On Thursday evening, April 10, at 5:30 PM the League of Women Voters of
Virginia, the League of Women Voters of the Richmond Metropolitan Area and
the Library of Virginia will present three nationally known legal experts
discussing the USA Patriot Act and its implications for national security
and civil liberty.

The USA Patriot Act gives federal officials greater authority to track and
intercept communications, both for law enforcement and foreign intelligence
gathering purposes.  It vests the Secretary of the Treasury with regulatory
powers to combat corruption of U.S. financial institutions for foreign money
laundering purposes. It seeks to further close U.S. borders to foreign
terrorists and to detain and remove those within our borders. It creates new
crimes, new penalties and new procedural efficiencies for use against
domestic and international terrorists. The Act is attracting critics who
contend it goes too far and others who say it is not strong enough.

Speakers for National Security versus Civil Liberty: A Forum on the USA
Patriot Act include Lee S. Strickland, an employee of the CIA and Visiting
Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of
Maryland; Mark Eckenwiler, Deputy Chief of Computer Crimes and Intellectual
Property at the U.S. Department of Justice; and Rodney A. Smolla, Allen
Professor of Law at the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of
Richmond. A question-and-answer period will follow the discussion.

Lee Strickland will start the program with an overview of the USA Patriot
Act. Mark Eckenwiler will speak to the necessity of this legislation in
ensuring our national security. Rodney Smolla will comment on how this
legislation affects our civil liberty

The public is invited to attend this free program in the Lecture Hall of the
Library of Virginia, located at 800 East Broad Street in historic downtown
Richmond. There is free parking for this event under the Library.

Jan Hathcock
Public Relations Officer
Library of Virginia
804-692-3592


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