Le “modèle français”, reconnaissable (discrètement) mais pas exportable

Lorsqu’il s’agit de reconnaître une supériorité française, — et le domaine est vaste, — les Anglo-Saxons, surtout les Britanniques, ont leur manière bien à eux. Subreptice, sans insister, comme s’ils énonçaient une banalité sur laquelle on ne s’attarde pas et de laquelle aucun enseignement n’est à tirer, — surtout pas un enseignement qui remettrait en question le “modèle anglo-saxon”.

Dans ce registre, voici le “Financial Times”, qui reçoit celui qu’il désigne comme “le Shériff”, le juge Jean-Louis Bruguière, qu’il consulte avec respect sur le terrorisme. Par petites touches, l’article-interview met en évidence l’avance de la France dans la lutte anti-terrorisme, et, par contraste, le laxisme et la courte vue des autres pays occidentaux, notamment anglo-saxons, qui continuent pourtant à distribuer des leçons au monde entier. (On se rappelle également des attaques anti-françaises, en 2002-2003, lorsque la France était accusée de lâcheté dans la lutte anti-terroriste.)

Les extraits de l’article, indirectement sur le “modèle français”, — jusqu’à ce que, bon prince, Bruguière leur annonce que le modèle n’est pas exportable… :

« Mr Bruguière has been warning about the growing threat of Islamic terrorists since a series of bombs in Paris in the mid-1980s. Long before September 11, he was warning about the risk of terrorists using an aircraft as a bomb, after foiling the 1994 hijacking of an Air France jet by Algerian radicals planning to crash it into the Eiffel tower. People pay more attention to him now. Few countries have invested their legal system with more authority to investigate and pre-empt terrorist attacks than France. Mr Bruguière can get warrants to tap phones, search houses and lock people up for days with little more than an intelligence tip-off.

» He can hold suspects for 96 hours before they are charged or see a lawyer. “Association with criminals involved in a terrorist enterprise” carries a 10-year prison sentence and encompasses everything from financing terrorists to holding a false passport.

» Since 1986 specialist anti-terrorist judges, led by Mr Bruguière, have worked alongside police and intelligence teams in a special anti-terror unit. “By working more closely with the secret services the legal system is reinforced.” In contrast, the UK suffers from not having a “centralised” approach to terrorism, making it difficult to know “who is the best interlocutor” he says.

» Mr Bruguière says France's “connected and pro-active policy of permanent struggle” reflects its history, and the recent memory of attacks by the Algerian GIA terror group on the Paris metro in the 1990s. “Other European countries were not concerned by that, which did not allow a global response at that time.”

» He dismisses recent calls for the UK to adopt the French model. “The French model is not directly transferable to the UK because of the differences in judicial structure and organisation.” However, he says France could be a source of ideas, such as on how to get intelligence services working more closely with law enforcement. »

Mis en ligne le 27 août 2005 à 12H50