"Jennifer Van Bergen is a dynamic voice in the fight to preserve our civil liberties." - Nancy Chang, author of Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-September 11 Anti-Terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties
"Jennifer van Bergen has been in that talented vanguard of Constitutional defenders. If she tells us that this is the twilight of democracy, we better take off our sunglasses and start organizing before the dark." Lynne Stewart, criminal defense attorney, New York
"The Twilight of Democracy is a “Primer for Citizenship” that puts current events in an historical, social, and political context that reveals what is really at stake for the American People in the “War” on Terrorism…the survival of democracy, itself. Van Bergen has performed an admirable service in drawing together a wide range of issues which are not often understood as being related, and done it in an accessible fashion that should deepen the debates leading up to the 2004 Presidential election." Peter Erlinder, National president, National Lawyers Guild, 1993-97, Defense Attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 2003-
"The Twilight of Democracy is coming at a time when our own ruling class is exposing both its ruthlessness and its hubristic stupidity, and this book is a special contribution to describing that brutality and folly, as well as the danger it represents to a dumbed-down, complacent society." Stan Goff, Master Sgt. Special Forces, retired, author of Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century
"Jennifer Van Bergen was one of the strongest critics of the Patriot Act early on, understands the issues very well, and she’s a fine writer. Read this book!" Charles B. Gittings, Project to Enforce the Geneva Conventions
The road America is traveling is marked by distinct signs of something gone terribly wrong. Jennifer Van Bergen explains the decline of civil liberties and the loss of the rule of law in the U.S. She begins with explanations of fascism and empire, our individual rights, and “the constitutional codes.” The book then goes into “The Bush Plan” and its attempt at domestic control and global domination. But the heart of this book is Van Bergen’s knowledge of the law and civil liberties and in particular-the USA PATRIOT ACT. Americans may not realize it yet, but the United States is already more than three-quarters of the way down the road to fascism. The facts are all there, but Americansdo not yet see the truth. We have been lulled by the complacency of half a century of wealth and power. Nonetheless, the road America is traveling is marked by distinct signs of something gone terribly wrong. A massive superstructure is being constructed. Among the clues to this structure are: the 2000 election, the enactment of the PATRIOT Act, the detentions at Guantanamo, the invasion of Iraq, the withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, the promotion of the FTAA, the prosecutions of Greenpeace and Lynne Stewart, the eradication of environmental protections, and a policy of secrecy.Jennifer Van Bergen explains the decline of civil liberties and the loss of the rule of law in the U.S. She begins with explanations of fascism and empire, our individual rights, and the constitutional codes. The book then goes into The Bush Plan and its attempt at domestic control and global domination. But the heart of this book is Van Bergen’s knowledge of the law and civil liberties and in particular the USA PATRIOT ACT.
