11 - The Proper Understanding of Civil Liberties vs. Increased Security

The War on Terror began for the United States on September 11, 2001, with coordinated suicide attacks using hijacked domestic airplanes by 19 members of a sophisticated international terrorist network known as al-Qa’eda. The simultaneous attacks occurred in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, incinerating 3,000 people and destroying billions of dollars in property. Prior to this attack, America responded to al-Qa’eda and al-Qa’eda-styled terrorism with traditional domestic criminal law tools rooted in the American Constitution. After 9/11 America determined that it would have to resort to the tools associated with the regulation of international armed conflict or law of war. ...