THE DISAPPEARED
In his latest column (with good links), Jacob Sullum addresses the most worrisome policy of the war on terror. The Bush administration has claimed the right to "disappear" people. That way lies every form of tyranny. I'm more open than most civil libertarians to increased surveillance and information collection, by both government and private entities. Having people know stuff, about me or others, doesn't really bother me. (I am, after all, a journalist, and while I'm anything but an investigative reporter, you can hardly be in the business and believe in stifling the free flow of information.)
What matters is what the government can do with the information it collects--what powers it has to intrude on individuals' lives, to hurt people (including bad people) directly--and what checks on those powers exist. In my mind, the single most important guide to security policy is that the government must never have the right to hold individuals within the United States, particularly (but not exclusively) citizens, secretly or incommunicado. That power inevitably turns first into the power to torture, and eventually into the power to detain and torture people whose danger to the general population is far less than their danger to the decision-making officials.