There have been examples of countries preventing actual terrorist attacks without illegally spying on their citizens, or illegally torturing people captured up to 6 years ago thinking they still have relevant information.. Great Britain is a prime example of this type of country. Germany is another.
In fact, Germany arrested three suspected terrorists today based on actual police work.
According to a developing story fromCNN:
Authorities would not elaborate on whether Ramstein Air Base -- the U.S. military's main installation in Germany-- or the major international hub of Frankfurt Airport were among the targets, as reported by German media.
"There are, of course, strong grounds to believe that it could also have been directed at American military installations ... it also could also have been Frankfurt airport, we can't really rule that out," German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.
The suspects, two German converts to Islam aged 22 and 29 and a 29-year-old Turk, appeared before a federal magistrate on Wednesday. They were picked up Tuesday after a series of raids in 30 places across Germany, Ziercke said.
They received terrorist training in Pakistan and had close ties to al Qaeda, he noted.
Thankfully this new crop of terrorists don't seem to be any particularly interested in "Omerta." And also, thankfully these arrests aren't immediately suspicious like the recent cases of a couple yokels thinking of attacking a U.S. Military Installations with a couple guns. These guys were caught with over half a ton of hydrogen peroxide and were actually in the process of assembling bombs.