Oral history interview with Pardiss Kebriaei, 2013.

Biographical Note

Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights.

Scope and Contents

Born: Iran. Education: Music, Middle East Studies, Northwestern University; University of Pennsylvania Law School. Career: lawyer, Center for Reproductive Rights; Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights [CCR]; adjunct lecturer, Brooklyn College. Reminiscences: early life in Oklahoma and Texas; music education on cello; decision to pursue law instead of music; learning about extrajudicial detentions as attorney for CCR's Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative. Discussions: 2010 Harper's article by Scott Horton regarding Guantánamo detainee deaths; working with and representing family of Yasser Talal al Zahrani; President Obama's signing of National Defense Authorization Act and failure to close Guantánamo; Obama administration's drone policy in Middle East and Africa; invasive detainee searches; February 2013 hunger strike at Guantánamo and physical effects on detainees; public awareness of hunger strikes; President Obama's May 2013 speech at National Defense University; remaining Guantánamo detainees' prospects for release; deaths of Guantánamo detainees Adnan Latif, Yasser Talal al Zahrani, Sala al Salami, Mani al Utaybi; “right-to-truth” petitioning process of Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; 2011 drone killings of U.S. citizens Anwar and Abdulrahman al Awlaki, and Samir Khan; detention, release and resettlement of Muhammed and Abdul Nasser Khan Tumani; future of Guantánamo Bay detention facility and war on terror. Cases discussed: Muhammaed Taher; Nasser al-Awlaki; Ghaleb al Bihani; Rasul v. Bush; Al-Zahrani v. Rumsfeld; Boumediene v. Bush.

Subjects

• Briand, David, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Civil rights lawyers--United States--Interviews.
• Detention of persons--Government policy--United States.
• Guantánamo Bay oral history project.
• Habeas corpus--United States.
• Interviews.
• Kebriaei, Pardiss--Interviews.
• Military interrogation.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Prisoners of war--Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.
• Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Organization)
• Rule of law--United States.
• Solis, Gabriel Daniel, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Torture--Government policy--United States.
• Unlawful combatants--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
• War on Terrorism, 2001-2009.

Access Conditions

Copyright by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2013.