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RedditFollowing the September 11 attacks, the federal government rounded up more than 1,000 people and detained them without revealing their identities. Last October, The Nation joined the Center for National Security Studies, the American Civil Liberties Union and twenty other groups in submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to the Justice Department asking for information regarding the detainees--including their identities, the reasons for their detentions, and the names of their lawyers. The Justice Department refused the request, and the petitioners (including The Nation) took the government to court. On August 2, federal district court Judge Gladys Kessler issued a decision ordering the government to turn over much of the requested information. In a strongly-worded opinion, she noted, "Secret arrests are 'a concept odious to a democratic society'...and profoundly antithetical to the bedrock values that characterize a free and open one such as ours."
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Experts in Terror
Petra Bartosiewicz: The US government relies heavily on the testimony of self-styled terrorism experts in prosecuting the "war on terror." But how credible are they?
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Setting the Record Straight on FISA
John Conyers: Civil liberties and national security are not contradictory: they are inextricably linked.
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Strange Culture
Patricia J. Williams: Federal authorities are prosecuting Steve Kurtz under the Patriot Act for using harmless bacteria in his artwork. A new film examines his ordeal.
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Justice Denied
Aziz Huq: Alberto Gonzales leaves office with the Justice Department tarnished, the rule of law debased and our civil liberties significantly eroded. It now falls to Congress--and the next President--to repair the damage he's done.
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The CIA's Italian Job
Mohamad Bazzi: The story of Hassan Nasr, a victim of "extraordinary rendition" who was interrogated and tortured in Egypt for four years, is finally being told.
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The Persecution of Sami Al-Arian
Alexander Cockburn: A Palestinian professor caught in the US legal system needs all the support we can muster, as respect for constitutional freedoms sinks ever lower.
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Keeping Up Appearances
Patricia J. Williams: What are we to make of those who would equate Muslim women who wear the veil with the threat of terrorism?
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The Nation Sues the Government
The Nation joins the ACLU and several other organizations and attorneys in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the FISA act.
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Noted.
Ari Melber tracks the continuing fight over FISA; Stuart Klawans remembers Thomas Disch.
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Obama and Iraq
His plan to exit Iraq falls far short of the complete withdrawal most Americans want. But it's a place to start.
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Noted.
Civil liberties, at home and abroad; saving Jeff Wood from Texas's death row.
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Supreme Politics
The Supreme Court's final rulings remind us that civil rights and a sane vision of the Constitution rest with the next President's judicial appointments.
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Fizzling on FISA
Obama and other Senate Democrats should not let a lame-duck Administration compromise our liberties in the name of pursuing terrorists.
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Noted.
George Carlin knew words could never be as obscene as wars; Barack Obama goes for the money, but at what cost?
Kessler's entire decision and order are here in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat required.
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