cover image Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of Democracy

Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of Democracy

Susan N. Herman. Oxford Univ., $24.95 (304p) ISBN 9780199782543

When citizens demand accountability in matters of national security, the government usually says: "Just Trust Us." That's not good enough for ACLU president Herman (The Right to a Speedy and Public Trial), who has written a sobering plea for official transparency in the age of terror. Weaving her analysis of constitutional law with humanizing portraits, she argues that ordinary Americans must involve themselves in preserving their own freedoms. Supporting evidence comes from those who have suffered most from the sweeping enforcement of PATRIOT Act provisions, including: an Idaho graduate student who spent 17 months in solitary confinement for serving as webmaster to a suspect site; a librarian in Washington who was asked by the FBI to hand over the name of every patron who had ever checked out a biography of Osama Bin Laden; and an Oregon lawyer whose fingerprints were incorrectly linked to the 2004 bombing of commuter trains in Madrid. Herman argues that these were not unfortunate mistakes, but rather, the inevitable result of a government operating with impunity. As critical of President Obama as she is of the Bush administration, Herman suggests: "Tools as powerful as those in the post-9/11 arsenal are dangerous no matter who wields them." (Oct.)