Welcome to Cato Daily Podcast

Day is Friday, May 25th. I'm Anastasia Yuglova.

At yesterday's lunch forum at Cato, panelists attempted to answer the question,

are civil liberties at risk in the war on terror?

One of the speakers, American Freedom Agenda Chairman Bruce Fine, made the case against the

rollback of civil liberties that we have seen since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Bruce is the guest on today's podcast.

To begin, what does your group the American Freedom Agenda seek to accomplish?

It's a twofold mission.

First of all, we've identified 10 legislative changes that are necessary in order to restore the Constitution's

checks and balances and protections against government abuses and we have a

bill that's pending in Congress. The second mission is to make these issues of checks and balances and government abuses post 9-11

Staples of debate in the presidential campaign for 2008 and then in the

Congressional campaigns that will begin next year.

So we have a vigorous public debate about what ought to be done

irrespective of the court's statements with regard to our civil liberties

and freedoms and structural

protections in an atmosphere where viewed as being at war.

Well with regard to that current debate about civil liberties,

Attorney General Bertie Gonzales famously argued that there's no express

grants of habeas corpus in the Constitution.

What did you think of that argument?

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