In the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, which is now being investigated as an “act of terrorism,” Americans must once decide how to balance the need for security with the need to protect constitutionally granted freedoms.
“That constant debate in this country about security, individual rights, about the justice system, it needs to be reviewed and renewed every single day because it is fundamentally important to the future of this country,” says BBC host Stephen Sackur.
Sackur has spent most of his professional career reporting on the biggest news events, based both in the United States working as a Washington correspondent for the BBC and abroad, reporting for many years in the Middle East. Nowadays, you could call him the BBC’s inquisitor in chief. He’s the host of the program HARDtalk, and has interviewed world leaders from the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to President George W. Bush.
He joins The Takeaway to reflect both on the bombings in Boston and the funeral scheduled today for the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.