Checks, balances required in new era of terrorism

Peter Swire, a law professor in the Moritz College at The Ohio State University, writes in an op-ed in today’s Washington Post that new checks and balances are needed in the war on terrorism to reduce abuses of authority and misrepresentation on the part of the nation’s law enforcement systems. Swire and his co-author, John Podesta, coordinated the Clinton Administration’s 2000 proposal to update the nation’s foreign intelligence and electronic surveillance laws.

The two were writing in response to an opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court made public Aug. 22 that sharply criticizes the F.B.I. and the Justice Department for sharing intelligence material freely with criminal investigators and for misrepresenting facts to obtain surveillance authority. The court’s opinion also limits the way the Justice Department can conduct foreign intelligence searches on American soil.

Terrorists operate both within our borders and without, Swire says, so dividing the nation’s law-enforcement agencies into entities that cover domestic and foreign cases separately will no longer be an effective defense mechanism.

WHO: Moritz College of Law Professor Peter Swire.

WHAT: Available to discuss the need for new ways of safeguarding the rights of Americans while balancing the need to combat terrorism.

WHEN: Friday, Aug. 30.

WHY: Swire is an expert on electronic surveillance laws.