Well being young and unexperienced I found this book very helpful, it really opened my eyes to a new way of looking at things. I liked the way most of the information seemed to be first hand, rather than just many assumptions.

Reading this book, comprised of info from many sources, I got frankly angered by the way this administration, as well as others in the past, used tragedies and wars to take our freedoms from us and invade our privacy on a whim. I understand some liberties must be sacrificed in times of conflict. The government just after 9-11 was running straight from the executive branch without any checks and balances. Of course who would dispute or bring up civil liberties in times of crisis, obviously not anyone in the courts. People were labeled enemy combatants and contained without right to trial, any proof of guilt, and held months without anyone even knowing their whereabouts. Many were probably guilty, but some were innocent and in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our government wanted to get people to act as spies, surveying their neighborhoods, spying on neighbors, getting your library to turn you in as a terrorist for reading muslim literature or something containing dissent to the govt. Luckily that brilliant plan of ashcrofts has not gone over to will not be tolerated, and should not be tolerated by the citizens that are supposed to be the backbone of our democracy. Very informative book. AMerica must fight to revise this orwellian act that is the patriot act.

I read this book cover-to-cover on a flight from L.A. to New York, and found it both well-written and informative. Indeed, I thought it was such a good survey of the major legal issues in America's war on terrorism that I assigned it as required reading for my American Law & Terrorism seminar at UCLA.

This book provides the "backstory" for many of the key issues I plan to cover, such as prohibition of material support to foreign terrorist organizations and how that law squares with America's First Amendment jurisprudence. For the most part, this book takes a critical position against most of the current legal arguments advanced by the Bush Administration, e.g. that the President should be allowed to designate enemy combatants. But each article presents its argument in a fairly balanced way.

Also, the articles do a great job of explaining the law at a college-graduate level, as opposed to a lawyer's level. That's unusual for most books on the subject, and I think it makes this a must-buy for anyone interested in the subject.