...performance appraisals of journalists and lawyers. They can look after themselves. will concentrate on what I think is the underlying theme in the piece which suggests that governments need extraordinary powers to deal with the threat of terrorism facing the country and they cannot be expected to explain the reasons behind the execution of these powers or the evidence used to justify their actions.

Where one stands on this is, of course, not based on any objective set of facts. It seems to me that it depends on three basic value judgments on which each of us should make up our own minds.

First, how strongly do we feel about the freedoms and rights that are challenged? I doubt that many readers of Quadrant would answer, "Not much". Occasionally we hear people saying that they have nothing to fear from the government...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



More articles from Quadrant
Bureaucrats versus Science.(The Trouble with Physics)(Book review), December 01, 2007
Glass Slipper.(Poem), December 01, 2007
In at the beginning.(Book review), December 01, 2007
Israel, Judah and the Jews.(Letters)(Letter to the editor), December 01, 2007
Service, Gordon and Wilcox.(Letters)(Letter to the editor), December 01, 2007

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