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This week’s speaker spotlight is on Joanne Mariner and Alexander Cockburn, both of whom will be speaking at our upcoming June 6-8 conference “Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties.”

Joanne Mariner is one of the most impressive people I have ever met in my life. A graduate of Yale Law School, she serves as the terrorism and counterterrorism program director at Human Rights Watch. Her articles and reports have documented war crimes in Colombia, Kosovo, and Darfur, political violence in Haiti, and rape in American prisoners.

Joanne has been at the forefront of exposing and opposing the CIA’s program of kidnapping, rendition, and torture and the Pentagon’s operations at Guantanamo Bay. I personally make it point every morning to visit findlaw.com to see if Joanne, who publishes there regularly, has a new article.

What amazes me is that this woman does not simply base her articles and reports on what she reads in the press. Whether it’s interviewing prison rapists, Darfur rebels, or Jordanian torture victims, Joanne, who is fluent in French and Spanish, is there in person, risking her well-being in the relentless pursuit of truth.

Joanne’s most recent report was just published by Human Rights Watch: “Double Jeopardy: CIA Renditions to Jordan,” which documents CIA secret transfers of prisoners to Jordan for the purpose of torture.

To get a sense of what kind of life this woman lives, read her article “We’ll Make You See Death,” which details some of her precarious experiences investigating torture by Jordanian officials.

At last year’s conference, you could hear a pin drop during Joanne’s talk. No doubt it will be the same this year.

Alexander Cockburn is co-editor of Counterpunch.org, another website that I make a point to visit every single morning. Counterpunch’s authors are passionate defenders of civil liberties and unrelenting foes of empire and intervention.

For many years, Alexander wrote for the Village Voice, and his articles have appeared in such publications as the New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and the Wall Street Journal (where he had a regular column from 1980 to 1990).

Alexander is the author or co-author of several books, including Corruptions of Empire; Washington Babylon; Whiteout; The CIA, Drugs and the Press; The Politics of Anti-Semitism; Imperial Crusades; Al Gore, A User’s Manual; and A Dime’s Worth of Difference.

To register for the conference, go to our conference website or call us at 703-934-6101. Remember to make your hotel reservations at the Hyatt Regency Reston after you register for the conference; be sure to mention the FFF conference to secure the special discounted rate of $149 per night, which is incredibly cheap for a Hyatt in the D.C. area in June.

Don’t delay! Register today!

Sincerely,
Jacob Hornberger
President
The Future of Freedom Foundation
www.fff.org

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