Abstract

All in the Name of Security

The article presents information on the impact of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the civil liberty of people in the U.S. In contrast to the deliberation that has, so far at least, marked the Administration's military response to the WTC/Pentagon conspiracy, Attorney General John Ashcroft rushed to Capitol Hill with a hodgepodge of legislation to grant the FBI, INS and federal prosecutors powers to spy, jail and interrogate far greater than in any past war or national emergency. For civil libertarians, the political risk was all the greater because this is no imaginary conspiracy. The September 11 attack was murderous, the threat of future violence significant. Civil libertarians cannot casually dismiss the shocked public's hunger for security.