Tortured Law: The Role of the Office of Legal Counsel and the Use of Torture

Please join
Alliance for Justice
and
Center for American Progress
for a special presentation

Tortured Law: The Role of the Office of Legal Counsel
and the Use of Torture

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

A reception will begin at 6:00 p.m. 
The program will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m.

Admission is free.

CLICK HERE to RSVP for THIS EVENT

Featured panelists:

Nan Aron, President, Alliance for Justice

David Cole, Professor of Law, Georgetown University

Bruce Fein, Chairman of the American Freedom Agenda

Moderator:

Ken Gude, Associate Director, International Rights and Responsibilities, Center for American Progress

After a five-year investigation, the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility finally concluded in a report released on February 19, 2010, that Bush administration Office of Legal Counsel officials John Yoo and Jay Bybee “exercised poor judgment” for their role in drafting the 2002 memos that authorized the use of techniques otherwise understood to constitute torture in detainee interrogations. However, a Department of Justice official overruled OPR’s recommendation and determined that the officials should not be referred to their respective bar associations for investigation of professional misconduct. 

The release of the report has spurred criticism, particularly because OPR staff could not interview key witnesses or review hundreds of e-mails written by the lawyers. Why were critical records destroyed? Why were witnesses and materials kept from investigators? Broader questions also remain: Were these lawyers simply giving the President their best legal advice? Or was their work part of a larger conspiracy to distort the law and assisted their client in criminal or fraudulent conduct? 

Please join the Center for American Progress and the Alliance for Justice for a discussion about the OPR report and next steps toward torture accountability. A screening of Alliance for Justice’s short documentary film Tortured Law will proceed a panel discussion moderated by Ken Gude, Associate Director of the Center for American Progress International Rights and Responsibilities program.

CLICK HERE to RSVP for THIS EVENT

March 10, 2010, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Space is extremely limited. RSVP required.
Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and not guaranteed.  

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Map & Directions

Nearest Metro:
Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square
-or- Red Line to Metro Center

Biographies:

Nan Aron is the President of Alliance for Justice. Aron, who founded AFJ in 1979, guides the organization in its mission to advance the cause of justice for all Americans, strengthen the public interest community's influence on national policy and foster the next generation of advocates. A leading voice in public interest law for over 30 years, Aron is nationally recognized for her vast expertise in public interest law, the federal judiciary and citizen participation in public policy. She is the author of Liberty and Justice for All: Public Interest Law in the 1980s and Beyond and has appeared as an expert in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Vanity Fair and National Public Radio. She is also a frequent guest speaker at universities, law schools, corporations, nonprofits and foundations.

David Cole is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. As a staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, Professor Cole litigated a number of major First Amendment cases, and he continues to litigate First Amendment and other constitutional issues as a volunteer staff attorney at the Center. Professor Cole has published in a variety of areas, including civil rights, criminal justice, constitutional law, and law and literature. He is the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, a commentator on National Public Radio: All Things Considered, and the author of four books, all available from New Press: Enemy Aliens, Terrorism and the Constitution (with James X. Dempsey), No Equal Justice, and The Torture Memos. Professor Cole has received awards for his civil rights and liberties work, including from the American Bar Association’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section, the National Lawyers Guild, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Political Asylum and Immigrants’ Rights Project, the American Muslim Council, and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

Bruce Fein writes weekly columns for The Washington Times and Politico.com. He is a guest columnist for numerous other newspapers, and articles for professional and lay journals. He is invited to testify regularly before Congress and administrative agencies by both Democrats and Republicans. Mr. Fein appears regularly on national and international television, cable, and radio programs as an expert in foreign affairs, international and constitutional law, telecommunications, terrorism, national security, and related subjects. He is a regular guest at the BBC, C-SPAN, CNN, Reuters, MSNBC, and NPR. Fein has served in a number of capacities at the U.S. Department of Justice including: assistant director of the Office of Legal Policy, legal adviser to the assistant attorney general for antitrust, and as the associate deputy attorney general. Mr. Fein was appointed general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, followed by an appointment as research director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran. He recently served on the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Presidential signing statements. Mr. Fein has been an adjunct scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, a resident scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a lecturer at the Bookings Institute, and an adjunct professor at George Washington University. 

Ken Gude is the Associate Director of the International Rights and Responsibility Program at American Progress. Prior to joining American Progress, Gude was a policy analyst at the Center for National Security Studies, where he focused on post-September 11 civil liberties issues. He also had stints at the Council on Foreign Relations and the British Labour Party, where he served as a policy officer working the campaign against the privatization of British Rail. He has been published in the Los Angeles Times and contributed to the book, Protecting Democracy: International Responses.