What We’ve Learned Since 9/11

What We’ve Learned Since 9/11 September 11, 2013
When people are forced to choose between protecting their safety and guarding their civil rights, almost everyone picks safety. After all, what good are rights if you’re injured or dead?
In the days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many policymakers used this forced choice to argue for new surveillance laws such as the Patriot Act. The law gave the government sweeping new powers to spy on Americans by wiretapping, seizing financial records, tracking Internet activity, and more; but these measures, we were told, were a necessary trade-off for security.
The FBI also paid informants to infiltrate mosques and set up sting operations that were supposed to catch terrorists in our midst. Yes, the informants were sometimes the ones to suggest violent jihad in conversations with mosque goers.  In one case, members of a California mosque were so alarmed that they reported an informant to the FBI. But we were told that the “war on terror” demanded aggressive tactics.
Racial and religious profiling, particularly at airports, followed a similar pattern. Folks who looked “Muslim”—whatever that means—were more likely be to stopped, questioned, and detained based on nothing more than their name, clothing, or skin color. But hey, that was the price for keeping our country safe.
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