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Daniel Sutherland

Below are notes I took at a April 5, 2004 lecture at UMBC by Mr. Sutherland. Here is his biographical profile.

Speaker introduced with background of terrorist attacks. Worked at OCR. New job, nobody ever held before. Lawyer, UVa grad. Litigator for USDOJ 14 years. Chief of Staff at offices Civ. Rts. Current job officer cr/cl in DHS. Author of Religion in the Workplace. Lanoue. Zero sum game, you win I lose, I win you lose. On 9/11/1858: Lincoln quote: "Frowning battlements" "love of liberty"

Ethnic profiling: Could be disinformation, Carnival theory.

Asylum seeker, Access to lawyer? Detained? Returned?

Incompetent person, how does DHS react/protect?

(projector not working)

Word association:

Civil liberties and the war on terror: Detention , Patriot Act, Extremists

Doesn't deal with the USA Patriot Act, something that the Department of Justice deals with. Can't answer complicated questions.

DHS began as office of HS in the White House. President called Tom Ridge to run it. Was sitting Gov. of PA at the time. If the POTUS calls you for a job, you have to say yes, Ridge relates.

Came to run office of 20-30 people, decided should be agency. Have 200k employees through the country, 5 main parts, and smaller places.

Main parts:

  • Intelligence - 00s of people to take in and put out int.
  • FEMA - Natural disasters
  • Border and Transportation Security - inc. TSA
  • Science and Tech - give out $$ to stimulate research
  • Management - bureaucracy, IT

Speaker rpts. directly to Ridge, provides legal policy advice on civil liberties questions. Also CPO (libertarian) reports to him.

On dept's commitment to civil libs.:

People worried that this department would trample on libs. Congress had a big question about this during their debate, media concerns. Dept incorporates protection to civil libs. as early as 2002 during roadmap for HS.

Charter: "We are a nation built on the rule of law and we will utilize..."

Ridge: "Consistent with indiviual liberties and civil lib. accorded by the constitution."

Core mission: Protect america, way of life, and buildings and assets. Primarily because of the way we have lived. Terrorists after us because of the way we live, things they disagree with.

Department's strategic plan:

Vision, Mission and Strat. Goals. Carry with them on their access IDs. Coast Guard knows its mission each person:

"Preserving our freedoms, protecting america, we protect our homeland." (In powerpoint pres., add later).

Sutherland believes that we should not consider these to be contrary ideas and we need to enhance both at the same time in order to win the war.

Outside crit. is very important, otherwise their department won't work. Also applies in reverse. People in academia, think-tanks, etc. All have a duty to listen -- don't make more heat than light in the discussion. Have to cooperate. People need to listen a little bit more. Need to read and listen and study the Patriot act and see what the law does and what it doesn't do.

Need to promote innovation.

Have to look at things in a new way-- debate the profiling of people, but we can't take our classic stance.

CRCL outlook: Don't need more people to investigate abuses -- needed someone on the inside of policy issues to think them through before abuse could happen. Provide proactive advice to prevent trouble from happening before it happens.

They don't tell people they can't do something. Talk about ways to get things done but shape policies in ways that will help preserve civil liberties.

Listen to people like the ACLU, summarize and get info out to people in the DHS. Inside of DHS I assume, not inside of CRCL. Also explain to c.l. groups what they are doing. Advise sec. on elements on top slide of pp4.

Scope of issues:

  • Racial profiling
  • LEO training
  • Immigation - detention of aliens after 9/11

People who are detained know why they are detained.

Use UAV on southern border (of where??) who is moving and who isn't. 4th Amendment issues. Could imagine scope of civil liberties violations. Terrorist screening center.

Assist with the creation of the Terrorist Screening Center (was Total Information Awareness? Matrix?) People who are identified on the list and want their name off because they've been on there for the wrong reasons. Less false names means easier use for LEO.

Assistance of Section 508.

Example: Timothy McVeigh is going to hijack an airplane. What level of security would be correct to deal with white caucasians boarding airplanes in CA.

Delaying people from boarding a certain airplane is most certainly not a TSA strategy for preventing terrorists from doing things.

Cases; Jose Padilla -- does not fit the profile.


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