America is constantly shadowed by stark reminders of the perilous world we now live in — unprecedented security measures and threats of impending catastrophic attacks. While most Americans firmly support the war against terrorism, some professional activists and opportunistic politicians are determined to keep homeland security efforts tied up in a legal straitjacket. And sadly, they are manipulating one of America's most respected institutions — the judiciary — to do it.
These ideologues remain convinced that their absolutist view of "civil liberties" must always prevail over Americans' right to live free from terrorism. No aspect of our government's security operation is immune from activists' carefully planned and executed campaign. Relentless attacks on public officials dedicated to protecting our lives have fueled activists' profitable fund-raising drives. Special interest groups and lawyers then invest their overflowing war chests in lawsuits and mean-spirited public relations advertising opposing everything from major military actions overseas to the review of airplane airplane passenger manifests. Even moves to modernize outdated intelligence gathering techniques have met with paranoid claims that government is running roughshod over everyone's rights.
Worst of all, however, is the activists' use of litigation to impose the rules of our overprotective criminal justice system on the President's military decision making. Terrorists are enemy soldiers without a government, not ordinary criminals. Yet, ideological lawyers have convinced some federal courts that unelected judges, and not our Commander-in-Chief, should have the last word on how our military can detain captured terrorists. One appeals court in New York City recently made the incredible declaration that since America has not been formally declared a "zone of combat," federal officials had to charge a captured terrorist with a crime or release him.
While judges and activists quibble over legal niceties, our despicable enemies are pondering how to take advantage of their newly created constitutional........
