Wouldn't it be ironic if the main result of 9-11 is that Americans would choose to be less free?
If terrorism is, at heart, a form of psychological warfare designed to break the will of the enemy, then those who perpetrated the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings would surely be pleased to see us give up some democratic freedoms in a vain attempt to make ourselves feel less afraid.
Don't get me wrong. I want to be as secure as the next guy. And I'm grateful for the hard sacrifices made by those whose duty is to protect the country.
But I think that to criticize excessive encroachments on privacy, dissent and other individual liberties is not only fair, but also patriotic, as these liberties have been the soul of the American ideal since its founding. And I want to see them preserved.
Thankfully, the tide seems to be turning against some of the most egregious excesses of the so-called War on Terror.
On July 22, the U.S. House voted to roll back one provision of the USA Patriot Act — the one that allowed the government to search homes secretly and without a warrant. The Justice Department had overseen 47 of these searches within the past two years, but the House voted to stop the practice by a bipartisan majority of nearly 3 to 1.
As of this writing, another vote was scheduled to roll back the FBI's right to obtain detailed information about library and bookstore patrons.
A bizarre plan to turn the possibility of future terrorist acts into a betting market was squelched almost as soon as sane people learned of it, and the fiasco may lead to the resignation of Admiral John Poindexter, one of the villains of another Republican misadventure, the Iran-Contra scandal.
And finally, the ACLU filed its first Constitutional lawsuit against the Patriot Act last week.
But as the experience of one of our readers, Marc Schultz, attests, the silliness isn't over yet. We present today a package of stories describing the ongoing war against freedom. Hal Crowther, whose article in the Planet criticizing Rupert Murdoch and President Bush is what got Schultz interrogated for reading it, reflects on how Schultz was relatively lucky. Bill Berkowitz gives an overview of the Pentagon's past and future attempts to play Big Brother. And just to show our bipartisan spirit, former Congressman Bob Barr (yes, the one who helped lead the impeachment charge against President Clinton) weighs in on how even your private conversations aren't safe.
We hope the package provides you with a mixture of information and outrage.
Because as Barry Goldwater used to say, the defenders of freedom can never rest.
MORE COVER FEATURES
When it comes to mindless FBI interrogations, Marc Schultz is not alone
by hal crowther
It was a sleepy afternoon in June, and in the Atlanta office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, agents were amusing themselves the best they could — shredding obsolete field reports about strange Arabs in Florida flight…
A summary of domestic spying activities in the war on terrorism
by bill berkowitz
Since 9-11, domestic spying projects have become as American as apple pie, the Fourth of July and baseball.
The government can search your home and e-mail without permission or notice
by bob barr
In speaking with a large group of student interns on Capitol Hill recently — students from across the country and the ideological spectrum — I asked a simple question: "When you communicate with others by e-mail, do…
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2003.