Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried appeared on the August 19, 2010 edition of the WBUR program “Radio Boston” with his son and co-author, Gregory Fried (photo below), to discuss their new book, “Because it is Wrong: Torture, Privacy, and Presidential Power in the age of Terror” (W. W. Norton & Company September 6, 2010).
The book addresses questions about torture, and the use of tactics such as eavesdropping and other forms of surveillance as preventive measures against acts of terrorism in the post-9/11 era. The authors take a specific look at the origin of these tactics during the George W. Bush Administration, and, citing examples from history and philosophy, they explore the broader issues of moral and legal rule-breaking, justification, and consequences.
Gregory Fried is chair of the philosophy department at Suffolk University in Boston. Charles Fried, who has been teaching at HLS since 1961, served as U.S. Solicitor General from 1985-89 and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1995-99.