Cliff, this is more complex than it appears. The Spanish judge who issued the indictment is a Spitzer-style showboater, and the EU arrest warrant (as it currently stands) is a thoroughly bad idea. That said, there is indeed a genuine need for more European cross-border co-operation in the fight against Islamic extremism (not least for the reasons that the WSJ article gives), but Brussels, with typical shamelessless, used this as an excuse to get passed a procedure that has more to do with its own wider federalizing agenda than the security situation after 9/11.

As it happens, the difficulty in this case seems to be the way that that warrant was incorporated into German law rather than the warrant itself. I’ve not much doubt that the extradition process will resume, but does the fact that this guy has been released pending resolution of these issues show a dangerous gap in the law? Yes.