Liberty and security in an age of terrorism
Description
The U.S. is on orange alert, and the citizens of Midburgh are on the lookout for "suspicious activity." What should they do when circumstantial evidence indicating a potential terrorist plot points to two people of Arab ethnicity? This Fred Friendly Seminar, produced as part of Columbia University's 250th Anniversary, explores the balance between national security and civil liberties in the post-9/11 world. Is one price of vigilance suspicion among neighbors? Do the demands of security now require broader government power to investigate and to detain? Using a hypothetical scenario, moderator Professor Michael Dorf of Columbia Law School pushes the panelists to confront these issues. Panelists include Viet Dinh, a principal architect of the USA PATRIOT Act; Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA); Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University; James Kallstrom, Senior Advisor for Counterterrorism to Governor Pataki, State of New York; Judge Alex Kozinski, of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; Mary Jo White, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies; Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International; Jan Ting, professor of law at Temple University; Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union; First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams; James Gilmore, chair of the Congressional Advisory Commission on Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction; and Jack Cloonan, former FBI case agent on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda investigations. The panelists, who wrestle with these high-stakes questions in their daily lives, discuss the implications of the USA PATRIOT Act, surveillance of suspects, closed detention hearings, demands for student information, and just what constitutes an unlawful enemy combatant.
Runtime
58 min
Series
- Social Studies Core Curriculum Video Library (16)
- The Cambridge Educational Core Curriculum Video Libraries (90)
Subjects
- Civil rights (308)
- Deviant behavior (131)
- Terrorists (96)
- Liberty (131)
- Social control (144)
- Crime (296)
Geography
Genre
Date of Publication
[2005], c2003
Database
Films on Demand
Direct Link
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