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ACLU Statement On Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Rejection Of Legal Defense (06/05/2008)
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - At his arraignment today before a Guantánamo military commission on terrorism-related charges, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees accused of participating in the 9/11 attacks refused legal representation by military and civilian defense attorneys.

ACLU Urges Congress to Investigate Role of Top State Department Officials in Torture (06/04/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union today urged members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Human Rights Subcommittee to use its hearing this morning to start an investigation into the role of current top U.S. Department of State officials in approving the use of torture on detainees. The Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine is scheduled to testify before the subcommittee about the recently released Office of the Inspector General report of the FBI’s role in the interrogation of detainees held by the U.S.

9/11 Victims' Families Send Letter Decrying Politicization Of Guantánamo Military Commissions (06/03/2008)
NEW YORK – Family members of 9/11 victims have sent a letter today to Susan Crawford, Convening Authority of the Guantánamo military commissions, sharply criticizing the politicization of the system. According to news reports, a Pentagon representative secretly invited an outspoken supporter of the military commissions to Guantánamo Bay for Thursday's arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees on terrorism-related charges, but did not make this option available to family members who have expressed criticism of the commissions. This type of politicization is symptomatic of the unconstitutional and biased tribunal system, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Abrupt Dismissal Of Judge Is More Evidence Of Military Commissions' Illegitimacy (05/30/2008)
NEW YORK - Providing more evidence of the illegitimacy of the Bush administration's fundamentally flawed military commission system, the Pentagon abruptly dismissed judge Army Col. Peter Brownback without explanation late yesterday from the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian detainee. According to Khadr's lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, the timing of the judge's removal was suspicious because Brownback had recently threatened to suspend the case if prosecutors refused to hand over important records about Khadr's confinement to the defense lawyers. Just last week, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the legal system under which Khadr was detained and prosecuted at Guantanamo violated international law.

ACLU Obtains Heavily Redacted CIA Documents Regarding Waterboarding (05/27/2008)

Canadian Supreme Court Rules Guantanamo Detention And Prosecution Of Prisoner Violated U.S. And International Law (05/23/2008)
NEW YORK - The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruled today that Canadian officials violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - analogous to the U.S. Bill of Rights - by turning over interrogation records of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr to the United States. The court reached this result after finding that, at the time Canadian officials interrogated him, Khadr was being detained and prosecuted at Guantanamo in violation of U.S. and international law.

ACLU Lawsuit Challenges Racial Discrimination In Alabama School District (05/22/2008)
MONROEVILLE, AL – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama filed a complaint in a class-action lawsuit last night charging Monroe County school officials with subjecting African American students at Monroeville Junior High School to the widespread use of racial epithets and slurs, racially-motivated discipline, and racially segregated classrooms, practices that deny African American students their constitutional right to equal educational opportunities.

ACLU To Observe Unconstitutional Guantánamo Military Commissions This Week (05/21/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union will be at Guantánamo Bay this week to observe the U.S. military commission pre-trial hearing of Sudanese national Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi and the arraignment of Afghan national Mohammed Kamin. The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at every commission hearing since 2004 and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional principles.

ACLU Online Symposium To Feature Leading Writers On Torture (05/20/2008)
NEW YORK – Several of the nation's top writers and experts on the subject of torture will participate in an online symposium beginning today in conjunction with the launch of the American Civil Liberties Union's new blog, the ACLU Blog of Rights. The symposium will be a recurring feature on the ACLU Blog of Rights, bringing together ideologically diverse groups of bloggers to focus on pressing civil liberties issues. The guest writers in this week's symposium include writers from some of the Web's most widely read blogs.

Justice Department Report Reveals Senior Government Officials Knew Early On Of Interrogation Abuse But Did Not Stop It (05/20/2008)
NEW YORK - The results of an internal Justice Department investigation released today reveal that officials at the highest level of government — including the White House - received reports on the abuse of prisoners in U.S. military custody overseas as early as 2002. Congress called on the department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to conduct the investigation after documents made public through an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed FBI agents at Guantánamo had raised concerns about methods used by military interrogators. Today's government report is the first to identify that then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice received complaints of torture.

U.N. Independent Expert On Racism Begins Fact-Finding Mission In U.S. (05/19/2008)
WASHINGTON - Several national civil liberties and human rights groups today welcomed a fact-finding mission to the U.S. by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The American Civil Liberties Union, Global Rights, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, the U.S. Human Rights Network, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Rights Working Group and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty call on the U.S., state and local governments to fully cooperate with the special rapporteur

ACLU Obtains Defense Department Documents About Prisoner Deaths And Interrogations (05/14/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained previously withheld documents from the Defense Department, including internal investigations into the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody overseas. Uncensored documents released as a result of the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit shed light on the deaths of detainees in Iraq and internal disagreement within the military over harsh interrogation practices used at Guantánamo Bay.

Government Rushes Guantánamo Cases While Delaying Detainees' Access To Prospective Counsel (05/14/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union expressed outrage today at the Pentagon's announcement of a June 5 date for the arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees accused of crimes related to September 11 before all of the defendants have met with their prospective lawyers.

As Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Is Formally Charged, Government Delays Security Clearance For Civilian Defense Lawyers (05/13/2008)
NEW YORK – The U.S. government continues to delay security clearances for attorneys seeking to represent Khalid Sheikh Mohammed even as formal charges are announced against him and four other detainees today as part of the Bush administration's military commission system. The efforts of civilian attorneys to represent Mohammed are part of the John Adams Project – a partnership between the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers – designed to provide legal teams to represent Guantánamo detainees.

FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional National Security Letter After ACLU And EFF Challenge (05/07/2008)
SAN FRANCISCO - The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive's founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand.

Newly Unredacted Report Confirms Psychologists Supported Illegal Interrogations In Iraq and Afghanistan (04/30/2008)
NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union announced today the release of newly unredacted documents from the Defense Department's internal investigations into charges of detainee abuse. Uncensored documents from the Church Report, obtained as a result of the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, include new details exposing the role of psychologists in military interrogations. The documents also uncover new information about the failure of military medical personnel to report abuses at Abu Ghraib, the military's use of unlawful interrogation methods subsequent to a directive that was ostensibly meant to end such practices, and detainee deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

ACLU Resumes Vigilant Watch As Unconstitutional Guantánamo Hearings Continue This Week (04/28/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union will be at Guantánamo Bay this week observing the military commission hearings of Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan. The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at each and every commission hearing and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional or universal human rights principles.

ACLU Urges Federal Appeals Court To Lift Ban On Renowned Scholar (04/28/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in a federal court today in an appeal challenging the government's refusal to grant a visa to renowned Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan. The ACLU maintains that the government's stated reason for barring the scholar is a pretext and that Ramadan, a leading European academic whose work addresses Muslim identity and the role of Islam in democratic societies, remains banned from the country because of his political viewpoints.

ACLU And HRF Ask Circuit Court To Reconsider Rumsfeld Torture Case (04/25/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First (HRF) today filed an unusual motion in federal court in an effort to overturn the dismissal of a lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The March 2005 lawsuit was filed on behalf of nine Iraqi and Afghan former civilian detainees who were tortured while in U.S. military custody and eventually released without being charged with a crime. The lawsuit charged that then-Secretary Rumsfeld was legally responsible for policies and practices leading to the torture and abuse of detainees.

ACLU Demands Immediate Release Of Inspector General Report On FBI's Role In Illegal Interrogations (04/22/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request today with the Departments of Justice and Defense for the release of a report on a long-running investigation of the FBI's role in the unlawful interrogations of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. The Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) launched the investigation after internal government documents - uncovered by an ACLU lawsuit - revealed that FBI agents stationed at Guantánamo Bay expressed concern after witnessing military interrogators' use of brutal interrogation techniques.