The John Adams Project was established by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to "support military counsel at Guantanamo Bay." The United States government has detained hundreds of men at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp following the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan.
On November 13, 2009, with the U.S. Justice Department's announcement that the cases for five high value detainees will be transferred to federal court, the ACLU announced that the John Adams Project will be formally discontinued.
CIA photos controversy
In August 2009 claims were made that three military lawyers associated with the project had shown pictures of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers to their clients, Guantanamo captives. The captives were among the "high value detainee" program who had spent years in secret CIA interrogation centers.
The photos were taken of the CIA officers when they were in public.
Joshua Dratel, one of the officers of the Project, defended the actions of the attorneys saying "If you get information in the public record, it doesn't become classified just because the government feels it is embarrassing or that they would prefer you not to show it to anyone. There is no prohibition on gathering public-source information and showing it to your client."
On January 23, 2012, an investigation by the Department of Justice in the northern district of Virginia cleared the defense lawyers of wrongdoing.
References
- ^ Peter Finn (August 21, 2009). "Detainees Shown CIA Officers' Photos". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 5, 2010.
- ^ Daphne Eviator (August 21, 2009). "Did Gitmo Defense Lawyer Break Any Laws?". Washington Independent. Archived from the original on January 4, 2010.
- "The John Adams Project: Representation of Guantanamo 'High Value' Detainees". American Civil Liberties Union. 2008. Archived from the original on May 26, 2009.
- "John Adams Project: Seeking Justice in the Military Commissions Proceedings". American Civil Liberties Union. 2008. Archived from the original on August 12, 2009.
- Kim Zetter (August 21, 2009). "Guantanamo Defense Lawyers Being Investigated Over CIA Photos". Wired magazine. Archived from the original on August 23, 2009.
- ^
Charlie Savage (August 21, 2009). "Detainees Said to Be Shown Photos of C.I.A. Agents". The New York Times.
As part of that effort, called the John Adams Project, researchers have been trying to identify which C.I.A. officials participated in harsh interrogations of the detainees under the Bush administration's program of secret C.I.A. prisons. President George W. Bush ordered the Qaeda suspects transferred to the prison at the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006.
- "9/11 Defendants to be Tried in Federal Court". American Civil Liberties Union. November 15, 2009.
- American Civil Liberties Union (Press Release) (January 23, 2012). "ACLU Attorneys Cleared of Any Wrongdoing in Guantánamo Photograph Investigation". aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
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