A Decade Later

As the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the ACLU joins all Americans in remembering the unspeakable losses suffered on that tragic day.

This solemn occasion provides opportunity to reflect on the turbulent decade behind us, and to recommit ourselves to values that define our nation.

Ten years ago, we could not have imagined that over the following decade, our nation would engage policies that were so at odds with our fundamental values: torture and extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention without charge or trial, racial profiling, and warrantless wiretapping.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll discuss these policies, and others, in a series of blog posts on the state of civil liberties since 9/11. We invite you to join our conversation. On Thursday, September 15 at 4 p.m. EDT, we’ll be hosting a live chat on Facebook, and we hope you’ll join us to discuss how we can reclaim our liberties. Send your questions to @ACLU with a #9/11 hashtag or leave them in the comments section below.

In the meantime, the ACLU of Massachusetts and TruthOut have launched a 9/11 series that will detail the ways in which the government's surveillance powers have expanded dramatically over the last decade, at the expense of our civil liberties. As their inaugural blog says,

Over the decade, the government's powers of surveillance have expanded dramatically. They are directed not just at people suspected of wrongdoing, but at all of us. Our phone calls, our emails and web site visits, our financial records, our travel itineraries, and our digital images captured on powerful surveillance cameras are swelling the mountain of data that is being mined for suspicious patterns and associations.

Check it out.

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