One of the primary goals of the American Freedom Campaign is to educate Americans about the current threat to our democracy posed by excessive and unchecked executive branch power. Toward this end, we are providing below links to a variety of materials that address this subject. We encourage you to check them out…

The Constitution of the United States of America

The Founders of this country crafted this document so that future generations could live in a land of liberty and freedom. It was a radical, daring, and rebellious declaration to the world and should be read with that feeling in mind. Moreover, we as Americans must defend it with the same sense of passion and courage that our Founders demonstrated in writing it more than 200 years ago.

The Dark Side by Jane Mayer (Random House)

The Dark Side is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world-- decisions that not only violated the Constitution to which White House officials took an oath to uphold, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. (Random House)

The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf (Chelsea Green)

Naomi Wolf’s latest work, The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot exposes how the escalation of Executive Power has eroded the core values and systems established in our Constitution, limiting the ability of our Congress to make laws, and our courts to interpret them – a scenario that our Founding Fathers foresaw and warned against. Wolf outlines in this citizen call to action, reminiscent of Thomas Paine’s revered Common Sense, the real threats that exist to our civil liberties and explains how working together we can solve the growing threat. (Amazon.com)

Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror by Frederick A. O. Schwarz and Aziz Z. Huq (New Press)

Schwarz and Huq, both of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, offer a clear look at what history has to say regarding controversial decisions made by the current administration. Covering "what went wrong," "why untrammeled executive power" is bad for America and what can be done "to reestablish the checks and balances that define our government," this call for transparency and accountability has a satisfying reach and focus. (Publishers Weekly)

It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush by Joe Conason (Thomas Dunne Books)

Conason follows Sinclair Lewis' 1935 book It Can't Happen Here with a firm assertion that fascism can indeed take root and blossom in the U.S. if Americans aren't more vigilant about freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Although we are not facing full-blown fascism, Conason sees a "gradual and insidious turn toward authoritarian rule" for the first time since the Nixon administration. (Booklist)

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill (Nation Books)

Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror. This is an extraordinary exposé by one of America's most exciting young radical journalists.

In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror by Anthony Romero and Dina Temple-Raston (William Morrow)

From the executive director of the ACLU, Anthony D. Romero, and award-winning journalist Dina Temple-Raston, In Defense of Our America takes a critical look at civil liberties in this country at a time when constitutional freedoms are in peril. Using the stories of real Americans on the frontlines of the fight for civil liberties., In Defense of Our America provides a look at the dangerous erosion of the Bill of Rights in the age of terror. (Amazon.com)

Guantanamo: What the World Should Know by Michael Ratner (Chelsea Green)

Guantanamo is a profoundly disturbing portrait of the history of the U.S naval station in Cuba and those detained there. Prisoners of war and even civilians, carefully recategorized as “enemy combatants,” may be held there indefinitely, on no formal charges and without access to legal counsel or a hearing in court, and even allegedly tortured in hopes of producing intelligence that may improve national security. (Ruminator Review)

You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression by Matthew Rothschild (New Press)

In this hard-to-put-down book, Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive magazine, shows that post-9/11 America has entered a repressive age. Through dozens of engrossing and disturbing individual stories, You Have No Rights makes clear that America is now a country that is both less safe and less free. (Amazon.com)

The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism by John Nichols (New Press)

The founders designed impeachment as one of the checks against executive power. As John Nichols reveals in this fascinating look at impeachment's hidden history, impeachment movements—in addition to congressional proceedings themselves—have played an important role in countering an out-of-control executive branch. The threat of impeachment has worked to temper presidential excesses and to reassert democratic values in times of national drift. (Amazon.com)

Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy by Charlie Savage (Little, Brown and Company)

This timely book unveils the secret machinations behind the headlines, explaining the links between warrantless wiretapping and the President Bush's Supreme Court nominees, between the torture debate and the secrecy surrounding Vice President Cheney's energy task force, and between the "faith-based initiative" and the holding of US citizens without trial as "enemy combatants." It tells, for the first time, the full story of a hidden agenda three decades in the making, laying out how a group of true believers set out to establish monarchical executive powers that, in the words of one conservative critic, "will lie around like a loaded weapon" ready to be picked up by any future president.

Ghost Prisoner: Two Years in Secret CIA Detention by Human Rights Watch

“Ghost Prisoner,” a groundbreaking report Human Rights Watch issued in February 2007, is the most comprehensive account to date of the CIA’s secret detention program, which was created by classified presidential directive in the wake of 9/11. Based in part on interviews with Marwan Jabour, a Palestinian held for more than two years in secret US custody, it offers a terrifying look into how the CIA held and interrogated suspected terrorists incommunicado in secret sites, often with the assistance of other countries’ intelligence services. In addition to describing the abusive treatment Jabour endured, the report names 38 people who may have been held in such prisons, and whose whereabouts remain unknown.

The "Stamp of Guantanamo" by Human Rights Watch

The Stamp of Guantanamo, a report Human Rights Watch issued in March 2007, tells the story of what happened to seven men who were released from Guantanamo and sent back to their native Russia after the US received diplomatic assurances from Moscow that the men would not be mistreated. Based on interviews with three of the detainees, their family members, lawyers, and others, the report details how Russian authorities have variously harassed, detained, mistreated, and beaten the former Guantanamo detainees since they returned. Taken together, their stories amount to a powerful expose of the harmful consequences of transferring terrorist suspects to countries where they are at risk of torture.