Oral history interview with Zachary P. Katznelson, 2013.

Biographical Note

Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU.

Scope and Contents

Born: 1973, New York, NY. Education: B.A., History/Public Policy, Brown University; J.D., New York University [NYU] School of Law. Career: intern, United States Congressman Jerrold Nadler; lawyer, Louisiana Capital Assistance Center [LCAC]; senior counsel, Reprieve; senior staff attorney; American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU]. Reminiscences: childhood in New York City and Chicago and parents' involvement in social and political issues; internship with Jerrold Nadler and introduction to political processes; death penalty defense work in South with Clive Stafford Smith and LCAC; work with Equal Justice Initiative; clerkship with chief judge Marilyn Hall Patel in California; introduction to American prison system as a lawyer for Prison Law Office; personal experience of 9/11. Discussions: Guantánamo security clearance process; travel to and meetings with detainees at Guantánamo Bay; suspicion of surveillance by U.S. military on meetings with Guantánamo detainees; conditions of California prisons versus Guantánamo; experience as a Jewish lawyer defending Muslim detainees; CIA kidnapping of terror suspects and interrogation tactics at Guantánamo and other black sites; censorship of communication between detainees and their families; detainee resettlements and readjustments following release from Guantánamo; procedural differences between Reprieve and ACLU; CIA secret surveillance and censorship of Guantánamo courtroom proceedings; difference between military and civilian courts in terrorism cases; current conditions at Guantánamo; Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. as key orchestrator of U.S. torture program; Obama administration's failure to close Guantánamo and clandestine proliferation of war on terror; Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] court and public privacy awareness; U.S. government's inaccurate narrative on cyber terrorism and security. Cases discussed: A&M Records v. Napster; Boumediene v. Bush; Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan Inc.

Subjects

• Civil rights lawyers--United States--Interviews.
• Criminal defense lawyers.
• Detention of persons--Government policy--United States.
• Grele, Ronald, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Guantánamo Bay oral history project.
• Habeas corpus--United States.
• Interviews.
• Katznelson, Zachary P., 1973---Interviews.
• Military interrogation.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Prisoners of war--Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.
• Rule of law--United States.
• Terrorism (International law)
• Torture--Government policy--United States.
• Unlawful combatants--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
• War on Terrorism, 2001-2009.

Access Conditions

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