Among the many proposals made by the Sept. 11 Commission in their final report Thursday is the establishment of a new watchdog to ensure that the extra powers it suggests for the government are not abused.

Many of our recommendations call for the government to increase its presence in our lives, the report points out, adding that the suite of anti-terror laws called the Patriot Act has already resulted in a shift of power and authority to the government...

This shift, the report goes on, calls for an enhanced system of checks and balances to protect the precious liberties that are vital to our way of life.

The commission recommends federal standards for identification documents like drivers' licenses and birth certificates, greater information sharing between government agencies and with the private sector, and greatly enhanced border and internal transport security.

In a phrase that has set alarm bells ringing among civil liberties advocates, the report calls for the U.S. border security system to be integrated into a larger network of screening points that includes our transportation system and access to vital facilities such as nuclear reactors.

The Department of Homeland Security, the report says, should lead the effort to design a comprehensive screening system (with) ... common standards for both external borders and for other checkpoints like those at airports or government buildings.

That could be a recipe for a system of internal controls that would treat people traveling within the United States in the same way it treats those crossing its borders, cautioned Greg Nojeim, Associate Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Washington office.

Commission members and staff batted aside suggestions that they were seeking to establish such a system and denied that the introduction of federal standards for identity documents and a single system of screening would amount to the introduction of a national ID system through the backdoor.

We're making these decisions now, commission Executive Director Phillip Zelikow told United Press International about the measures that are taken at the entrance to every government building and airport departure gate, it's just we're making them ad hoc and episodically, agency by agency, system by system, card by card.

Instead, he argued, decisions about standards and the balance between privacy and security should be made on a system wide basis.

We don't recommend an ID card, commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton told UPI, we recommend federal standards for identity documents.

But Hamilton said that the enhanced border security measures -- like an end to the right of U.S. citizens to enter the country from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean without a passport -- were vital to the fight against terrorism.

We consider exiting and entry into the country as a national security matter, he said. Travel is as important to (terrorists) as weapons, as training and money.

Other commission members acknowledged the dangers of creating an over-mighty government and stressed the need to balance security with liberty.

After any traumatic event, there's a tendency to curtail civil liberties, commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste told UPI. The confidence of the public in the enhanced powers we call for relies on the assurance that these powers will not be abused, or employed for purposes other than those intended.

But, as the report points out, There is no office within the government whose job it is to look across the government at the actions we are taking to protect ourselves to ensure that liberty concerns are appropriately considered.

To fill that gap, the commission calls for the president to lay out guidelines for information sharing that would safeguard the privacy of the individuals about whom information is shared. To oversee adherence to these guidelines, and ensure civil liberties are protected, the report proposes the setting up of a board within the executive branch...

But the commission does not say in which part of the executive the board should be based, and does not define its powers. And the word enforcement is not used about the relationship between the board and the presidential guidelines.

We tried not to micromanage the recommendations, said Ben-Veniste, suggesting that the Justice Department was the most logical place for the new organization.

But other members and staff had different opinions, with some suggesting the White House and one echoing a comment in the report which suggests that the watchdog could be a component of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board -- a panel made up largely of former senior intelligence officials that advises the White House on intelligence issues.

We tried not to offer fixed opinions unless we felt we had a comparative advantage in how to answer a question, Zelikow explained, We didn't define the organizational home for any of those new institutions, but we wanted to lay down a marker that you need to create (them) as the civil liberties corollary inseparable from the recommendations to grant government these additional powers.

Ben-Veniste called the recommendations interlocking and interdependent, but members and staff acknowledged concerns that the government might try to cherry pick only those recommendations that enhanced its powers.

There's a danger here that people will take the garment we have sown together and tear off one sleeve and enact it, and think they've got the whole shirt, he said, adding that it was the job of law- and policymakers to decide which of the recommendations to implement. We're just saying that as far as we're concerned, X goes with Y.

The commission also calls for a full and informed debate on the Patriot Act in advance of any decision to extend the powers in it that are due to expire next year. The burden of proof for retaining a particular governmental power should be on the executive, it says.