"We will continually have to make difficult and inherently subjective decisions about how best to use the resources we have and how to reconcile security imperatives with our need to do business overseas."

That each child was portrayed as a petulant nuisance made it easier to see that the country's security imperatives had to come first.

The Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia hosted a discussion between Office of the Historian staff members and University of Virginia professors on how the U.S. Government has historically struggled to balance security imperatives with its commitment to transparency and democratic accountability.

"However, at this critical juncture in our nation's history, we must understand how vital it is for America to focus all its military resources on the immediate national security imperatives."

But where Israel saw security imperatives, Palestinians saw daily indignities and humiliations: hours of waiting, teenagers barking orders at village elders, bags being torn apart and travelers being forced at times to endure strip searches.

Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani all but shut it down, citing security imperatives.

Because of the security imperatives faced by the Phnom Penh government in fighting a persistent insurgency, virtually the entire able-bodied population was organized into various military and paramilitary bodies.

They also know how bureaucratic rivalries, personal vendettas, competing issues and partisan politics often trump national security imperatives.

In short, the report fails to restore the balance between security imperatives and respect for human rights, in favour of the latter.

"The case has got to raise a profound question about reporters' obligations and freedom of the press against national security imperatives," Ms. Miller said.