Abstract

Hell Hounds

The article offers a case for an oversight of homeland security measures and for the upholding of civil rights and liberties. In early December 2004, some police at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport planted a packet of plastic explosives in an innocent passenger's suitcase, "chosen at random." The bomb-sniffing dog flunked the test, the suitcase went down the conveyor belt, and it was apparently loaded onto an airplane destined for parts unknown. If ever there was an object lesson illustrating the need both for sane oversight of security measures and for the vigilant upholding of civil rights and liberties, this would have to be it. As a culture of secrecy and a habit of anything-goes settles over the "war on terror," the failure to hold police, soldiers and spies to the highest levels of accountability can only enhance the likelihood of stupid mistakes. What might have happened if the unsuspecting owner of the suitcase in question had collected it at his destination, only to be sniffed out by better-trained, more highly professional hounds at the receiving end. Surely carrying plastic explosives aboard an international flight would get you instant casting as a terrorist or an enemy combatant. Errors of surveillance come in all sizes; some go on for ten years, or possibly forever. That is why we have habeas corpus. At least that is why we used to.