The British Home Secretary David Blunkett overrode human rights concerns and deviated from the European Convention on Human rights by introducing new laws to allow the detention without trial of non-British citizens suspected of terrorism. At one stage, eight such prisoners were held.
The spotlight was turned on extremist views being promulgated in some mosques and Britain was criticised by France for allowing Islamic extremism to flourish.
France also supported the United States and foiled a plan to blow up the US embassy in Paris. Germany followed up on the revelation that Hamburg was where one of the hijackers, Mohammed Atta, had been living. Italy discovered a bizarre plan to use cyanide to poison water in the US embassy in Rome.
