Since September 11, 2001, much has been said about the difficult balancing act between freedom and security, but few have made specific proposals for how to strike that balance. As the scandals over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the andquot;torture memosandquot; written by legal officials in the Bush administration show, without clear rules in place, things can very easily go very wrong.

With this challenge in mind, Philip Heymann and Juliette Kayyem, directors of Harvard's Long-Term Legal Strategy Project for Preserving Security and Democratic Freedoms in the War on Terrorism, take a detailed look at how to handle these competing concerns. Taking into account both the national security viewpoint and the democratic freedoms viewpoint, Heymann and Kayyem consulted experts from across the political spectrumandmdash;including Rand Beers, Robert McNamara, and Michael Chertoff (since named Secretary of Homeland Security)andmdash;about the thorniest and most profound legal challenges of this new era. Heymann and Kayyem offer specific recommendations for dealing with such questions as whether assassination is ever acceptable, when coercion can be used in interrogation, and when detention is allowable. They emphasize that drawing clear rules to guide government conduct protects the innocent from unreasonable government intrusion and prevents government agents from being made scapegoats later if things go wrong. Their recommendations will be of great interest to legal scholars, legislators, policy professionals, and concerned citizens.

andquot;In fighting the war on terror, we cannot abandon the legal and moral principles that have made us a great nation. Harvard's Phil Heymann and Juliette Kayyem, who have direct experience in fighting terrorism, have produced this extraordinarily thoughtful work containing many specific measures that would not only enhance our ability to fight terrorism but also preserve our essential liberties. It should be read by the President and Congress, who should then move quickly to adopt as many of its suggestions as possible.andquot;
andmdash;Jeffrey H. Smith, former General Counsel of the CIA and Senior Partner with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arnold and Porter

Offers specific proposals for clear rules of government conduct that will allow us to balance the concerns of national security and democratic rights.

Philip Heymann is James Barr Ames Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School. From his first job as clerk to US Supreme Court Justice John Harlan to his post as Deputy US Attorney General (1993-1994), Heymann has spent much of his career in government. A former Fulbright Scholar with degrees from Yale University, Harvard Law School, and the Sorbonne, he has been Assistant US Attorney General in charge of the criminal division (1978-1981) and Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Justice Department, Acting Administrator of the State Department's Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Organizations, and Executive Assistant to the Undersecretary of State. In addition, he was a former Associate Prosecutor and Consultant to the Watergate Special Force. He is the author of Terrorism, Freedom, and Security: Winning without War (MIT Press, 2003).Juliette Kayyem is Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government; former Member of the National Commission on Terrorism; and former Legal Adviser to the Attorney General.