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May 4, 2005
Americans surrender vast amounts of personal information through everyday commercial interactions – from filling a prescription to buying groceries to signing up for a credit card. Private companies that started as direct marketers or credit verifiers are now also homeland security contractors trying to help the government connect dots in the war against terror. Information held in the private sector, merged with government data, may enable law enforcement to stop a future terrorist attack, but it also gives government an unprecedented ability to monitor the lives of American citizens, immigrants and visitors. In his new book, No Place to Hide, Robert O’Harrow Jr. describes the information society we now live in and how it challenges traditional notions of civil liberties, autonomy, and privacy, even as we gain a powerful new security capability. Mr. O’Harrow will join an expert panel at the Center for American Progress – featuring Gen. Wesley Clark, DHS Chief Privacy Officer Nuala O’Connor Kelly and privacy expert Jim Dempsey – to discuss the intersection of the data revolution, homeland security, information warfare and personal privacy.
Video & Transcript
• P.J. Crowley: Video
• Robert O’Harrow Jr.: Video
• Wesley K. Clark: Video
• James X. Dempsey: Video
• Nuala O’Connor Kelly: Video
• Q&A Session: Video
• Transcript: Full text (PDF)
• Research Paper: Protecting Privacy in the Digital Age
Note: All video provided in Windows Media format.
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| Panelists |
 Wesley K. Clark rose to the rank of four-star general as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Europe during thirty-four years of service in the United States Army. After his retirement in 2000, he became an investment banker, author, commentator, and businessman. In September 2003 he answered the call to stand as a Democratic candidate for President of the United States, where his campaign won the state of Oklahoma and launched him to national prominence before he returned to the private sector in February 2004. In his final military command, General Clark commanded Operation Allied Force, NATO’s first major combat action, which saved 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and he was responsible for the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia. In previous duty, General Clark was the Commander-in-Chief, US Southern Command, where he was responsible for all US military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. And from April 1994 through June 1996, he was the Director of Strategic Plans and Policy, J-5, in the Joint Staff, where he helped negotiate the end to the war in Bosnia. His previous assignments include a wide variety of command and staff positions, including Command of the 1st Cavalry Division. General Clark currently serves in leadership roles with a number of non-profit public service organizations, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Distinguished Senior Adviser), the Center for American Progress (Trustee), the International Crisis Group (Board Member), City Year Little Rock (Board Chair), the National Endowment for Democracy (Board Member), the United States Institute of Peace (United Nations Task Force Member), and the General Accountability Office (Advisory Board Member). |
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 Philip J. (P.J.) Crowley is a Senior Fellow and Director of National Defense and Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress. During the Clinton administration, Crowley was Special Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs, serving as Senior Director of Public Affairs for the National Security Council. Prior to that, he was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. In all, Crowley was a spokesman for the United States government and United States military for 28 years, 11 of those years at the Pentagon and three at the White House. He served for 26 years in the United States Air Force, retiring at the rank of colonel in September 1999. He is a veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. During the Kosovo conflict, he was temporarily assigned to work with then NATO Secretary General Javier Solana. Prior to joining American Progress, he served as a national spokesman for the property/casualty insurance industry, focusing on strategic industry issues that included the impact of terrorism on commercial insurance in the aftermath of the World Trade Center tragedy and the effect of asbestos litigation on the broader economy. A native of Massachusetts, P.J. is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross. |
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 James X. Dempsey is the Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. In addition to day-to-day management responsibilities, he works on privacy and electronic surveillance issues and heads CDT’s international project, the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI). Prior to joining CDT, Mr. Dempsey was Deputy Director of the Center for National Security Studies and prior to that Assistant Counsel to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. Mr. Dempsey is author of several articles on Internet policy, including “Communications Privacy In The Digital Age: Revitalizing The Federal Wiretap Laws To Enhance Privacy,” and co-author of the book Terrorism & the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security (2002) (with Prof. David Cole of Georgetown law school). |
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 Nuala O’Connor Kelly was appointed Chief Privacy Officer of the Department of Homeland Security by Secretary Tom Ridge on April 16, 2003. O’Connor Kelly is responsible for privacy compliance across the Department. Her responsibilities encompass assuring that the technologies used by the Department to protect the United States sustain, and do not erode, privacy protections relating to the use, collection, and disclosure of personal and Department information. The Privacy Office also has oversight of all privacy policy matters, including compliance with the Privacy Act of 1974, the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (as amended) , and the completion of Privacy Impact Assessments on all new programs, as required by the E-Government Act of 2002 and Section 222 of the Homeland Security Act. The Privacy Office also evaluates legislative and regulatory proposals involving collection, use, and disclosure of personal and Department information by the Federal Government. Before joining the Department of Homeland Security, O’Connor Kelly served as Chief Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Prior to beginning her government career, O’Connor Kelly served as Vice President-Data Protection and Chief Privacy Officer for Emerging Technologies for the online media services company, DoubleClick. O’Connor Kelly received her A.B. from Princeton University, a master’s of education from Harvard University, and J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. |
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 Robert O’Harrow Jr. is the author of No Place to Hide and a reporter on the financial desk of the Washington Post, where he created a beat covering information technology, marketing and privacy, delivering stories that mix investigative, explanatory and accountability reporting. O’Harrow was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for a series of Post articles in 2000 on privacy and technology. His reporting earned him top honors in the print category from Carnegie Mellon University’s 2003 Cybersecurity Journalism Awards, based on his investigation for CIR and the Post about the origins of the USA PATRIOT Act and related reporting. Before joining the Post in 1990, he reported for The Record (Bergen County, NJ) and The Times Herald-Record (Orange County, NY).
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