Kayyem Fights Secret Evidence

As a member of the National Commission on Terrorism, Juliette Kayyem brought a passion for civil liberties and a sympathetic ear for Arab-American concerns to the congressionally appointed terrorism panel. A former Justice Department lawyer and a Lebanese-American, she served as a driving force on the Commission, which condemned secret evidence and ethnic stereotyping in a report last year that otherwise called for stronger measures to combat the threat of terrorism.
 

Kayyem gained visibility when she waged what the Boston Globe called "a one-woman war" in the Justice Department against the use of secret evidence, which she believed unfairly targeted America''s Arab and Muslim communities. "Juliette is a sophisticated observer of how bad terrorism can be, but she sees the need for a balance, and she tips in the civil liberties direction," said former CIA director James Woolsey, a fellow panel member.
 

Kayyem is now Executive Director of the Executive Session on Domestic Preparedness (ESDP), replacing Richard Falkenrath who joined President George W. Bush''s National Security Council staff this year. At ESDP she will join Director Arnold Howitt to help shape the session''s programming, research, and outreach.
 

ESDP, a joint project of the Belfer and Taubman Centers, is a standing task force of leading practitioners and academic specialists concerned with terrorism and emergency management. It has engaged local communities across the country, bringing together experts with operational experience in fields related to domestic preparedness, including emergency management, law enforcement, fire protection, public health, emergency medicine, and national security and defense.
 

A new ESDP series, Perspectives on Preparedness, was recently launched with the publication of "A New National Priority: Enhancing Public Safety and Health through Domestic Preparedness." The brief is available on the ESDP website and will be disseminated by the Department of Justice to a wide audience of public safety and health officials, policy makers, scholars, and professionals. The series aims to provide useful information to the concerned professional communities about how the nation can enhance its ability to respond to the threat of terrorism with weapons of mass destruction.
 

ESDP will convene for its fourth meeting in May. Attention will be devoted to the potential of incident management systems, hospital capacity for mass casualty emergencies, and management of a bioterrorism incident.
 

http://www.esdp.org