How did America become a nation that tortured prisoners, spied
on its citizens, and gave its president unchecked powers in matters
of defense? Has justice been the greatest casualty of the war on
terror?After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush
administration swiftly began to rethink its approach to national
security. In a series of memos and policy decisions, many top
secret and only made public much later, the administration’s
lawyers dismissed the Geneva conventions as “quaint,” justified the
torture of suspected terrorists, argued that the president in his
capacity as commander in chief was bound by no laws in defending
the nation at home and abroad, and approved a domestic surveillance
program that flagrantly violated US law.In Justice at War, David
Cole takes a critical look at the men who made the decisions that
shaped America’s war on terror. After September 11, Attorney
General John Ashcroft aggressively expanded federal law enforcement
powers. John Yoo, who served in the Justice Department’s Office of
Legal Counsel, drafted some of the most controversial memos
justifying torture. David Addington, Dick Cheney’s counsel, argued
for virtually unlimited presidential power. Alberto Gonzales,
Bush’s counsel, seemed willing to defend the president’s view on
any issue.
Yet Cole believes that America can prevail against the threat of
terror, not by dismantling the checks and balances that guarantee
the fairness of our justice system but by restoring them. He
discusses how Michael Mukasey, the new attorney general, may try to
improve the Justice Department’s tattered reputation. He explains
why the Supreme Court rejected the president’s claim of authority
to try enemy combatants in military tribunals under rules that
violated the Geneva conventions. And he considers arguments by
legal scholars about the limits of constitutional protections when
the nation is under the threat of terrorism.Yet above all we must
remember that the Constitution embodies principles that we should
not give up in times of fear, Cole argues: “Both the strength and
security of the nation in the struggle with terrorists rest on
adherence to the rule of law, including international law, because
only such adherence provides the legitimacy we need if we are to
win back the world’s respect.”
關於作者：
David Cole is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law
Center. His latest book, written with Jules Lobel, is Less Safe,
Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror.
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