THE RULE OF LAW ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

The Rule of Law Oral History Project Compilation Reel

This compilation video presents selections from the Rule of Law Oral History Project's oral history interviews in London in the summer of 2011 with former Guantánamo detainees Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg, as well as with Cageprisoners Executive Director Asim Qureshi and attorney Gareth Peirce.

Feroz Ali Abbasi

Feroz Ali Abbasi is a Caseworker at Cageprisoners. He was imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay from January 2002 until his transfer to Britain in 2005, and now works to provide legal support, advocacy, and consultation for victims of torture, rendition, and detention without due process around the world. 

Moazzam Begg

Moazzam Begg is the Director of Cageprisoners, a human rights and legal advocacy organization in the United Kingdom that works on behalf of prisoners in Guantánamo Bay and other detainees of the War on Terror. He was detained at Guantánamo Bay for two years and released in 2005 without ever being charged with a crime. 

Cerie Bullivant

Cerie Bullivant is a Caseworker Intern at Cageprisoners. A convert to Islam, Mr. Bullivant was placed under a control order by the UK government for suspicion of terrorism activities. For two years, he was forced to wear an electronic tag and report daily to the police until the High Court dropped all charges against him. 

Daniel Heyman

Daniel Heyman journeyed through Jordan and Turkey with an American lawyer to witness interviews with former Iraqi detainees released by the American military. The Abu Ghraib Detainee Interview Project is a collection of portraits and testimonies from the released prisoners, and is one of Heyman's many projects involving the War on Terror, torture, and the rule of law. 

Ramzi Kassem

Ramzi Kassem is an Assistant Professor at the CUNY School of Law and the Director of the Immigrant and Non-Citizens Rights Clinic, through which he and his students represent individuals detained during the "war on terror," including prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram, and black sites around the world such as Shaker Aamer, Ahmed Zuhair, and Amin al-Bakri. 

Pardiss Kebriaei

Pardiss Kebriaei is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where she has brought cases against the U.S. government for the deaths of American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen, as well as for the indefinite detention of men at Guantánamo Bay.

Robert C. Kirsch

Robert C. Kirsch is a Partner at WilmerHale and the attorney for the Guantánamo Bay prisoners known as the "Algerian Six": Mustafa Ait Idir, Belkacem Bensayah, Hajj Boudella, Lakhdar Boumediene, Sabir Lahmar, and Mohammed Nechle. In the Supreme Court case Boumediene v. Bush, Mr. Kirsch and co-lead counsel Stephen Oleskey successfully argued for the release of five of the six men. 

Gareth Peirce

Gareth Peirce is a human rights solicitor and journalist based in London, England who represented Guantánamo Bay detainees the Ruhal Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul, and Asif Iqbal, also known as the "Tipton Three," and Moazzam Begg, and continues her work advocating for justice in cases of the wrongfully accused.

Asim Qureshi

Asim Qureshi is a lawyer and the Executive Director of Cageprisoners. He has devoted his career to investigating cases of unjust detention and abusive treatment of prisoners in the War on Terror, and travels the world to spread Cageprisoner’s message to the public.

Michael Ratner

Michael Ratner is the President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, an advocacy organization that has been at the forefront of civil and human rights issues since its founding in 1966. Mr. Ratner is a prominent figure in CCR's legal representation of individuals detained at Guantánamo Bay. 

Steven Reisner

A New York-based psychologist and anti-torture activist, Dr. Steven Reisner is the psychological ethics advisor at Physicians for Human Rights, a faculty member of both Columbia University Teachers College and New York University School of Medicine and a founding member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology.