Civil liberties under threat: The real price of freedom – It is not only on the battlefield where preserving liberty may have to cost many lives

“They hate our freedoms.” So said George Bush in a speech to the American Congress shortly after the attacks on America in September 2001. But how well, at home, have America and the other Western democracies defended those precious freedoms during the “war on terror”?As The Economist intends to show in a series of articles starting this week (see article), the past six years have seen a steady erosion of civil liberties even in countries that regard themselves as liberty’s champions. Arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention without trial, “rendition”, suspension of habeas corpus, even torture — who would have thought such things possible?
http://economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9833041