Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror”

I hope you’ll join me next Tuesday, October 13 for an extraordinary event in New York City.

Writers and artists including Eve Ensler, Don DeLillo, Jonathan Ames, George Saunders, Ishmael Beah and Jenny Holzer will join me and others as we read from recently released torture documents — memos, declassified communications and testimonials by detainees — many of which have been unearthed through the ACLU’s ongoing litigation for information about treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror” will take place Tuesday, October 13 at 7:00 pm at Cooper Union’s Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street at Third Ave in Manhattan.

Tickets are $10 for ACLU members.

With your help, the ACLU — through lawsuits and public pressure — has uncovered thousands of pages of government documents to learn the full scope of the Bush administration’s torture program. The remarkable thing, however, is not how much information has been released, but how much is still being withheld — and how little has been done to hold accountable the officials who put the torture program in place.

Tuesday’s event is the result of an ACLU partnership with the PEN American Center to promote awareness of acts of torture and abuse carried out by the U.S. under the Bush administration. This unique event will feature readings from distinguished writers and artists, as well as a former military interrogator and a former CIA agent. Readers will include Anthony Appiah, Matthew Alexander, Jonathan Ames, Paul Auster, Ishmael Beah, David Cole, Don DeLillo, Eve Ensler, Nell Freudenberger, A.M. Homes, Susanne Moore, Jack Rice, George Saunders, Amrit Singh, and Art Spiegelman.

The program will also feature never-before-seen video interviews with former Guantánamo detainees, and a visual component — created specifically for the event — by noted American artist Jenny Holzer. Holzer’s imagery incorporating U.S. government documents will be integrated throughout the evening’s program.

For more information and tickets, click here. It will be an extraordinary evening, and I hope to see you there.

Sincerely,
Jameel Jaffer
Director, National Security Project
American Civil Liberties Union