NEW YORK - October 12 - The American Civil Liberties Union, PEN American Center and the Cooper Union will present Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the "War on Terror," an evening of readings calling attention to acts of torture and abuse carried out by the United States under the Bush administration. The event, featuring a former CIA officer, a former senior military interrogator, writers and artists will take place on Tuesday, October 13 at 7:00 p.m. EDT at Cooper Union's Great Hall in New York City.

Among the documents to be read are autopsy reports concluding that numerous prisoners in U.S. custody died as a result of harsh interrogations; memos authorizing waterboarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions and other torture techniques; detainee Abu Zubaydah's first-hand description of these practices and a minute-by-minute account of the 2002 torture of Mohammed al-Qahtani, which took place over six weeks in 2002. Never-before-seen video excerpts of former Guantánamo detainees talking about their captivity will be screened between readings.

The documents were made public by the ACLU's ongoing litigation for documents related to the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody abroad. Last week, a federal judge in New York ruled that more government documents describing "enhanced interrogation techniques" authorized for use by the CIA, as well as documents describing the contents of destroyed videotapes depicting CIA interrogations, could remain secret.

"President Obama has spoken eloquently about the importance of restoring America's moral authority abroad. Restoring that moral authority, though, will require restoring the rule of law at home, and restoring the rule of law at home will require finally confronting the gross human rights abuses of the last administration," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "Reckoning with Torture will contribute to that crucial process and underscore the pressing need for accountability."

"Both PEN and the ACLU believe writers have a crucial role to play in examining crimes committed in the name of their country and in helping the nation face, understand and reckon with these terrible acts," said Anthony Appiah, President of PEN American Center. "Writers around the world have been active not only in exposing such crimes but also winning accountability for such abuses."

WHAT: Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the "War on Terror," an evening of readings from recently released secret documents that have brought these abuses to light - memos, declassified communications and testimonies by detainees.

WHO:

• Opening and closing remarks from Anthony Appiah, President of PEN American Center and Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project
• Readings by authors Jonathan Ames, Paul Auster, Ishmael Beah, Don DeLillo, Eve Ensler, Nell Freudenberger, A.M. Homes, Susanna Moore, George Saunders and Art Spiegelman; Matthew Alexander, former U.S. interrogator and author of How to Break a Terrorist; David Cole, constitutional law professor; Jack Rice, former CIA officer; and Amrit Singh, Senior Legal Officer for the National Security and Counterterrorism program at the Open Society Justice Initiative
• Visual presentation by artist Jenny Holzer of artwork based on declassified government documents, including billboard-sized banners hung on the exterior of Cooper Union's Great Hall. Images will include redacted hand prints of U.S. soldiers accused of crimes in Iraq and postmortem identifications of prisoners who died while in custody

WHEN: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 7:00 p.m. EDT
WHERE: The Great Hall at Cooper Union 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue New York, NY
ADMISSION: $15/$10 for PEN/ACLU members and students with a valid ID. Tickets are available through www.smarttix.com or (212) 868-4444. They may also be purchased at the door. Seating is by general admission, on a first-come, first-served basis. For press inquiries, please contact the ACLU.