From Sulla to Charles I of England, the plea was for extraordinary powers in a time of emergency in defence of public safety -- indeed the Committee on Public safety of the French Revolution took its name from the very concept. The ability to name such a time of emergency and the ability to extend it indefinitely at will was at the heart of the first English Revolution against such powers -- for Hampden and Cromwell and the rest realized that such power meant that the ruler was essentially able to suspend law when he chose; indeed, that the ruler was above the law.

In the waning years of the 20th century, the Òpermanent emergencyÓ of the Cold War, which had done so much to increase the military influence on American life and given rise to the Imperial Presidency, dissolved with the end of the enemy.   The defining of terrorism as a new state of warfare after 9/11 re-generated the permanent emergency and gave it both a new open-endedness -- there would always be those disaffected by the empire who would resort to the weapons of clandestine struggle -- and a new ability to cast a net over the homeland.   This had been available during the Cold War from time to time as various ÒscaresÓ over home infiltration were promulgated; but advances in technological espionage and the vast national security apparatus naturally gravitated towards the use of potential conspiracy in America as the justification for the breaking of the flimsy laws that had held the executive power back.

With the Emperor now able to define the nature of evidence without recourse to the legal system, to be judge, jury, and executioner himself, under the classic rationale of the need for speed and efficiency in defence of public safety, he had essentially freed himself from the law. It was therefore only a matter of time before those complaining of this situation were themselves brought under suspicion of treason, beginning with the press, and extending into the feeble halls of the Senate itself!