Scott Horton
Thursday, February 14th, 2008The other Scott Horton (no relation), heroic anti-torture human rights lawyer, Columbia University lecturer and noted author of the blog “No Comment” at Harper’s magazine, discusses the erosion of the rule of law as binding on government power, the Senate’s attempt to push back by again outlawing torture, Justice Scalia’s scandalous view of “’so-called’ torture,” the Taxi to the Dark Side, the “Kubark technique” of sensory deprivation/overload, the innocence of 92% of the Guantanamo detainees, hopes that the next administration will undo the Bush/Cheney torture policy, the difficulty of getting rid of the neocons like Cheney’s lawyer Jim Haynes, the military tribunal system, the persecution by the Justice Department of political opponents of the GOP and their refusal to prosecute rapes and murders committed by contractors in Iraq.
MP3 here. (44:23)
Scott Horton is a contributing editor at Harper’s magazine and pens the blog No Comment. A New York attorney known for his work in emerging markets and international law, especially human rights law and the law of armed conflict, Horton lectures at Columbia Law School. A life-long human rights advocate, Scott served as counsel to Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner, among other activists in the former Soviet Union. He is a co-founder of the American University in Central Asia, and has been involved in some of the most significant foreign investment projects in the Central Eurasian region. Scott recently led a number of studies of abuse issues associated with the conduct of the war on terror for the New York City Bar Association, where he has chaired several committees, including, most recently, the Committee on International Law. He is also a member of the board of the National Institute of Military Justice, the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, the EurasiaGroup and the American Branch of the International Law Association.