The Article
Interestingly enough, the head of Australia's Federal Police has been under fire recently for using pre-emptive counter terrorist methods, similar to parts of the American public's recent disdain for some aspects of the Patriot Act such as wiretapping. The controversy in Australia stems from what Keelty, the chief of the AFP, calls the "tension, real or perceived, between the right to silence and a fair trial and the right of the community to access information." In the Australian case, the AFP recently brought to trial an Indian doctor whose case they ultimately had to dismiss. The press has called Keelty's anti-terrorism methods bad because he didn't have enough evidence beforehand to convict him. Keelty condemned the press for misleading the public and misrepresenting his agency and their counter terrorist tactics as poor. This article highlights the difficulties that governments face when fighting terrorism. Do they crack down hard and risk civil liberties groups complaints? Or do they ease up and risk terrorist attacks? There seems to be a very fine line that no government has been able to find yet. Where does that line exist? It is interesting that other countries are facing the same difficulties that the US is in fighting terrorists effectively while at the same time respecting the rights of their citizens.
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2 comments:
I think it is hard if not impossible to define much less identify the line that separates the right to security and the right to freedom. As terrorists become more clever with their tactics, the governments attempt to follow suit with more direct tactics. The problem is the government needs to follow its own self-imposed restrictions and protect both privacy and livelihood and lives of its citizenry, while the terrorists are not beholden to anyone but the concept of 'ends justifies means.' We will always deal with this gray question as long as people believe in both freedom and the government's obligation to protect that freedom and provide for their physical security.
Just wait until we read the Heymann book. He's got lots to say on this subject. If we had the time, I would also assign Alan Dershowitz's Why Terrorism Works, which I think tackles the same questions from a different perspective.
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