Blog of Rights
Anthony D.
Romero

Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He took the helm just four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Shortly afterward, the ACLU launched its national Safe and Free campaign to protect basic freedoms during a time of crisis. Romero has led the ACLU in its fight to restore civil liberties, including pushing for accountability for torture committed under the Bush administration and fighting the practice of indefinite detention. Romero is the ACLU's sixth executive director, and the first Latino and openly gay man to serve in that capacity. (Photo by Richard Corman)

 

08/29/2004

August 29, 2004

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 10:02pm
This is my final dispatch about the Guantánamo trip. I just got back today; spent the last day trying to absorb much of what I witnessed over the last week and to figure out next steps for our work. We have the challenge of finding concrete recommendations that will make a difference in improving the system while also continuing our str
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08/27/2004

August 27, 2004

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 9:30pm
Everyone in the media and NGO group looked beat today; it's been a long week. [Ed.: As Mr. Romero was dictating this, the afternoon bugle call just played in the background.] But think about it from the vantage point of the members of the military commission. They too must be tired. You have to wonder how they can sustain the energy and the
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08/26/2004

August 26, 2004

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 11:08pm
Well, today was certainly exciting. The courtroom drama due to incompetence and systematic problems with the rules is nothing to enjoy even with a front-row seat. We knew from the beginning that Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul's hearing was going to be different than the others. As he walked in you could see a steely, some would say defia
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08/25/2004

August 25, 2004

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 10:45pm
Today was the opening of the military commission against David Matthew Hicks, the 29-year-old Australian who has been held in Gitmo for over two years. Today Mr. Hicks saw his mom and dad for the first time in all those years in what was described as an intensely emotional meeting. We spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Hicks during a break and they held a pr
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08/25/2004

August 24, 2004

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 1:05am
Today I witnessed history in the making.

I was one of 49 people inside the military commission courtroom allowed to observe the first military commission in the 60 years since World War II. America's system of justice was on the world stage.

We got to the ferryboat at about 7:30 a.m., but the commission didn't begin un
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08/24/2004

August 23, 2004

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 12:30am
Today's activities at Gitmo were full of tension.

We boarded the bus at 7:40 A.M., with the 50-plus members of the media, to travel to the other side of the base by boat. However, before we could do so, the representatives from Amnesty and Human Rights Watch and I were barred from boarding the boat. We had not been given our security
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08/22/2004

August 22, 2004

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 10:08pm
This will not read like an authoritative ACLU report on the Guantanamo Military Commissions; we hope to provide that later.

I'm dictating this weblog to give our ACLU colleagues and all of you a sense of what this black box known as Guantanamo is like.

I arrived yesterday on a commercial charter plane from Fort Lauderdale.
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