A Conversation About the CIA Torture Program
ACLU attorney Steven Watt spoke with journalist and Ghost Plane author Stephen Grey about the CIA torture program.
Watt is one of the many people Grey interviewed while investigating the secret program for the book. Ghost Plane tells the stories of “extraordinary rendition,” where CIA operatives abduct foreign nationals for detention and interrogation in secret overseas prisons. Grey outlines the ethical picture of the war on terror and lays the responsibility for abduction and torture at the doorstep of Washington, D.C.
The ACLU is challenging extraordinary rendition on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, an entirely innocent victim of rendition who was released without ever being charged. The lawsuit charges that former CIA director George Tenet and U.S. based aviation corporations violated U.S. and universal human rights laws — including the right to be free from torture — when they abducted El Masri beat him, drug him, and transported him to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CASE >>
Stephen Grey is a London-based journalist, and writes about national security issues. His book on the CIA rendition program, Ghost Plane, was published in the U.S. in October 2006.
About Ghost Plane >> (Off-site link)
Steven Watt is an ACLU attorney and has advocated for social justice at the Center for Constitutional Rights, as a public defender in the Solomon Islands, at a housing camp in Tanzania, and evaluated the socio-economic consequences of HIV/AIDS in Uganda.
Download the entire program (19:37 minutes) or listen by chapter topics below:
CHAPTER 1 (3:10 minutes)
> Defining extraordinary rendition
> Why the U.S. doesn’t send abducted foreign nationals to Guantanamo
CHAPTER 2 (3:46 minutes)
> How Grey became aware of a “new type” of rendition
> The diplomatic disconnect of rendition
CHAPTER 3 (3:27 minutes)
> Uncovering rendition
> Flight logs
CHAPTER 4 (3:50 minutes)
> “CIA” planes
> Validating the victims’ stories
CHAPTER 5 (3:22 minutes)
> The El-Masri case
> People “disappearing”
CHAPTER 6 (3:22 minutes)
> How many people have been kidnapped?
> Will we ever learn the entire truth?
> The Challenge to Illegal Spying
> Torture: Seeking Truth and Accountability
> Secret CIA Kidnappings: El-Masri v. Tenet
> Reform the Patriot Act
> Video: Stop the Abuse of Power
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