By Matthew Harwood, Media Relations Associate, ACLU at 2:10pm
When Deputy Attorney General James Comey addressed the American people nine years ago, he told them what he called a "sobering story" about Jose Padilla. He described the then 33-year-old accused al Qaeda member's intent to detonate a dirty bomb as well as blow up apartment buildings in an American city. By agreeing to attack the United States on behalf of al Qaeda, Padilla, Comey argued, could be deprived of a lawyer and indefinitely detained as an enemy combatant on a military brig off the South Carolina coast for the purpose of extracting more intelligence about al Qaeda out of him, regardless of the fact he was an American citizen arrested on American soil.
By Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:00pm
Waterboarding and other torture tactics may once again take center stage in yet another nomination fight. But this time, the stakes involve a ten-year appointment to head the FBI.
Before President Obama nominates—and certainly before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirms—James Comey to be FBI director, the president and the senators should read three torture memos that are central to understanding who Comey is. There is a mountain of other torture documents from the Bush era, but we only need to read three of them.
By Ian Kysel, Aryeh Neier Fellow, ACLU Human Rights Program at 10:11am
Last week's military commissions proceedings in the trial of Abd al Rahim Al-Nashiri in Guantánamo Bay demonstrates the grave threat to justice posed by an ad hoc approach to a defendant's rights. Life and death decisions—Al-Nashiri could face the death penalty—mustn't be made using improvised rules, but in last week's pre-trial hearings at Guantánamo, the rules continued to be made up as the military commissions churn on.
By Matthew Harwood, Media Relations Associate, ACLU at 5:41pm
When former White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan went before the Senate in early February for his confirmation hearing to lead the CIA, he made a startling admission. After reading the 300-page summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's (SSCI) mammoth 6,000-page report on the CIA's post-9/11 detention and interrogation program, Brennan's belief in the life-saving value of the torture program was shaken.
By Noa Yachot, Communications Strategist, ACLU at 2:31pm
A detailed and harrowing first-person narrative of a prisoner's experiences in Guantánamo is available to the public for the first time: Slate today published a three-part series of excerpts from The Guantánamo Memoirs of Mohamedou Ould Slahi. The excerpts were culled from a manuscript hundreds of pages in length, which Slahi provided his attorneys, a pro bono team of ACLU and other lawyers. After being classified for years, Slahi's memoirs – of arrest, rendition, torture, and imprisonment without charge or trial – are finally seeing the light of day, albeit with some redactions.
By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 12:05pm
The ongoing crisis in the prison at Guantánamo Bay is escalating, and new details are emerging as media have been allowed to visit this week. A few days ago, as part of an operation to shift hunger-striking prisoners from communal living to individual cells, Guantánamo guards shot at prisoners using what the military calls "less-than-lethal" ammunition, hitting at least one person. The AP reports that five prisoners were injured, as prisoners apparently resisted.
By Alex Abdo, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 2:39pm
Nearly two years ago, a non-partisan, constitutional think tank called the Constitution Project assembled its blue-ribbon Task Force on Detainee Treatment to examine the treatment of detainees in the years following 9/11. Today, the Task Force released its report—a 550-page, comprehensive condemnation of the role of senior Bush administration officials in the torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody.
By Alex Abdo, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 10:23am
Update (5/7/2013): CIA Director John Brennan has replaced the acting head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, who is also the subject of this blog post. This important news hopefully signals Brennan’s commitment to enforcing the letter and spirit of President Obama's executive order banning the use of torture, abuse, and secret prisons.
