Hillary Clinton, in a radio interview on Tuesday, called on European nations to make changes in their laws to intensify their surveillance capabilities and bring them more in line with the techniques used by the United States.
"You know, for a long time, they ignored our recommendation, thinking that because we've had the terrible attack of 9/11, we were, you know, really overreacting," Clinton said on Arizona radio station KTAR. "Well, now, with Paris, with Brussels, with the potential for further attacks, the Europeans have to be much more aligned with our techniques for surveillance, for interception of information, for really cracking down on the travel and other activities of anybody associated with terrorism. And that's what I think we should be focused on."
Those comments, which the former Secretary made in the afternoon following the attacks on Brussels, came in the context of her calling on Europe to change its laws to improve intelligence-sharing.
"It's also important we do a better job intensifying and strengthening our sharing of intelligence," Clinton said. "And there, the Europeans have to make some changes in their laws. I've been advocating that ever since I was Secretary of State."
Clinton made a similar criticism of Europe's intelligence capabilities in November, in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.
"We still have work to do on this front, but by comparison Europe is way behind," she said in November. "Today, European nations don't even always alert each other when they turn away a suspected jihadist at the border, or when a passport is stolen. It seems like after most terrorist attacks we find out that the perpetrators were known to some security service or another, but too often the dots never get connected. I appreciate how hard this is, especially given the sheer number of suspects and threats, but this has to change."
In other interviews on Tuesday, Clinton was critical of Europe's response to the threat posed by ISIS.
"I don't know that Europe has yet fully come to grips with the threat that ISIS poses," she said on CBS. "And remember, there are other groups that are ISIS-like that are intent upon radical jihadist terrorist attacks."