterterrorism officials say their preemptive approach has paid off, enabling them to disrupt plots before they are carried out and to prevent radical cells from forming in the first place.