Reply #12: I learned that from an Al Gore speech

[gottaB]

He said:

Listen to the way Israel's highest court dealt with a similar question when, in 1999, it was asked to balance due process rights against dire threats to the security of its people:

"This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it, and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the Rule of Law and recognition of an individual's liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day they (add to) its strength."

I want to challenge the Bush Administration's implicit assumption that we have to give up many of our traditional freedoms in order to be safe from terrorists.

Because it is simply not true.

http://www.alternet.org/story/17156

He was quoting Justice Barak in a case called The Public Committee Against Torture v. The State of Israel, HJC 5100/94. Here are some links:

http://62.90.71.124/files_eng/94/000/051/a09/94051000.a09.htm

And in pdf format: http://www.law.yale.edu/outside/pdf/Alumni_Affairs/torturedecision.pdf

HJC 5100/94 was included in a booklet by Justice Barak called "Judgements of the Israeli Supreme Court: Fighting Terrorism within the Law."

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Law/Legal+Issues+and+Rulings/Fighting+Terrorism+within+the+Law+2-Jan-2005.htm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/sctterror.html (scroll down for the booklet in pdf format.

Finally, The Public Committe Against Torture in Israel.