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Security and Liberty - We Need Both

By Jeralyn, Section War on Terror
Posted on Tue Apr 13, 2004 at 12:49:26 PM EST
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We agree with law prof Eric Muller who writes the blog Is That Legal? when he criticizes Andrew McCarthy 's article in National Review about the wall preventing information sharing between intelligence and criminal investigation agencies. McCarthy says:

the "wall was . . . a deliberate and unnecessary impediment to information sharing. . . . It told national-security agents in the field that there were other values, higher interests, that transcended connecting the dots and getting it right."

Eric replies:

Umm, well, yeah. Those "other values" are little things called "civil liberties," and what makes them "higher" is that they're reflected in the highest law of the land, the Constitution. If you read this blog, you'll know that I'm no "sky-is-falling" civil libertarian who has howled about everything law enforcement has done since 9/11. But I am very worried by the direction that today's testimony before the 9/11 Commission is taking, and by what seems to be the Commission's emerging self-appointed role to diagnose problems and recommend changes in law enforcement practices.

My concern is this: The Commission is rightly focused on how law enforcement failed to detect and prevent the planned 9/11 attacks. With a mission like that, any impediment to detection and prevention is naturally going to look like a very bad thing. But it is not part of the Commission's mandate to determine why the law might place impediments in the way of detection and prevention of crime. Nor is it the Commission's mandate to care about the appropriate balance between crime prevention and civil liberties.

,,,,As we listen to today's hearings and read the Commission's reports, I desparately hope that people will remember that the Commission is not tasked with hyper-vigilance about civil liberties, or even ordinary vigilance. Anything on the subject of law enforcement that emerges from the Commission's work--and especially any reforms the Commision suggests--will have to lead to a very serious national conversation about the balance of security and freedom. Right now, the conversation is just about security.

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