Dinner Table Discussion

The Military Commissions Act of 2006

Katherine Newell Bierman

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, in which Congress authorized a revised version of the military commissions established by the Administration to try war crimes suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The legislation followed the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld which struck down the previous commissions as unauthorized by Congress and illegal under U.S. and international law. Though its title refers to military commissions, the new legislation also affects an array of important issues that include the criminal liability of government officials who mistreat terrorism suspects in detention or during interrogation.

Katherine Newell Bierman is the Counsel on Counterterrorism for the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch. She is an expert on the laws of war and frequently comments on U.S. counterterrorism and human rights policy in the media and provides technical assistance to policymakers. Most recently, she appeared on The O'Reilly Factor and before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Armed Services. She went to Guantánamo Bay three times in 2006 to observe military commission hearings. Prior to law school, Ms. Newell Bierman served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where she reached the grade of Captain (O-3).