By William J. Kole, The Associated Press
WIENER NEUSTADT, Austria (AP) -- An armed police commando rappelled down a concrete practice tower Tuesday and kicked in a plate-glass window. “What a way to get in!” U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft exclaimed.
Ashcroft, wrapping up a three-day visit to Austria, used the stop at a military base to hold up the country’s elite Cobra police unit as an example of the resolve he said is needed to keep terrorists at bay.
For more than 20 years, Austria’s Cobras have provided armed undercover guards on select flights to the Middle East, refining what is still a novel anti-terrorism technique in the United States.
Their expertise could help U.S. efforts to improve air travel security, Ashcroft told reporters.
“The defense of freedom always requires courage and determination,” the attorney general said after Cobras clad in body armor used their bare hands to scale the tower in subfreezing temperatures at their training camp in Wiener Neustadt, 40 miles south of Vienna.
“Good job! No blood!” he said as shards of window glass showered the pavement below.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States expanded its force of sky marshals -- law enforcement officials who are trained to stop hijackings. The Bush administration intends to require foreign airlines to put armed agents on certain U.S.-bound flights.
Since the attacks, Austria and the United States have shared information on training and deploying sky marshals, who wear civilian clothes and carry special bullets designed to kill without penetrating the metal skin of an aircraft.
Cobra agents have flown undercover aboard more than 40,000 Austrian flights to the Middle East since 1981.
“We look forward to learning from Austria and working with Austria,” Ashcroft said.
“Europe can work well with the United States on security matters,” Interior Minister Ernst Strasser added, characterizing his country as “one of the most secure nations in the world.”
The U.S. government’s decision to impose marshal requirements on foreign airlines serving key American cities has sparked some opposition in Europe.
Although Britain and France are receptive to the idea, Denmark, Finland, Portugal and Sweden have indicated they would prefer grounding flights if there was a strong suspicion of an attack.
Several European pilot organizations also have expressed reservations.
Ashcroft, meanwhile, said Tuesday he had not yet reviewed a federal judge’s ruling that struck down as unconstitutional part of the USA Patriot Act, which gives American law enforcement authorities broad powers to put terrorism suspects under surveillance.
In the ruling, released Monday in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins threw out a section of the act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations. Collins said the wording of the ban was impermissibly vague.
Asked if the ruling dealt a setback to his anti-terrorism initiatives, Ashcroft said: “I haven’t read the decision. The courts from time to time ...,” before pausing and declining to elaborate.
Ashcroft has come under fire from civil liberties groups, members of Congress and others who contend the Patriot Act, enacted after Sept. 11, is too intrusive.
Critics cite provisions that let federal agents secretly seize library reading lists and other personal records.