Just as we always regret alliances with repressive regimes, the United States always come to realize that abuses of civil liberties in the name of national security are mistakes. Always. For example:

The Village Voice: Nation: Nat Hentoff: Joe Lieberman Joins Big Brother by Nat Hentoff In World War I, Leahy had discovered, the "Department of Justice established the American Protective League, which enrolled 250,000 citizens in at least 600 cities and towns . . . to enlist 'informants' with wide access in their communities . . . to report suspicious conduct and investigate fellow citizens. The APL spied on workers and unions in thousands of industrial plants with defense contracts, and organized raids on German-language newspapers."

With the power to make arrests, "members of the League used such methods as tar and feathers, beatings, and forcing those who were suspected of disloyalty to kiss the flag. The New York Bar Association issued a report after the war, stating of the APL:

" 'No other one cause contributed so much to the oppression of innocent men as the systematic and indiscriminate agitation against what was claimed to be an all-pervasive system of German espionage.' "