Liberty versus Safety
"Bush Law-Enforcement Plan Troubles Both Right and Left" -- New York Times [free registration required]
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/28/national/28RIGH.html
Attorney General Ashcroft Outlines Mobilization against Terrorism Act -- US DOJ
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2001/September/492ag.htm
Attorney General Ashcroft's Draft Anti-Terrorism Package (Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001) Section-by-Section Analysis
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200109/092001.html
Summary of Chairman Leahy's Uniting and Strengthening of America (USA) Act
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200109/091901.html
After the attack: Privacy vs. security -- ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/specialreport/0,12737,6021498,00.html
"Arab Americans caught in profile snare: Detained, denied boarding or kicked off planes for looking Middle Eastern" -- San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/09/28/MN199103.DTL
"In Patriotic Time, Dissent Is Muted" -- New York Times [free registration required]
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/28/business/media/28TUBE.html
"Requests for Student Information Stir Concern" -- Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37857-2001Sep27.html
"Why Liberty Suffers in War Time" -- WiredNews
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47051,00.html
Wartimeliberty.com
http://www.wartimeliberty.com/
Many of the nation's lawmakers are concerned this week with how to square national security measures with civil liberties. Attorney General John Ashcroft has asked Congress to quickly pass legislation granting broad powers to the administration, including the ability to indefinitely detain those considered a threat to security, greater discretion in surveillance, and more power to seize people's assets, among other provisions. Senators and Representatives on both the left and the right are debating the proposal, many expressing no small amount of concern over the potential abridgment of citizens' rights that the legislation represents. This week's In the News is addressed to this crucial question: what price security or what price liberty?

The New York Times [free registration required] today gives an overview of current thoughts on the hill regarding Ashcroft's proposed legislation. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) offers a summary of the Mobilization Against Terrorism Act, and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) has posted both an analysis of the Act and a summary of his own proposed alternative, the Uniting and Strengthening of America (USA) Act. ZDNet's special feature, After the attack: Privacy vs. security, covers the proposed legislation along with other issues such as FBI use of data from ISPs and calls for legislation addressing encryption. The San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, and Washington Post report on other civil liberties issues, and WiredNews gives a quick overview of the breaching of citizens' rights in times of war in America. Wartimeliberty.com is a good source of breaking developments; they explain that they "document this struggle between liberty and security by posting transcripts, documents and analyses -- and letting you make up your own mind."
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