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PROJECT GUARDIAN Continues to Keep the Dialogue Open

13 May, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT GUARDIAN Continues to Keep the Dialogue Open

Arlington, VA—On May 8, 2003, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies hosted a panel discussion of intelligence and privacy experts at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington D.C. The general subject of the discussion was: “Data Collection about U.S. Persons—Are the Authorities (Still) Appropriate?” This discussion was part of the PROJECT GUARDIAN series, a long term Institute study that examines the dynamics between civil liberties and national security, in the context of the war on terrorism.

The eight distinguished panel members included:

Rick Cinquegrana, Deputy Staff Director and Chief Investigative Counsel for the Joint Congressional Inquiry into September 11th;

Jim Dempsey, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT);

Timothy Edgar, Legislative Counsel in the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, where he is responsible for national security, terrorism and immigration issues;

Daniel Gallington, Senior Research Fellow at the Potomac Institute, where he is PROJECT GUARDIAN study director. He has served in senior policy and intelligence positions at the DOD, the DOJ, and was General Counsel for the SSCI;

John Rizzo, Deputy General Counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA);

Jerry Schroeder, Deputy Director of Security at the Department of Justice;

Kerry Smith, a Law Clerk with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), where she works on privacy and civil liberties issues; and

Britt Snider, former Church Committee staff member, former CIA Inspector General, and former General Counsel at the SSCI. He currently serves as a private consultant.

The panel discussed a number of contemporary and controversial issues, including:

The continuing evolution of the basic legal authorities that establish and limit the government’s access to U.S. person information, including the U.S.A. Patriot Act;

Whether or not the definition of “U.S. Person” should be changed;

Whether there should be differences in the collection of information on U.S. persons if they reside outside the United States;

The constitutional issues surrounding personal medical information on U.S. persons, particularly in the wake of the SARS epidemic and recent bio terrorism concerns; and

The constitutionality of deriving identities of U.S. persons by tracing patterns of behavior.

A summary transcript of the discussions will be available on the Institute’s website shortly.

The Potomac Institute's PROJECT GUARDIAN will continue to debate these types of issues as it examines the whole spectrum of science and technology policy issues associated with protecting civil liberties, while improving the use of technology to combat terrorism. PROJECT GUARDIAN provides a public forum to examine the delicate, but necessary balance between civil liberties and national security.

Please continue to visit the PROJECT GUARDIAN web page for upcoming seminars.

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The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is an independent, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit public policy research institute, and is dedicated to the development and implementation of policies that advocate and manage the increasing role of science and technology in our evolving world.

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