Crush the Terrorists ... Not the Bill of Rights
War on Terrorism is No Excuse to Erode Basic Freedoms

Why America? Why do the insane, the fanatic, and the depraved target us with mass murder? They say it's because we're a rich and arrogant nation, and that's certainly true of some of us. But other countries are richer and other citizens far less humble. So the question remains.

Our freely elected president put it this way in his recent speech to Congress, the American people, and the world,

"Americans are asking: Why do they hate us?

"They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

In short, they hate the U.S. Constitution. Not the just the document written in ink and preserved in a vacuum-sealed glass case in the U.S. Capitol, but the promise written in the blood and sweat of every American who has sacrificed and died for the freedoms it guarantees.

And what they hate most about the Constitution is the Bill of Rights -- 462 words that tower over dictatorships and police states and make them look as cheap and puny as they really are. They think that by knocking down buildings and spilling innocent blood they can knock down the Bill of Rights as well.

Lawmakers, activists, scholars, and most citizens seem to be reaching the same conclusion. We need to do everything possible to identify, locate, and destroy the terrorist networks behind the September 11 attacks, but we need to balance intelligence and law-enforcement needs with a respect for our basic rights as Americans -- especially those enumerated in the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

Consider, for example, the position of a famous liberal legal scholar. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, (9.27.01), Laurence Tribe -- member of the Harvard Law School faculty and attorney for the 2000 Gore campaign -- urges us to give law enforcement what it needs to do the job without cutting into basic constitutional freedoms. "Overdue and entirely constitutional responses to technological change," for instance, "must be enacted promptly." He cites cell phone taps and provisions that deal with biological threats in the category. He also approves of a number of sensible changes, such as extending racketeering laws to cover terrorist groups, dropping the statute of limitations for terrorist crimes, federalizing airport security, and putting armed federal marshals on planes and trains.

"But when asked to confer open-ended powers of a sort that governments crave," says Tribe, "Congress should put on the brakes."

Though well known as a liberal scholar, Tribe has, in the past, been honest enough to follow his intellect and his research where they take him, even when they take him away from fashionable leftist doctrines. As a result, he has become a strong supporter of the Victim's Rights Amendment and has modified a longstanding anti-gun interpretation of the 2nd Amendment to recognize "an individual right" for citizens "to possess and use firearms in the defense of themselves and their homes." (USA Today 8.27.99)

How about another high-profile liberal? The director of the ACLU, whose stance on a variety of issues (but not all, anymore) matches Mr. Tribes, takes an equally balanced view:

"We are now in a fight against an enemy that has targeted not only our lives and property, but also the fundamental values of freedom and equality that are the hallmarks of our democracy.

"Terror, by its very nature, is intended not only to kill and destroy," Romero continued. "Terror is also designed to intimidate a people and force them to take actions that may not be in their long-term best interests. If we allow our freedoms to be undermined, the terrorists will have won." (Anthony Romero, ACLU Executive Director -- September 17 press release)

The president and CEO of the NAACP, Kweisi Mfume, issued a similar statement a day after the ACLU press release:

"This tragedy and these acts of evil that occurred on September 11 must not go unpunished. This is a time for all Americans to stand united and defend the ideals of a free and open society where terrorism has no place." (Press release, September 18, 2001)

And what about the conservatives? U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who often finds it necessary to differ with both the ACLU and NAACP, sounds remarkably similar on this issue:

"This is about how we equip our anti-espionage, counterterrorism agencies with the tools they want while we still preserve the most fundamental thing, which is the civil liberties of the American people." (NYT, 9.28.01)

Some will tell us we can't defeat the world's major terrorist networks and organizations without permanently giving up many of our basic rights. They believe it is simply impossible for America, or any nation, to be so strong and so free at the same time. They're wrong, of course, but it's true that we're an anomoly.

We get so use to our combined strength and freedom that we need to be reminded every once in a while how unusual it is. A friend of mine who goes to see just about every Orioles home game had a similar experience when he went to Atlanta to attend a critical three-game series a couple of years ago. This was a few months before Cal Ripken decided to end his streak. My friend came back and said, "Those people were in total awe. Every time Cal came to the plate -- in all three games -- there was a five-minute ovation. I guess I take it for granted I can see him 75 times a year just by hopping in my car. But these people were stunned. They looked like they'd seen God."

It is difficult for us, as Americans, to understand the constant astonishment with which the rest of the world regards us. Mostly for good, but also for ill. We're a country of religious believers, for the most part, who will defend with our lives the right of our fellow citizens to be atheists, or follow a religion we think is false. A country where power has been peacefully transferred from one freely elected president to another 43 consecutive times in 226 years -- a streak that makes us the Iron Man of freedom. A country where an essentially leftist organization, like the ACLU, can work together with a conservative police-based group like the LEAA.

Osama bin Laden and his fellow cowards throughout the world would like nothing more than for us to start rescinding those rights as a result of the September 11 attacks.

But we're not that kind of country, and won't be giving Osama bin Laden and his fellow cowards that kind of satisfaction.

Will we make whatever sacrifices are necessary to crush the world's major terrorist organizations? Of course we will, and for a time that may mean we give greater powers and latitude to various parts of the law enforcement community such as the FBI, CIA, NSA, and military intelligence, so that they can do their work as quickly and effectively as possible.

To hunt down and punish those who murdered hundreds of police and firefighters, along with thousands of innocent civilians of this and many other countries, we will -- as President John F. Kennedy once said -- bear any burden and pay any price.

But we will also go about our business, and the business of America is freedom. For our part here at the LEAA, while we stand shoulder to shoulder with the ACLU, the NAACP, and a number of other liberal organizations on this particular issue, we still disagree wholeheartedly with many of their claims, positions, and activities. And they disagree with us just as strongly. And that's fine. We have the right to these kinds of disagreements in this country, and ultimately they make us stronger. We're free to debate the most critical and controversial topics of the day right out on the street corner and in the newspapers, no matter what our government might think. But however much we all might disagree about specific issues, all of us agree that the Constitution stands at the center of our nation, our values, our identity and our beliefs.

"This is about how we equip our anti-espionage, counterterrorism agencies with the tools they want while we still preserve the most fundamental thing, which is the civil liberties of the American people."

--Representative Dick Armey (House majority leader) (NYT, 9.28.01)

"If we allow our freedoms to be undermined, the terrorists will have won."

-- Anthony Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union, September 17, 2001 (ACLU Web site)