Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security, Revised and Updated Edition by David Cole and James X. Dempsey
Terrorism And The Constitution
Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly
"In responding to the threat of terrorism, we must not trample upon the very freedoms that we are fighting for," say Cole and Dempsey, experts on civil rights law. Reminding readers that the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act, passed under the "influences of emotion and political posturing," was not only contrary to civil rights but also ineffective, they assert that a similar overreaction has occurred with the 2001 PATRIOT Act and conclude that there can be no trade-off between security and civil liberties. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Terrorism and the Constitution
Reviewer: Mike Warrior - See all my reviews
This book appears more to be an alarmist than pointing out a real solution to what the author considers as a growing problem. Since 2001 PATRIOT Act, the main problem civil liberities activists have is monitoring international calls from suspected terrorists. If this is all the problems these people have including the author, other than speculating what might happen, then there is no real problem with the 2001 PATRIOT Act that's going to take the average American's liberities away.
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror By Richard A. Clarke
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War On Terror
Editorial Reviews
Few political memoirs have made such a dramatic entrance as that by Richard A. Clarke. During the week of the initial publication of Against All Enemies, Clarke was featured on 60 Minutes, testified before the 9/11 commission, and touched off a raging controversy over how the presidential administration handled the threat of terrorism and the post-9/11 geopolitical landscape. Clarke, a veteran Washington insider who had advised presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, dissects each man's approach to terrorism but levels the harshest criticism at the latter Bush and his advisors who, Clarke asserts, failed to take terrorism and Al-Qaeda seriously. Clarke details how, in light of mounting intelligence of the danger Al-Qaeda presented, his urgent requests to move terrorism up the list of priorities in the early days of the administration were met with apathy and procrastination and how, after the attacks took place, Bush and key figures such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney turned their attention almost immediately to Iraq, a nation not involved in the attacks.
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War On Terror
Against All Enemies takes the reader inside the Beltway beginning with the Reagan administration, who failed to retaliate against the 1982 Beirut bombings, fueling the perception around the world that the United States was vulnerable to such attacks.
Terrorism becomes a growing but largely ignored threat under the first President Bush, whom Clarke cites for his failure to eliminate Saddam Hussein, thereby necessitating a continued American presence in Saudi Arabia that further inflamed anti-American sentiment. Clinton, according to Clarke, understood the gravity of the situation and became increasingly obsessed with stopping Al-Qaeda. He had developed workable plans but was hamstrung by political infighting and the sex scandal that led to his impeachment. But Bush and his advisers, Clarke says, didn't get it before 9/11 and they didn't get it after, taking a unilateral approach that seemed destined to lead to more attacks on Americans and American interests around the world. Clarke's inside accounts of what happens in the corridors of power are fascinating and the book, written in a compelling, highly readable style, at times almost seems like a fiction thriller.
But the threat of terrorism and the consequences of Bush's approach to it feel very sobering and very real. --John Moe From Publishers Weekly. From the first thrilling chapter, which takes readers into the White House center of operations on September 11, through his final negative assessment of George W. Bush’s post-9/11 war on terror, Clarke, the U.S.’s former terrorism czar, offers a complex and illuminating look into the successes and failures of the nation’s security apparatus. He offers charged (and, one must note, for himself triumphant) insider scenes, such as when he scared the devil out of Clinton’s Cabinet to motivate them to fight terrorism. The media has understandably focused on Clarke’s charge that Bush neglected terrorism before the attacks on New York and Washington; but Clarke also offers a longer perspective on the issue, going back to the first Gulf War (when he was an assistant secretary of state) and makes some stunning revelations.
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War On Terror
One of the latter is that the U.S. came close to war with Iran over that country’s role in the terrorist bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996. An important aspect of Clarke’s book is that it is only one man’s account—and an account moreover that casts its author as hero and others (FBI, CIA, the military) as screw-ups; as has been seen in recent congressional hearings, administration officials (notably, Condoleezza Rice) have challenged its veracity. But those inclined to believe Clarke will find that he makes a devastating case about the Bush administration’s failure from the beginning (when Clarke’s position was downgraded and he was taken off the top-level Principals Committee) to make terrorism as high a priority as Clinton’s did. In the face of the Bush team’s claim that they didn’t know about a threat to the homeland, readers will be haunted by two small words: after mobilizing to confront the Millennium terror threat, Clarke reached what seemed to him the obvious conclusion regarding al-Qaeda: "They’re here." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War On Terror
Other Books By Richard A. Clarke
Nimrod: Courts, Claims, And Killing On The Oregon Frontier by Ronald B. Lansing
Nimrod: Courts, Claims, And Killing On The Oregon Frontier
Editorial Reviews: Ted Kulongoski, Governor of Oregon "The story lives again in this crafted and well-researched account."
Book Description
At the remarkable age of 65, Nimrod O’Kelly—loner and former blacksmith—made the arduous trek over the Oregon Trail in 1845 to the lush Willamette valley and became one of the first to stake a claim. Although he made few improvements to the land, O’Kelly alleged his wife was living in Missouri, entitling him under the Donation Land Act to one square mile of fertile ground—320 acres for her and 320 acres for himself. Over the next seven years settlers continued to arrive, and neighbors grew ever more skeptical. Did Mrs. Sarah Bell O’Kelly really exist? Slowly the newcomers began to encroach on all sides of his 640 acres. Eventually tempers flared, leaving young Jeremiah Mahoney dead, a gaping shotgun wound in his chest.
Nimrod: Courts, Claims, And Killing On The Oregon Frontier
The killer, Nimrod O’Kelly, chose to turn himself over to the justice of the peace, claiming self-defense. The events that followed provide an intimate look at law on the frontier—a place without jails, courtrooms, or coroners—where judges arrived on horseback, where many trials were held under shady trees, and where convicted murderers often met their end on the gallows.
What would be the outcome of Oregon’s first extensively reported homicide case? If the accused recluse was indeed married, would his family arrive at last, only to see their patriarch hang? With depth and insight, the author probes and analyzes the evidence, the law, the politics, and finally, the astonishing conclusion to one of Oregon’s legendary sagas.
Nimrod: Courts, Claims, And Killing On The Oregon Frontier
Other Books By Ronald B. Lansin
Organized Crime: An Inside Guide to the World's Most
Successful Industry
Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly
From the obscure origin of the term "Mafia" to the hit TV series The Sopranos, Lunde, who, according to his bio, "has long been interested in the structure and spread of organized crime," surveys a subculture that most law-abiding readers will hope they never directly encounter. In the first section, "What Is Organized Crime?," the author gives a succinct overview, then in part two identifies four major areas of criminal activity: "Exploiting the Human Condition," "Supplying the Illicit," "Extortion and Protection" and "Manipulating Money." The bulk of the book focuses on crime groups by geographic or cultural origin, starting with the Sicilian Mafia and including those that operate in Britain, Russia, Japan, China, the U.S., Mexico and South America.
Color and sepia-toned illustrations, ranging from photos of such recent white-collar felons as Nick Leeson and Michael Milken to mug shots of such legendary mobsters as Al Capone and grimly similar pictures of bloody victims of gangland hits, perfectly complement the incisive text. FYI: James Morton (Gangland International) is credited as the associate author. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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