Blog of Rights

Avinash
Samarth

Avinash Samarth is a Paralegal in the ACLU's National Security Project. He is a 2011 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Demanding Answers for Three Deaths at Guantánamo

By Avinash Samarth, ACLU National Security Project at 5:00pm

On November 28, the ACLU filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act seeking the U.S. military’s autopsy reports of the three men who died most recently while detained at Guantánamo Bay. The men—Adnan Latif, Awal Gul, and Hajji Nassim (also known as “Inayatullah”)—had been held at the prison camp indefinitely and without charge. They died on September 8, 2012, February 2, 2012, and May 18, 2011, respectively. You can read our request here.

ACLU Sues As DOJ Ignores Surveillance Transparency Law

By Avinash Samarth, ACLU National Security Project at 11:32am

Today the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to force the government to release statistics about its use of powerful electronic surveillance tools that law enforcement can use against any American simply by stating to a judge that it’s relevant to an investigation. The Department of Justice is required to disclose these statistics to Congress each year, yet routinely fails to do so. Today’s suit is an effort to compel the DOJ to follow the law (here are our complaint and our FOIA request).

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