IHRC to Host Free Teleconference: the CIA and the Use of Torture to Combat Terrorism

On Monday, October 26, from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. EST, the International Human Rights Committee will host a free teleconference on the CIA and the use of torture to combat terrorism. The teleconference will discuss CIA interrogation tactics and whether they constitute torture, as well as the relationship between torture and the rule of law in the context of CIA liability.

Panel members for this teleconference include:

• Mike Pheneger: Mike Pheneger, Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.), represents Florida on the ACLU's National Board and serves on the ACLU's National Executive Committee. Colonel Pheneger spent 30 years on active duty as a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer and served multiple Vietnam tours, retiring in 1993. He also served as an intelligence staff officer at the U.S. European Command and on the Army staff. He currently teaches courses on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, terrorism, and geopolitical issues for the University of South Florida's Learning in Retirement Program. He holds a B.A. in History from Bowling Green State University (Ohio) and an M.P.A. from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, the Command & Staff Course, U.S. Naval War College, and the Military Intelligence Officer's Advanced Course.

• Hina Shamsi: Hina Shamsi is Senior Advisor to the Project on Extrajudicial Executions at NYU School of Law. Previously, Ms. Shamsi was a Staff Attorney with the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. She is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and Mount Holyoke College.

• Stephen I. Vladeck: Stephen I. Vladeck is a Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law, where his teaching and research focus on federal jurisdiction, national security law, constitutional law (especially the separation of powers), and international criminal law. Professor Vladeck was part of the legal team that successfully challenged the Bush Administration’s use of military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006), and has co-authored amicus briefs in a host of other lawsuits challenging the U.S. government’s surveillance and detention of terrorism suspects. Professor Vladeck earned a B.A. summa cum laude in History and Mathematics from Amherst College in 2001 and graduated from Yale Law School in 2004. He clerked for the Honorable Marsha S. Berzon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

• Ben Wizner: Ben Wizner has been a staff attorney at the ACLU since 2001, specializing in national security, human rights, and first amendment issues. He has been involved in numerous post-9/11 civil liberties cases, including challenges to the CIA's extraordinary rendition program; lawsuits aimed at exposing FBI and Pentagon surveillance of non-violent protestors; and suits challenging unlawful airport security policies. He has traveled to Guantanamo Bay to observe and report on Military Commission trials. Wizner was a law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is a graduate of Harvard College and New York University School of Law.

To participate in the free teleconference, please use the following call-in information:

Dial-in Number: 1-219-509-8111

Participant Access Code: 153417

Participants who join the call are muted but may unmute themselves during the question and answer portion of the teleconference. It is important to remain on mute while not speaking to avoid complications with feedback. The teleconference is limited to 150 participants, so please join us early to ensure your participation.