As I headed in a taxi this morning to the formal swearing-in of Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, I happened to hear a few minutes of a radio talk show in which ABA president William H. Neukom assured a caller that the ABA was working hard to try to get Congress to strike the right balance between what he called “so-called national security” and civil-liberties concerns. Somehow I don’t think that an organization headed by someone who evidently has doubts that we face genuine national-security threats can speak constructively on the matter. (Not to mention all the other myriad ways in which the ABA has shown itself to be incompetent and untrustworthy.)
Fortunately, AG Mukasey understands what America faces. In his clear and crisp style, he referred directly in his remarks to “the threat to our security from those who believe it is their religious duty to make war on us.”