War on Terrorism

Obama Should Oppose Preventive Detention

by Sheldon Richman October 17, 2008

Speculation is rampant over what will be President-elect Barack Obama’s first bold move when he takes power January 20. Will he bail out Detroit? Will he move to revamp the health-care system? Will he unveil a comprehensive plan to revive the economy? Here’s a good way to start, Mr. Obama: categorically oppose preventive detention. According to the New ...

Losing Liberty in the War on Terrorism (video)

by Bart Frazier October 13, 2008

On June 6, 2008, Bart Frazier gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.

Federal Attitude Policy

by James Bovard June 1, 2008

The Transportation Security Administration has created more gantlets at American airports than most travelers realize. It has continually changed the rules for flying since it first deployed its 40,000+ army of screeners across the land. Americans are at much greater risk of being arrested or fined in the airport for not kowtowing to federal agents. ...

The Democratic-Peace Fraud

by James Bovard March 1, 2008

The doctrine of “democratic peace” now provides vital camouflage for the American war machine. Michael Novak, a theologian with the pro-war American Enterprise Institute, observed, “Democracy is the new name for peace.” The idea that democracies never fight wars against each other has become axiomatic for many scholars. Prof. Jack Levy commented in 1989 that the democratic-peace doctrine is ...

InfraGard: An Unhealthy Government Alliance

by Gary D. Barnett February 22, 2008

There is an organization that is quietly and secretly becoming very large and powerful. The FBI started this partnership or alliance between the federal government and the private sector in 1996 in Cleveland with a few select people. After September 11, 2001, when the general population replaced their rationality with fear, this organization, called InfraGard, continued growing, and with ...

The New Crime of Thinking

by Gary D. Barnett February 1, 2008

It looks like the term “thought police” just might take on a whole new and real meaning. This depends on what happens in the U.S. Senate after receiving House bill H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This act (now S-1959 — Senate version) is now being considered by Senate committees and, if passed by ...

The Enemy-Combatant Attack on Freedom, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Another revolutionary aspect of the enemy-combatant doctrine was how the discretionary power to treat suspected terrorists, including Americans, as enemy combatants was acquired by the president and the Pentagon. Despite the assumption of this monumental power by the executive branch, there never was a constitutional amendment authorizing it. Initially, there wasn’t even a law ...

The Martial Law Act of 2006

by James Bovard January 1, 2008

Martial law is perhaps the ultimate stomping of freedom. And yet, on September 30, 2006, Congress passed a provision in a 591-page bill that will make it easy for President Bush to impose martial law in response to a terrorist “incident.” It also empowers him to effectively declare martial law in response to what he ...

Torturing the Language of Torture

by Sheldon Richman December 17, 2007

Is waterboarding, known during the Spanish Inquisition as tortura del agua, really torture or not? The question seems to answer itself, but the Bush administration says No. Its critics disagree, noting that the “interrogation technique,” which makes a subject physically and mentally react as though he is drowning, has long been regarded as torture by ...

The 9/11 Servility Reflex

by James Bovard December 1, 2007

Many citizens react to their rulers like little kids who recognize that a stranger is acting suspiciously and may be up to no good — but then decide whether to trust the man depending on the type of candy he pulls from his pockets. It is as if a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup trumps the ...

Legal Idiocy and the War on Terror (video)

by Joseph Margulies November 9, 2007

On June 2, 2007, Joseph Margulies gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.

A Day in the Life of an Unwilling “Federal Agent”

by Gary D. Barnett November 9, 2007

Today I received my fourth-quarter 2007 Anti-Money Laundering Training Program notice. After my “mandatory” compliance, I must agree with everything stated in the “training” through the Compliance Attestation System. Although the manner and frequency of this forced training has changed somewhat, it is still required or else, this since the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act. Every quarter, “new and ...