A brilliantly conceived critique by two of the leading US constitutional scholars who argue that the Bush administration's preemptive approach to domestic and international security has not only compromised national security but led to the heightened threat of terrorist attacks. Cole and Lubel, through groundbreaking analysis of efforts employed in the name of protecting its citizens, expose the government's record of empty successes, coupled with the resentment it has generated, has left the US less safe. The book concludes by proposing alternative preventative strategies.

Author Biography

David Cole is the George Mitchell Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center. He is also a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation. He is the author of No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System, the American Book Award-winning Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism, and The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable and is a co-author (with James Dempsey) of Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security and (with Jules Lobel) of Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror, both published by The New Press. He lives in Washington, D.C. Jules Lobel is the Bessie McKee Wathour Endowed Chair at the University of Pittsburgh, a constitutional lawyer, and an expert on emergency powers and the laws governing war. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.