WikiLeaks, State Secrets, Guantánamo & Torture

Andy Worthington and attorneys and advocates from the Center for Constitutional Rights and Witness Against Torture will discuss the importance of WikiLeaks, attempts to extradite Julian Assange to the U.S., the dangerous isolation of Bradley Manning, revelations about Guantánamo and U.S. interference to suppress torture investigations in Germany and Spain, and the significance of other stories not covered by Wikileaks — in particular, the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three prisoners at Guantánamo in June 2006. This January 11, 2011 marks the beginning of the 10^th year of indefinite detention at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo.

Katie Gallagher is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), where she focuses on holding individuals, including U.S. and foreign government officials, and corporations, including private military contractors, accountable for serious human rights violations. She is involved in two ongoing legal proceedings in Spain about the U.S. torture program, and WikiLeaks has revealed that the Obama administration has engaged in a political campaign to block both of them and prevent Spanish courts from securing accountability for torture and other crimes planned, authorized, and committed by Bush administration officials at Guantánamo and elsewhere.

Pardiss Kebriaei is a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). She joined the Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative at CCR in July 2007, and provides direct representation to several of CCR’s clients at Guantánamo and the families of the men who died there in 2006. She is also involved in a lawsuit challenging a U.S. government kill-list and the targeting of a U.S. citizen now in Yemen and far from any armed conflict with the United States.

Leili Kashani is the Education and Outreach Associate for the Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). She advocates for a just closure of the prison at Guantánamo, resettlement for the men still detained, and against illegal detentions, the lack of accountability for torture, and expanding U.S. wars more broadly.

Witness Against Torture formed in 2005 when 25 Americans went to Guantánamo Bay and attempted to visit the detention facility. They are activists who are organizing to shut down Guantánamo and end U.S. torture programs and have engaged in public education, street theater, lobbying, and nonviolent direct actions towards this end.