Domestic Counterterrorism

Abuse of surveillance and policing powers has been a recurrent feature of the post-9/11 world. The National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless wiretapping program, for example, secretly authorized by President Bush in 2002, enables the government to eavesdrop on conversations and emails between the U.S. and overseas. Furthermore, policing powers have been aggressively used in discriminatory and burdensome ways.

The Brennan Center believes that transparency and the exchange of ideas are crucial to sound counterterrorism policy and that they should replace the secrecy with which the current administration counters terrorism. In 2006, we filed two amicus briefs in federal district courts in support of lawsuits to enjoin warrantless wiretapping. In October 2007, we opposed immunity to telecoms that collaborated with the NSA wiretapping program, and shared this opinion with the House Intelligence Committee. Locally, the Project is working with Muslim and Arab community organizations in New York to respond to the negligent and erroneous statements made in the Police Department’s August 2007 report about homegrown radicalization, which advocates racial and religious profiling to hinder the development of domestically-bred terrorists. 

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    Jonathan Hafetz

    Convictions: More Hypocrisy at Guantanamo
    Jonathan Hafetz – 04/15/08

    Even as criticism mounts, Guantánamo’s underlying hypocrisy endures. That hypocrisy manifested itself again last week in a little-noticed decision…

    Jonathan Hafetz

    Convictions: John Yoo’s Tour de Force
    Jonathan Hafetz – 04/07/08

    John Yoo’s recently released March 14, 2003, OLC memo is a tour de force of legal analysis gone bad. The memo has been rightly vilified here and elsewhere for making the president a king and for contributing to a torture culture in America. But even though Yoo’s memo has been repudiated, its discredited ideas live on....

    Emily Berman

    Congress Buying FISA
    Emily Berman – 02/14/08

    If you watch Congress closely, you might have noticed that they’ve been buying a lot of beachfront property in New Mexico over the last few years.

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    Illustrations by Risko

    U.S. Government Admits It Destroyed Videotape in Enemy Combatant Case
    – 05/02/08

    Yesterday the U.S. government admitted, for the first time, that officials destroyed videotapes that documented interrogations of Ali Almarri, the only alleged “enemy combatant” still detained on U. S. soil.

    Discredited Yoo Memos Led to “Enemy Combatant” Detainment and Denial of Habeas Corpus
    – 04/08/08

    Today, the Brennan Center for Justice asked a federal court to end the detention of a U.S. resident who is being held on the advice of long-discredited Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos which sought to justify torture and indefinite detention. 

    Government Fails to Muzzle “Peace Pastor” Frederick Boyle
    – 04/01/08

    Rev. Boyle, the ordained minister known as the Peace Pastor, reached an agreement with the federal government today that ends his unfair prosecution and maintains his right to speak out against the Iraq War.

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    Fitna’s Hateful Crusade
    Aziz Huq – 04/07/08

    Feared, condemned sight-unseen and praised as a celebration of free speech, Fitna, a seventeen-minute film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, appeared on the Internet in late March. Fitna is a bombastic, bloody montage linking terrorist violence to Koranic texts.

    Torture and Democracy: A Discussion with Professor Darius Rejali
    – 03/12/08

    Listen to Professor Darius Rejali talk about the issues at the center of his book, Torture and Democracy. 

    Future of Guantanamo
    – 03/10/08

    Listen to a panel discussion featuring Andy Worthington, Joanne Mariner, Wells Dixon, and Jonathan Hafetz on the timely and important issues revolving around the future of Guantánamo.

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