Tina Monshipour Foster in 2008 Tina Monshipour Foster is an

Iranian-American Iranian-Americans, also known as Persian-Americans, are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry, or who hold Iranian citizenship. Most Iranian-Americans arrived in the United States after 1979, as a result of the Irani ...

lawyer and director of the

International Justice Network The International Justice Network (IJNetwork) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protection of human rights and the rule of law throughout the world. They provide direct legal assistance to victims of human rights abuses through a global net ...

Legal career

Prior to working in the field of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

, Foster worked at Clifford Chance LLP in New York City. She later worked for the

Center for Constitutional Rights The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR; formerly Law Center for Constitutional Rights) is an American progressive non-profit legal advocacy organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1966 by lawyers William Kunstler, Arthur Kin ...

(CCR) on Guantanamo Bay cases and is one of the plaintiffs in CCR v. Bush, filed on July 9, 2007. Four other individuals filed this suit. Foster and her colleagues sued the US government objecting to the government's interception of their mail, email and phone calls. In 2006 Foster started

( IJNetwork) placing focus on detainees held without charge, incommunicado in Bagram Prison in Afghanistan.

Human rights

Foster submitted a writ of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...

Ruzatullah v. Robert Gates -- 06-CV-01707 on behalf of Ruzatullah a captive held in the

Bagram Theater internment facility The Parwan Detention Facility (also called Detention Facility in Parwan or Bagram prison) is Afghanistan's main military prison. Situated next to the Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, the prison was built by the U.S. during ...

. The ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' reported on June 29, 2008 on comments Foster made about

Jawed Ahmad Jawed Ahmad (1986 – March 10, 2009) also known as "Jojo" was an Afghan reporter working for Canadian media outlet CTV who was arrested by American troops and declared an enemy combatant, while working with NATO at Kandahar Airport on October 26, ...

's detention in Bagram. On July 20, 2008, Reuters reported the outrage Human Rights organizations are expressing over the seizing of journalists in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the " War on Terror". Foster was quoted as saying "there were no charges against Jawed, who was wounded while serving with U.S. Special Forces. He has not been accused of any crime either under U.S. law, Afghan law or international law," adding that "Jawed, like other detainees held by U.S., was regarded by Washington as an "enemy combatant". Foster, executive director for International Justice Network, said there were no charges against Jawed, who was wounded while serving with U.S. Special Forces.

Comments on the new plans for Bagram review

On September 12, 2009 it was widely reported that unnamed officials told

Eric Schmitt Eric Stephen Schmitt (born June 20, 1975) is an American politician and attorney serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Missouri since 2023. A member of the Republican Party ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' that the Obama administration was going to introduce new procedures that would allow the captives held in Bagram, and elsewhere in Afghanistan, to have their detention reviewed. Josh Gerstein, of

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...

, reported that Foster, who represents four Bagram captives, was critical of the new rules:

Comments on the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on torture

On December 15, 2014, the ''

'' published an op-ed by Foster after the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

Intelligence Committee published a 600-page unclassified summary of its classified report on the CIA's use of torture. Foster described how the report devoted a whole section to the CIA's torture of one of her clients,

Redha al-Najar Redha al-Najar (born 1966) is a citizen of Tunisia who was held in US custody in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility. He is notable for being one of a very small number of the detainees held in Bagram to have had a writ of habeas corpus subm ...

. She listed all the torture techniques the CIA used on him, and asserted that the CIA tortured him for nearly 700 days.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Tina Monshipour Guantanamo Bay attorneys Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)