Privacy: Key Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Aug. 19, 2004 |
| Report Number |
RS21915 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Gina Marie Stevens, American Law Division; and Harold C. Relyea, Government and Finance Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Several of the recommendations made to protect against and prepare for terrorist attacks in the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) focus on the protection of civil liberties. This report examines these recommendations, and those of other recent commissions. It will not be updated. [...] Some of the civil liberties questions raised in response to anti- terrorism efforts stem from the conflict between individual privacy interests and the intelligence needs of law enforcement and national security. Programs and initiatives such as Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA), the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II), MATRIX, and the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program (US-VISIT) integrate advanced information technologies for the purpose of terrorist identification and prevention of terrorist attacks. These programs necessarily require enhanced information sharing by government agencies and the private sector, and are designed to assist the information needs of intelligence and national security. These programs operate in the context of a body of law relating to Federal government access to information. A recent survey of laws relating to Federal government access to information appears in RL31730, 'Privacy: Total Information Awareness Programs and Related Information Access, Collection, and Protection Laws.'
