ABSTRACT
Up to this point, the way in which political leaders framed and phrased their counterterrorism policy constituted the main focus of the discussion. The issue of the policy's practical execution thus far only merited a number of indirect references. In this chapter I examine the three most important instruments of legitimate, democratic counterterrorist policies. The three agents of social control addressed here are the most vital exponents of counterterrorism in a civil society: the police, the judiciary as well as the intelligence and security services. On the basis of their discretionary powers, police authorities, intelligence services and the courts are authorized to decide who or what is to be prosecuted and monitored as ‘terrorist’. In doing so, these authorities complement government policy and convert it into actual practice, thereby also identifying and communicating the boundaries of democracy, social order and the extent of the terrorist threat to society at large. Police and judiciary expose valid social rules and punish ‘deviant’ behaviour.
