The coming loss of liberties

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views September 17, 2001]

Is it possible that the nation designed by the Founders is unequipped to entangle itself in subterfuges all around the world, thus requiring extraordinary means to insure security, while continuing to guarantee its citizens their basic liberties? Although some have been asking similar questions for years, more voices of concern are being heard in light of the September 11 catastrophe.

Kristen Philipkoski of Wired writes, "In the wake of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, scholars fear that Americans will sacrifice civil liberties that could be difficult to win back. Many civil liberties watchdogs say freedom in the United States have been slowly eroding for the past several decades. But they say Tuesday's attacks will redouble efforts by the government to infringe on civil rights, and now people won't resist."

In the Los Angeles Times, we learn, "Civil libertarians are girding for a backlash that could limit individual freedoms as a result of this week's terrorist attacks." The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights held a special meeting in San Francisco to discuss the possible repressive measures that might be devised by the government in the name of safety. Said the Committee's Eva Peterson, "It is a slippery slope when you say you want to be safer at the expense of civil liberties and civil rights."

A Washington Post poll might hold a portent of things to come. Taken a couple of days after the attacks in New York and Washington, it found that 66% of Americans would be willing to give up "some civil liberties" to combat terrorism. The Senate has already approved legislation that would make it easier for the FBI to get warrants for electronic surveillance of computer transmissions. Says Congressman Richard Gephardt, ". . . we're not going to have all the openness and freedom we have had."

In spite of the swift actions being taken, some members of Congress are counseling caution. Congressman Christopher Coy remarked, "Frisking everyone on the planet to find the one person with the weapon is a high-cost, low-yield way to go. That's a fair analogy to searching through everyone's e-mail. Not only do such schemes threaten civil liberties, they are such scattershot approaches that they are bound to fail."

Senator Patrick Leahy claimed that the new bill went "far beyond" merely thwarting terrorism and expressed fear that it could endanger Americans' privacy. He suggested that a result of the Tuesday attack was that the terrorists helped to "increase Big Brother in this country."

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