An Italian Anti-Terror Recipe: Tough Response, More Weapons, Less Dialogue

Paradoxically, the world still lacks a unified strategy for fighting the dire threat of international terrorism. Countries which finance terrorism are not subjected to any punitive measures, while Russia, which is fighting the threat, is saddled with European sanctions. One Italian expert provided his recipe for combatting terror.

Amid the ongoing fight against the dire threat of international terrorists, who are striking back across the world, Sputnik Italy sat down with Ranieri Razzante, an Italian lawyer and professor at University of Bologna and G. Marconi University in Rome. He is also the director of the Observatory on Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism at the Fondazione Bruno Visentini Luiss University, in Rome, and adviser to the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission.

"My answer might seem quite trivial: we need weapons and war to defeat terror. The war terrorism declared against us requires a tough response and less dialogue, even though diplomacy and dialogue, as real weapons of a state, should also be applied," he told Sputnik.

He further suggested that the countries where traditional Islam is practiced will help to take on those lunatics who buy into the religion of death and deface the real faith. Even though traditional Islam might be of great help, the expert said, there should be a military response to terrorism in the form of military attacks on those countries which support terror.

"It is necessary to introduce sanctions against those countries which finance Daesh. We should take a hard line against those countries which do it for the sake of their certain interests. They should be sanctioned by Europe, the US and others," he said.

Ranieri Razzante further suggested that if it is revealed and proven that a certain country is financing terrorism, the rest of the world should impose an embargo on it. There should also be control over banking and financial systems in the countries outside Europe, where there is basically no control.

"I do not understand why in some countries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa there is almost no control over banking transactions. There is a whole system of banks which enables to provide illegal financial support to Islamic extremists with the help of donations and contributions. And we can no longer close our eyes to it," he said.

"We can no longer afford, as we have been erroneously doing until now, to hold in confidence any personal data both at a national and international level. We can't restrict the access of special services to the computers of suspected citizens.  In such cases the protection of personal data should be secondary to the protection of a democratic state," the expert said.

Razzante then commented on the recent terror attack which happened in St. Petersburg, Russia, which was not widely reported in Italy.  Terrorists, he said, do not make any distinction between countries, they have declared war on the whole civilized world, on Europe, Russia, the US, and so on.

Russia is doing a lot for the fight against terrorism. It is leading the anti-terrorist coalition in Syria and Iraq. Russia, Europe, the US and NATO, he said, should sit down at the negotiation table and should find a solution to the problem, which can be tackled only through unified international efforts.