Civil Liberties 10 Years After 9/11 - Can We Be Both Safe and Free?

On the evening of September 11, 2001, President Bush addressed the nation. “Our country is strong,” he stated. “Terrorist acts can shake the foundation of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.”

Our choice is not, as some would have it, between safety and freedom. Just the opposite is true. As President Obama recognized in a 2009 speech, “our values have been our best national security asset—in war and peace; in times of ease and in eras of upheaval.” Yet, our government’s policies and practices during the past decade have too often betrayed our values and undermined our security.

The ACLU of Oregon is co-sponsoring a forum to discuss the threat to our civil liberties caused by the prior and current administration’s systematic policies of torture and targeted killing, extraordinary rendition and warrantless wiretaps, military commissions and indefinite detention, political surveillance and religious discrimination - policies which have dubious or no value in preserving our safety and national security.

Panelists include: Steven Wax, Federal Public Defender, who has represented a number of Guantánamo detainees; Steven Goldberg, a National Lawyers Guild attorney whose litigation uncovered the NSA warrantless wiretapping program; Brandon Mayfield, a local Muslim attorney falsely accused and imprisoned on terrorism charges; and Kayse Jama, director of the Center for Intercultural Organization.

Panelists will also highlight ongoing efforts by the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild and others to uncover such abuses and hold those responsible accountable in the legal courts and the court of public opinion.

This forum is FREE and open to the public.