Statement On PSNI Threat To Boston Archive

I call upon the US government to resist this fishing expedition by the PSNI and to remember that the major consequence of this bid to invade an American college’s private archive will be to undermine a peace deal that was in no small way the product of careful American diplomacy and peace building. The United States has the power to invoke vital foreign policy interests in order to reject this PSNI action.

I also call upon Boston College to vigorously resist this action and to rally the rest of American academe in the cause of research confidentiality. It is no accident that this move comes hard on the heels of BC’s spokesman Jack Dunn’s public announcement that interviews could be returned. This action by the PSNI raises serious questions about the motivation and control of the police in Northern Ireland. Those in the PSNI who took and approved this decision could hardly have been unaware of the grave political consequences of their planned action.