Who cares about civil liberties?

If Democrats gain big in the midterm elections, it won’t be due to outrage over domestic spying or the treatment of terrorism suspects. Does defending civil liberties have to be a political nonstarter?

The US has often compromised civil liberties, but scholars disagree about how today's debate fits the historical patterns. Above, Japanese-Americans at an internment camp during World War II.

By Drake Bennett

October 15, 2006

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THE CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR and editor William Kristol described it as ‘‘the trap.’’ On Sept. 6, President Bush announced that he was transferring the remaining ‘‘high-value’’ terrorism suspects from secret CIA prisons abroad—admitting, for the first time, that such prisons existed—to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In the same speech, he asked Congress to approve his proposal for a ... (Full article: 1468 words)