The military commission hearing in the case of Abd al-Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al-Nashiri (pronounced al-NAH-shiri) beginning today will once again put on the world stage two of the worst U.S. ideas: Guantánamo and the death penalty.
The hea…
Image, left: Lakhdar and Yusuf (born 8/2010) – September 2011
This Wednesday marks 10 years since the prison at Guantánamo Bay opened. Today in The New York Times, Lakhdar Boumediene reflects on that anniversary and tells the harrowing tale…
Yesterday, the man accused of planning the 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing appeared before the world for the first time, nine years after his capture, at a military commission hearing at Guantánamo. I was there to observe the proceedings for the ACL…
Tomorrow, we start down the dark path to a possible execution in Guantánamo. As the Supreme Court has long said, death is different. Putting someone on trial for his life requires — at a bare minimum — a rigorously fair process…
Apparently, former CIA Director Porter Goss’ favorite party trick is to use beer nuts to show how waterboarding is really no big deal. You’ll learn this and other fun facts in our inaugural ACLU Studio Podcast.
ACLU Studio is for those who can’t get enough of the ACLU. Hosted by ACLU staff, the series will feature compelling interviews with writers, filmmakers, musicians and artists whose work is inspired by civil liberties issues.
In our first episode, ACLU National Security Project Litigation Director, Ben Wizner talks with award winning journalist Michelle Shephard about her new book, Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorisms Grey Zone.
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According to Shephard, former CIA Director Goss made light of the 183 times CIA interrogators wateboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, saying these incidents of torture were as insignificant as the beer nuts in his hand. Tune in to ACLU Studio for more savory tidbits from Michelle’s remarkable decade covering the so-called "war on terror." Listen now:
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Next up: an interview with former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan about his new book, The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War against al-Qaeda.
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Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s brazenness is again on display this week as he promotes his new book In My Time. His comments in a recent interview coupled with excerpts from the book have served as a jarring reminder of the lack of accountab…
Last night, a handful of news organizations released hundreds of pages of documents profiling past and present detainees held at Guantánamo. Among other things, the documents reveal:
Evidence the government held detainees not because the…
Nine years ago today, a Department of Defense C-141 transport plane carrying 20 prisoners arrived in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. On that day, January 11, 2002, the naval base began operating as a detention center for men captured in President Bush’…
Last week, a coalition of musicians filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out if their music had been used during the interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody. Last night, Rosanne Cash, one of the musicians who filed the request, appeared on The Colbert Report to go [...]
Today, the Los Angeles Times reports on the struggle of former Guantánamo detainee Mohammed Jawad to readjust to freedom after spending roughly a third of his life in detention. In August, as a result of the ACLU’s habeas corpus petition on behalf of Jawad, he was finally released and sent home to Afghanistan after six-and-a-half-years [...]