Over on Alternet, John K. Wilson reviews the new book It's a Free Country. Law Professor and civil liberties expert David Cole is a significant author of the work.

The full title is "It's a Free Country: Personal Freedom in America after September 11." Published by RDV Books, edited by Danny Goldberg, Victor Goldberg and Robert Greenwald, the book "challenges the idea widely publicized in the media that domestic liberties were mostly unaffected by terrorism."

An Amazon review describes the book as a "groundbreaking collection of new pieces examining the effects of President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft’s legislative assault on civil liberties following the terrorist bombing of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon."

Contributers of original material besides Professor Cole include Michael Moore, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Steve Earle, Tom Hayden, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Robert Scheer (LA Times columnist), Ira Glasser (former head of the ACLU), cartoonist Matt Groening, historian Howard Zinn, Lillian Nakano, Congressman Bob Barr, Michael Isikoff, Anthony Romero, Norman Siegel, Kenneth Roth, Nadine Strossen, Michael Tomasky, Helen Zia, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich.

There are interviews with Nat Hentoff and Congressman Barney Frank and firsthand stories from Middle Eastern and American victims of civil-liberty infringement, such as the chief of police in Portland, Oregon who resisted federal pressure, and Fathi Mustafa, a Palestinian caught in the wave of racial profiling.

In the Alternet review, John Wilson says,

"One of the most shocking things about "It's a Free Country" is the inclusion of statements by members of Congress. The media presented America post-Sept. 11 as a glorified oneness of thought in support of the war on terror. These sharp criticisms by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Bob Barr (R-Ga.), Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) were almost invisible in the press. "

"The media failed to report the fact, as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) observed, that the USA Patriot Act was "strengthened" to restrict civil liberties by after-committee "backdoor maneuvers" without the knowledge of members of Congress who voted mere hours after the legislation was finalized to approve it, unaware of the changes made by the Bush Administration."

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