FEATURED INTERVIEWS
The following interviews are highlights from the archive.
“Not a single architect of the torture regime has been held accountable.” -Hina Shamsi
RACE, TORTURE, 9/11. 8:22
Hina Shamsi reflects on the role of race in human rights abuses in the U.S. post 9/11 through the systematic racial profiling of American Muslims, Arab Americans and South Asian Americans. Shamsi describes a culture of fear and silence among Muslim Americans critical of the U.S.'s War on Terror.
“The torture regime wasn’t inflicted on the liberal elite of our society...it was brown people in cages abroad.” - Ben Wizner
ACCOUNTABILITY and TORTURE. 2:48
Ben Wizner talks about how long the efforts to bring accountability for torture policies in the U.S. will take and how in the meantime the efforts to use FOIA are being used to create an archival record of abuses.
"At the time there were rumors there were seriously disturbing things in those photographs." - Alexander Abdo
THE TORTURE FOIA. 16:00
Attorney, Alexander Abdo, recounts his role in the request, litigation and release of documents that have come to be known as the Torture FOIA. In 2003, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records relating to the abuse and torture of prisoners in U.S. detention centers overseas. To date, the government has released over 100,000 pages of documents. These documents reveal that hundreds of prisoners were tortured in the custody of the CIA and Department of Defense, and that the torture policies were devised and developed at the highest levels of the Bush administration.
“All our victims and survivors of torture are over there.” -Steven Watt
THE UNITED STATES, SOUTH AMERICA AND TORTURE. 8:16
In this segment, attorney Steven Watt, compares Operation Condor, to the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, drawing out similarities and differences between past right wing South American dictatorships' use of torture and intimidation with American uses of torture after 9/11. Operation Condor was a program of terror and cooperation between many South American countries (Argentina, Chili, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay) to target, torture and execute leftists including students, activists, politicians and labor organizers.