ABSTRACT
Although more than 30 years have passed since Senator Frank Church of Idaho led congressional investigations that triggered a national debate concerning the balance between national security and civil liberties, America’s ongoing struggle against international terrorism has kindled a new debate echoing similar themes.1 Emerging in the wake of the shock, chaos and horror of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the Bush administration’s tactics in its self-described “War on Terror” have fueled this debate while drawing severe criticism from civil libertarians. The most controversial of these tactics have included the use of military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, aggressive interrogation techniques that have been characterized as torture, and the use of the National Security Agency to conduct domestic surveillance.
