The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in the Age of Terrorism FROM THE PUBLISHER
America 's leading experts on civil liberties sound an alarm about the consequences of the war on terrorism for our freedom at home.
In each generation, for different reasons, America witnesses a tug of war between the instinct to suppress and the instinct for openness. Today, with the perception of a mortal threat from terrorists, the instinct to suppress is in the ascendancy. Part of the reason for this is the trauma that our country experienced on September 11, 2001, and part of the reason is that the people who are in charge of our government are inclined to use the suppression of information as a management strategy.
Rather than waiting ten or fifteen years to point out what's wrong with the current rush to limit civil liberties in the name of "national security," these essays by top thinkers, scholars, journalists, and historians lift the veil on what is happening and why the implications are dangerous and disturbing and ultimately destructive of American values and ideals. Without our even being aware, the judiciary is being undermined, the press is being intimidated, racial profiling is rampant, and our privacy is being invaded. The "war on our freedoms" is just as real as the "war on terror"—and, in the end, just as dangerous.
About the Author:Richard C.Leone is president of The Century Foundation and has served as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, president of the New York Mercantile Exchange, and a faculty member at Princeton University. Greg Anrig, Jr. is vice president of programs at The Century Foundation and the former Washington bureau chief of Money magazine.
SYNOPSIS
U.S. soldiers and third world civilians are not the only collateral damage in George W. Bush's "War on Terror," believe Leone and Anrig (both affiliated with The Century Foundation). Fundamental established liberties are also under attack in ways examined by contributors from the press, former administrations, the ACLU, and the academy. Topics include racial profiling, press war coverage, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, government secrecy, and the detention of U.S. citizens as "enemy combatants. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
For this collection of meditations on civil liberties, editors Leone and Anrig, president and vice president of the Century Foundation, respectively, commissioned 11 original and two republished essays. Historian Alan Brinkley establishes the framework with his opening essay, remarking that every major crisis in American history has led to curbs on personal liberty and, that more often than not, governments have "used the seriousness of their mission to seize powers far in excess of what the emergency requires." Continuing in that vein are pieces on due process, personal privacy, immigration, government secrecy, racial profiling, scientific research, the media's role, and the dynamics of politics behind the Patriot Act and other measures since 9/11. Respectful but uniformly critical of the Bush administration, the authors are prominent journalists (Anthony Lewis and E.J. Dionne Jr.), academics (Kathleen M. Sullivan, dean of Stanford Law School), attorneys (Ann Beeson, the American Civil Liberties Union), and others (John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Clinton). While the essays overlap somewhat and are not uniformly well written, they add up to a thoughtful critique and a good purchase for public and academic libraries.-Robert F. Nardini, Chichester, NH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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