German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble sparked controversy on Sunday when he suggested the German Constitution be altered to simplify and strengthen the nation’s fight against terrorism. Among the legal changes Germany must consider, he said, is an allowance for special detention centers where “potential terrorists” might be jailed before they can carry out a strike.

Schäuble, a senior member of the ruling Christian Democratic Union, made the remarks during an interview with Der Spiegel, which was published on Monday, and during an interview on zdf television. The measures Schäuble said Germany must consider, Spiegel Online reported, include “taking terrorists into preventive custody, deploying the German army in domestic operations, searching suspects’ computers online without their knowledge, and—most controversially—the targeted killings of terrorists.”

“Imagine someone knew what cave Osama bin Laden is sitting in. A remote-controlled missile could then be fired in order to kill him,” said Schäuble. “But let us be honest: The legal questions involved would be completely open, especially if Germans were involved. We should try to clarify such questions as precisely as possible in constitutional law, and create legal bases that give us the necessary liberties in the struggle against terrorism“ (emphasis ours).

Schäuble also added that Germany should consider a policy similar to that used in the United States that would allow terror suspects to be classified as “enemy combatants” and detained without criminal charge. “If for example potential terrorists, so-called endangerers, cannot be extradited—what do we do with them? One could, for example, create a law making conspiracy a criminal offense, as the United States has done,” he said. “But the other question is: Can one treat such endangerers like combatants and detain them?”

These suggestions are considered by many to be radical, even for Schäuble, who since becoming interior minister in November 2005 has grown increasingly tough in his approach to averting terrorist attacks in Germany. Within hours of making his remarks, the interior minister was slammed with criticism from many directions, including the police union, his political opponents and the German media.

Even Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany and leader of the Christian Democratic Union, scrambled to distance herself from her controversial interior minister. At a press conference in Berlin on Monday, Thomas Steg, the government’s deputy spokesman, told reporters that Schäuble’s suggestions “have nothing to do with concrete, current government policies.”

Schäuble made his remarks on the heels of the recent terrorist plots in Britain; they are a sign of the growing unease within German intelligence about terrorist strikes on German soil. As maligned as he was for voicing such radical suggestions, his comments reveal the threat Germany faces from radical Islamists in its midst, and the increasing likelihood of a terrorist strike on German soil.

For now, Schäuble’s suggestion to simplify and strengthen the German Constitution in order to avert terrorist attacks in Germany may not sit well with many German politicians or the media. But this could quickly change; the explosion of one or two terrorist bombs on the streets of Berlin could very likely prod the German people to employ whatever means necessary to protect themselves.