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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.