Liberty Under Attack: The War on Our Freedoms in an Age of Terror

"Liberty Under Attack" is a versatile book utilizing a host of contributors like Gary Hart and Ann Beeson. This book addresses the assault on individual liberties from wide ranging aspects like American history to actual participation in court cases. John Yoo's advocating a "unitarian executive" theme is closely examined from a critical standpoint. Alan Brinkley detailed some of the embarassing activities in our American past. Two examples are the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. These laws promoted the erosion of individual rights for immigrants and hyphenated American citizens. The history and beginning of the organization we now know as the A.C.L.U. is detailed. Gary Hart contributed a chapter that assessed Congressional failure in their Constitutionally mandated duty for oversight of the current regime. He rightly asserts that this failure has opened the door for wholsale abuse by the executive branch. There is no accountability! John Podesta discusses the Bush penchant for secrecy. He offers sensible solutions for that problem. Peter Osnos detailed the history of various administrations and their often adversarial relationship with the media. Stephen J. Schulhofer had this assessment of the PATRIOT ACT. "As enacted on October 26, 2001, the original USA Patriot Act represented for many Americans the epitome of mindless overeaction, a tragically misguided grant of law enforcement power that will end by destroying our liberies in order to save them." page 124. Mr. Schulhofer offered a very balanced look at the Act exposing both positive and negative aspects of it. The chapter titled "The Espionage Industial Complex" was thought-provoking. The enormous amount of money involved in political contibutions and spending on intelligence companies and programs was illuminating. One example that I hadn't known of was a program called "Trailblazer". It was a system to modernize digital communications intercepts that failed miserably after costing taxpayers a monumental amount of money. Some memorable quotes from Ann Beeson's contibution to the book-"Since 9/11, the government has argued that secrecy is so essential to our safety that the legality of many of its national security policies and practices-from illegal rendition to wiretapping- cannot be reviewed by anyone. Secrecy has emerged as one of the adminstration's most powerful tools for stifling public debate, hiding human rights abuse, and thwarting legal challenges to such abuses when they are disclosed." Page 236. This quote from Judge Anna Diggs Taylor was on-point. "There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution." Page 255. I will sum up my impressions from reading this book by recommending that every citizen who values liberty should read this book!