Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World

In light of terrorist threats at U.K and U.S. airports, this book is a timely and provocative read about what governments should and should not be doing to protect us from further terrorist attacks. It is a crucial look at a little-examined aspect of the U.S.-led war on terror--the move toward the use of mass, globalized surveillance and a "preemptive" model of security, and its effects on democratic values and human rights around the world.George Orwell and Michel Foucault together could not have imagined the future that Maureen Webb warns is already here--a state of global surveillance that challenges all of our most deep-seated expectations of privacy. Highly readable and critically important. Read it to see who's watching you.--David Cole, author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on TerrorismThrough the various 'frozen scandals' of the War on Terror--from extraordinary rendition to torture to warrant-less wiretapping and surveillance--runs a s