This week’s column has been what’s commonly referred to as a ‘slow burner’ but, I hope, for good reason. A few weeks ago, Professor Anthony Glees, a terrorism expert based at Buckingham University, myself and the Guardian’s Afua Hirsch took part in a debate on control orders on Channel 4′s flagship ‘10 O’clock live’ show, and although I felt it necessary to counter the “arguments” that were made by Pr Glees, I didn’t want to rush into a precipitated, hasty re-joinder.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report Monday absolving the FBI of charges that agents conducted investigations of domestic groups based on their exercise of First Amendment rights.

They were terrorism suspects just a few days ago -- their names and faces splashed across news media outlets worldwide.

The Obama administration is in danger of entrenching some of the most draconian aspects of the Bush administration's controversial national security policy, warns a new report, [press release] from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released Thursday.