Issues

Flawed 'terrorist list' no answer to airplane crotch fire

January 13, 2010 - 8:53am

(CNSNews.com) – Former FBI agent Mike German, now a terrorism expert with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said that using the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) of 400,000-plus names to screen airline passengers was not realistic, and added that it was “fundamentally ridiculous” to think the list was not flawed.

 

Overblown terror fears: Degrading and stupid

January 13, 2010 - 8:38am

Glenn Greenwald with some choice words on the current hysteria:

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This is what inevitably happens to a citizenry that is fed a steady diet of fear and terror for years.  It regresses into pure childhood.  The 5-year-old laying awake in bed, frightened by monsters in the closet, who then crawls into his parents' bed to feel Protected and Safe, is the same as a citizenry planted in front of the television, petrified by endless imagery of scary Muslim monsters, who then collectively crawl to Government and demand that they take more power and control in order to keep them Protected and Safe. 

The case against military tribunals: It's a violation of the Constitution to use the panels without a declaration of war -- and just calling it a 'war' on terror doesn't count. By Andrew P. Napolitano

December 1, 2009 - 9:59am

In the uproar caused by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr.'s announcement that the alleged planners of the 9/11 attacks are to be tried in U.S. District Court in New York City, and the suspects in the attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole will go on trial before military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the public discourse has lost sight of the fundamental principles that guide the government when it makes such decisions. Unfortunately, the government has lost sight of the principles as well.

Who Is A Terrorist? Government Failure to Define Terrorism Undermines Enforcement, Puts Civil Liberties at Risk

November 11, 2009 - 10:32am

Eight years after 9/11, federal agencies can't seem to agree on who is a terrorist and who is not. The failure has potentially serious implications, weakening efforts to use the criminal law to combat terrorism and at the same time undermining civil liberties. Evidence of this surprising lapse has emerged from extensive analyses by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of many thousands of records obtained from the federal courts and from two agencies in the Justice Department.

TRAC Seeks Retraction From DOJ

November 11, 2009 - 10:25am

(October 19, 2009) In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, TRAC today asked the Justice Department to retract a department statement about TRAC's recent report on the government's troubled terrorism enforcement activities.