George W. Bush's administration struts the international stage in the shadow of Guantánamo. Tony Blair's government is assailed for discarding Britain's ancient freedoms. Liberty and security. Citizens of liberal democracies take both for granted. Yet civil rights and public safety have often seemed in angry conflict since the fall of New York's twin towers on September 11 2001. Today Spain marks the anniversary of last year's bombing of Madrid. Intelligence agencies across Europe are on high alert. The question, though, still poses itself. What price due judicial process against the danger of new, and perhaps even more deadly, attacks?

As the debate has unfolded absolutists have seized the comfortable chairs. Governments, privy to secret intelligence denied to their citizens, claim a monopoly of wisdom. Their duty is to protect the state. If that requires some erosion of individual liberties, so be it. Freedom rests on security. Unspoken is the fact that politicians also need an alibi. Another outrage and voters will punish brutally any leader deemed to have been soft.