In ACLU Ad, Retired Navy Admiral Says U.S. Breaking Rules

Asks How Can We Uphold the Rule of Law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK–The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the release of a dramatic new print advertisement featuring retired U.S. Navy Admiral John Hutson in the latest installment of the ACLU’s “Scrapbook for Freedom” campaign.

“This first-ever branding campaign is part of an overall effort to inform the public about who the ACLU really is: an organization committed to defending fundamental American values for more than 80 years,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero.

In the new print ad, Hutson is featured with the headline, “How can we fight to uphold the rule of law if we break the rules ourselves?”

“Today we are conducting the war against terrorism in a manner that is inimical to those values of freedom and justice,” Hutson says in the ad. “It is weakening our cause at home and around the world. We have abused prisoners in Iraq in a most horrific way. We are holding, indefinitely, hundreds of individuals from more than 40 countries as captives at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without charges or trial. Fortunately, the American Civil Liberties Union is speaking out for American values.”

The ACLU’s Romero said the campaign “aims to promote a public debate about proposals and measures that violate civil liberties without increasing our security.

“Debating and criticizing government actions can only make liberty stronger, not weaker,” Romero said.

The Hutson ad is slated to appear in The New York Times Magazine on June 20 and the Economist on June 26.

Other advertisements in the “Scrapbook for Freedom” campaign feature authors Kurt Vonnegut and Sara Paretsky; actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Kristin Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Martin Sheen, Al Pacino, Richard Dreyfuss, La Tanya Richardson, Wendie Malick, Katey Sagal, Fran Drescher, John Cusack, Hector Elizondo, Alec Baldwin, Gary Dourdan, Melissa Gilbert, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, William Hurt and Taye Diggs; directors Richard Masur and Spike Lee; performers Michael Stipe of REM, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks and Moby; publisher Larry Flynt and skateboard champion Natas Kapas.

The ad can be viewed online at /files/images/client/hutson.jpg