Drones, Detention, and the World-Wide "War on Terror"
Speaker: Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project.
Abstract
Days after 9/11, the U.S. Congress enacted the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), permitting the use of military force against those responsible for terrorist attacks that had killed more than 3,000 Americans.
Almost a decade later, the Obama administration interprets the AUMF to allow the military detention of hundreds of prisoners 鈥� including Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen 鈥� and to allow the 鈥渢argeted killing鈥� of suspected terrorists 鈥� including Americans 鈥� found far from any conventional battlefield.
Is the United States fighting a 鈥渨ar on terror鈥�?聽 If it is, where is the battlefield?聽 Who are the enemies?聽 And when will the war end?
About the speaker
Jameel Jaffer directs the ACLU's National Security Project, which litigates civil liberties and human rights cases relating to detention, surveillance, censorship, discrimination, and secrecy.
Among the Project's current cases are Amnesty v. Blair, a challenge to warrantless wiretapping under the amended Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; Mohamed v. Jeppesen, a suit against a Boeing subsidiary that facilitated the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program; Kindhearts v. Paulson, a challenge to the Treasury Department's blacklisting of a prominent U.S.-based charity as a "specially designated terrorist organization"; and ACLU v. Department of Defense, landmark litigation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that has resulted in the release of thousands of documents concerning the abuse of prisoners held by the U.S. overseas.
Mr. Jaffer has testified before the U.S. Congress about civil liberties issues relating to national security, and his co-authored book, Administration of Torture, an edited collection of government documents relating to the abuse of prisoners, was published by Columbia University Press in 2007.
He is a graduate of Williams College, Cambridge University, and Harvard Law School. Before joining the staff of the ACLU in 2002, he served as law clerk to Hon. Amalya L. Kearse, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and to Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada.
Attendance of this conference provides 1.5 hours of continuing legal education hours to members of the Quebec Bar, as per the Bar's mandatory professional training requirements. Barreau activity no. 10019375.