Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Torture and Military Contractors: The Roadmap to Accountability in the First 100 Days
From illegal detention policies to outsourcing torture and mercenaries, the Bush administration has worked systematically over the last seven years to violate U.S. and international law. Legal advocates and journalists have uncovered the facts and identified those responsible. So what will accountability look like? What must the courts and the next administration do in its first 100 days to make things right?
Vincent Warren became the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in 2006. Vince has spearheaded a public campaign, “Beyond Guantanamo: Rescue the Constitution” coinciding with the landmark Supreme Court case. CCR works to advance and protect the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Vince spent seven years as national senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He earned his B.A. from Haverford College and law degree from Rutgers University.
Jameel Jaffer is the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project. The project litigates civil liberties and human rights cases relating to detention, torture, surveillance, censorship, and secrecy. Before joining the staff of the ACLU in 2002, Jaffer served as law clerk to Hon. Amalya L. Kearse, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then to Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada. He is a graduate of Williams College, Cambridge University and Harvard Law School.
Dahlia Lithwick is a senior editor and legal correspondent for Slate.com. She is a weekly legal commentator for the NPR show Day to Day and a biweekly columnist for Newsweek. A graduate of Yale College and Stanford Law School, she clerked for Procter R Hug, then-chief judge of the ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Lithwick’s work has appeared in Harpers, Commentary, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. She was awarded the Online News Association's award for Supreme Court commentary in 2001, and again in 2005 for a torture series she coauthored for Slate.
Jeremy Scahill is a frequent contributor to The Nation and a correspondent for Democracy Now! He is currently a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill has twice won the George Polk Award, among numerous awards received for his reporting. While corresponding for Democracy Now!, Scahill reported extensively from Iraq through both Clinton and Bush administrations. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Scahill exposed the presence of Blackwater forces in New Orleans, sparking a Congressional inquiry. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
