Watching the Watchers: Surveillance, Transparency, and Political Freedom in the War on Terror

Abstract

Like other totalitarian movements, the terrorists seek to impose a grim vision in which dissent is crushed, and every man and woman must think and live in colorless conformity.' INTRODUCTION: "TEAR DOWN THE WAALLS"If one insight apparently transcends the current partisan rancor, it is that the effort to secure America against terrorist attacks requires better intelligence.And if one consensus candidate emerges as the prerequisite for that improvement, it is that the intelligence services should gather more information and share it more widely.The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Joint Investigation Inquiry into September 11 identified the failure to share intelligence as a systematic flaw that exposed the United States to terrorist attacks. 2 The Attorney General regularly inveighs against the "impediments to communication and information sharing among the men and women charged with keeping America safe., 3 The non-partisan Markle Foundation Task Force has advocated improved sharing of information as the precondition to more effective homeland security, 4 a rec-'