May 24, 2004: At the annual German lawyers' convention in Hamburg, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) senior member Heiner Geißler called the prison abuse scandal involving U. S. military personnel in Iraq the "greatest triumph of the terrorists." Speaking last Friday to an audience of more than 1000 lawyers, Geißler, who held the cabinet post of social minister during the Helmut Kohl era, said that "it is the greatest triumph of the terrorists that in the public eye the leading power of the Western world has descended to the level of the villain states" (SPIEGEL ONLINE, May 21, 2004).

Geißler, a former member of cabinet in Helmut Kohl's first government, places at least part of the blame for the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison on the U.S. administration. With their comments various members of the American government have "created a mental state in the American public consciousness that would cause soldiers to lose any sense of right or wrong" (ibid.). He also wondered out loud whether the post-Saddam Iraq would turn out to be any better in the area of human rights than it was under Hussein: "Saddam Hussein is gone for sure, but it is questionable whether human rights will be increased if a Schiite religious state is established."

Geißler appealed to the lawyers not to sacrifice the rule of law in the battle against terrorism. "The Federal Republic of Germany cannot evolve from being a constitutional state to a security or preventive state," he said to loud applause from the audience. According to Geißler, when basic human diginity is at stake, security should not be maintained at the cost of freedom. He also questioned whether war and political decisions would be of any use in the fight against terrorism if no real justice is achieved on the earth. "Young people without any perspective in this earthly life are ripe for Islamic promises of salvation," he emphasized.

In an earlier speech at the convention, Germany's justice minister Brigitte Zypries emphasized that in establishing a balance between freedom and security the unquestioned rule of law must be maintained. "We surely will not be fighting terrorism effectively if we forsake this principle," Zypries said, adding that maintaining a free society prevents having total security.

In a statement the day before Geißler's speech, the German Lawyers' League (DAV) had rejected stricter resident alien regulations as a means of combatting terrorism. "Germany doesn't need a Guantanamo, not even for its resident alien legislation," DAV-President Hartmut Kilger declared, adding that existing legislation was sufficient for the deportation of resident aliens considered to be dangerous.