American Civil Liberties Union

Earlier today, Attorney General Eric Holder officially announced that the five defendants represented by the John Adams Project who have been charged in the 9/11 attacks will be tried in federal court, rather than in the unconstitutional Guantánamo military commissions. This is a clear victory for the rule of law, and we thank all of you who have supported the ACLU in our efforts to shed light on the injustices of the military commission proceedings at Guantánamo Bay.

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

On January 22, 2009, his second full day in office, President Obama issued an executive order mandating that the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay be closed within a year. Well, the clock’s ticking and it’s not looking good. As January 22, 2010 fast approaches, the administration is signaling that it's unlikely to meet its own deadline.

Most Americans have only seen Guantánamo detainees as one-dimensional caricatures. But a new ACLU video features original footage in which the men talk about their lives — before, after and during their detention by the U.S.

Today, a group of musicians, including REM, Pearl Jam and The Roots filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out whether their music was played at the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.  The request for information stems from former Guantánamo detainees’ testimony and released government documents that document that music has been used as part of interrogations.