CCR Condemns Manning Sentence, Whistleblower Should Have Never Been Prosecuted
The following is a press release issued by the Center for Constitutional Rights in response to today’s sentencing of Bradley Manning. We are outraged that a whistleblower and a patriot has been sentenced on a conviction under the Espionage Act. The government has stretched this archaic and discredited law to
CCR Applauds Manning Acquittal on Aiding the Enemy Charge but Condemns Verdict, Questions Future of First Amendment
Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) released the following statement in response to the verdict in the trial of Bradley Manning: While the “aiding the enemy” charges (on which Manning was rightly acquitted) received the most attention from the mainstream media, the Espionage Act itself is a discredited relic
One Thousand Days Too Many
By Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights America, Bradley Manning stood up for your right to know what the government does in your name and with your tax dollars. The truth was ugly, eye-opening, embarrassing for the Bush and Obama administrations alike. It also came at a
Solitary Confinement Is Torture
by Nahal Zamani, Advocacy Program Manager at the Center for Constitutional Rights. This week, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced that it will launch an assessment of its use of solitary confinement in the U.S. prison system, amid growing scrutiny of the practice. The use of solitary confinement is nothing
Freedom or Death at Guantánamo
by Omar Farah, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Adnan Latif and Mohammed al-Hamiri arrived at Guantánamo through strikingly similar twists of fate. Adnan Latif is the most recent of nine men – four since President Obama took office – to die in U.S. custody at Guantánamo. Mohammed
WikiLeaks: Still Standing, Still Speaking Truth to Power
Despite efforts to silence their publisher-in-chief and his confinement to the embassy in London, a crippling financial blockade, and the silence of the major media who once partnered with WikiLeaks and still use their material, the transparency group continues providing civilians all over the world with an honest record of what their governments do in their name.
The Michigan Law that Wouldn’t Die
By Nahal Zamani, Advocacy Program Manager, Center for Constitutional Rights Michigan voters spoke loud and clear last month when they repealed their state’s Emergency Manager Law. They said no to unconstitutional power grabs, where unelected appointees can unilaterally rule over entire towns or even dissolve them. But, true to form,
Breaking Private Manning
For almost three years Manning has endured intense physical and mental pressure, all designed to force him to implicate WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange in an alleged conspiracy to commit espionage. It is also a message to would-be whistleblowers: the U.S. government will not be gentle.
Torture Survivors Ask the UN: What’s the Point of Having Laws Against Torture if They Don’t Apply to the Powerful?
By Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights One thing brings these four men together. Hassan bin Attash, Sami el-Hajj, Muhammed Khan Tumani and Murat Kurnaz—they are all survivors of the systematic torture program the Bush administration authorized and carried out in locations including Afghanistan, Iraq,
Let’s Get to Work
by Vincent Warren, Executive Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights Two big things happened in the last week, and they’re both going to require our attention for the next four years and beyond: the national election repudiated religious conservatives and handed Obama a second term, and Hurricane Sandy destroyed