The Rule of Law Oral History Project
The Rule of Law Oral History Project, initiated in 2008, explores the state of human and civil rights in the post-9/11 world. In its first year, the project conducted a series of interviews with attorneys in order to document legal challenges against capital punishment in the United States. Recognizing important intersections between litigation challenging the administration of capital punishment and the legal architecture of post-9/11 detention policies and practices, the Rule of Law Oral History Project expanded in 2010 to study the statutory and constitutional challenges of the use of the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.
Select interviews from the project are featured here.
Dan Aalbers
Psychologist and Activist, Coalition for an Ethical Psychology
Ghislaine Boulanger
Psychologist; co-founder of Psychologists for an Ethical APA
Richard H. Burr
Burr and Welch P.C.; Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel
Mark Fallon
Deputy Commander, Criminal Investigation Task Force
Elizabeth Holtzman
U.S. Congresswoman, D-New York, 1973-1981
Ramzi Kassem
Associate Professor, CUNY School of Law; attorney for several GTMO detainees
Brittain Mallow
Commander, Criminal Investigation Task Force
A. Raymond Randolph
Senior Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Clive Stafford Smith
Director, Reprieve; Attorney for several GTMO detainees
Jeremy Varon
Witness Against Torture; co-editor, The Sixties journal
Andy Worthington
Journalist and author, The Guantánamo Files
Feroz Ali Abassi
Cageprisoners Caseworker; former Guantánamo detainee
Yvonne R. Bradley
Defense Counsel, Judge Advocate General Corps, U.S. Air Force
V. Stuart Couch
Prosecutor, Guantánamo Bay Military Commissions
Karen J. Greenberg
Director, Center on National Security, Fordham Law School
Scott Horton
Journalist, "No Comment" blog, Harper's Magazine
Zachary P. Katznelson
Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project
Jane Mayer
Author, The Dark Side; staff writer, The New Yorker
Michael Ratner
President Emeritus, Center for Constitutional Rights
John Paul Stevens
Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Retired
Lawrence B. Wilkerson
Former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
Stephen N. Xenakis
Psychiatrist; Brigadier General, U.S. Army, Retired
Anthony G. Amsterdam
University Professor, New York University School of Law
Stephen B. Bright
President and Senior Counsel, the Southern Center for Human Rights
Morris D. Davis
Chief Prosecutor, Guantánamo Bay Military Commissions
Daniel Heyman
Artist, Abu Ghraib Detainee Interview Project
Jameel Jaffer
Deputy Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union
Pardiss Kebriaei
Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
Gareth Peirce
Attorney for Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, and Rhuhel Ahmed
Steven Reisner
Psychologist and Activist, Coalition for an Ethical Psychology
Charles D. Swift
Military Defense Attorney for Salim Hamdan, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
P. Sabin Willett
Attorney for Uighur detainees at GTMO
Moazzam Begg
Cageprisoners Director; former Guantánamo detainee
Cerie Bullivant
Cageprisoners Caseworker Intern; former control order detainee
Joshua L. Dratel
Attorney for Guantánamo detainee David Hicks
Joseph P. Hoar
Former Commander-in-Chief, United States Central Command [CENTCOM]
Shane Kadidal
Senior Managing Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
Robert C. Kirsch
Co-lead Counsel, Boumediene v. Bush; Partner, WilmerHale
Asim Qureshi
Cageprisoners Executive Director and Research Director
James Robertson
Senior Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Retired
Ricardo M. Urbina
Senior Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Retired
Thomas B. Wilner
Attorney for Kuwaiti detainees at GTMO