Richard Clarke, Seymour Hersh Among Speakers at ACLU Conference, July 6-8

ACLU Members and Supporters Convene
To ""Stand Up For Freedom""

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Richard Clarke

NEW YORK - Nearly 2,000 "card-carrying" members and supporters of the American Civil Liberties Union will convene in San Francisco from July 6-8 for the organization's second annual membership conference to meet with and hear from top political leaders and newsmakers, including Richard Clarke, Seymour Hersh, Coleen Rowley, Howard Dean and Governor Bill Owens. 

The intensive three-day conference will feature panel sessions and workshops on timely and relevant issues facing Americans, including balancing national security with civil liberties, racial profiling, domestic spying, marriage rights for same-sex couples and new challenges to reproductive freedom. All plenary sessions and keynote addresses will be webcast live at www.aclu.org. 

During the conference, the ACLU will also hold a "Virtual Lobby Day" featuring a groundbreaking videogram booth for members to record and send their own video statements to their members of Congress, allowing the activists in San Francisco to communicate virtually face-to-face with their representatives in Washington, DC.

Speakers at the conference include:

• Richard Clarke, former White House terrorism czar; 
• Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who recently exposed details of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison;  
• Mayor Gavin Newsom, who ordered city officials in San Francisco to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples; 
• John Sayles, Oscar-nominated director and political satirist;  
• Eve Ensler, activist and "The Vagina Monologues" playwright;  
• Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and presidential candidate;  
• Gov. Bill Owens, governor of Colorado and chairman of the Republican Governors' Association; 
• Bob Barr, former member of Congress from Georgia; 
• Ina Jaffe, NPR correspondent; 
• Coleen Rowley, FBI whistleblower and one of Time Magazine's 2002 Persons of the Year; 
• Frank Dunham, attorney for Yaser Hamdi

Entertainment at the conference will be provided by singer/songwriter Steve Earle, comedian Greg Proops, performer/writer Sandra Tsing Loh and hip hop artists Native Guns. The ACLU will also host a special screening of Michael Moore's controversial new film, Fahrenheit 9/11.

For a conference agenda and complete list of confirmed speakers to date, go to: /2004memberconf/Program/program.htm

To register for press credentials, go to: /cpredirect/17440