Talk by Frank Goldsmith – “Seeking Truth and Transparency: North Carolina’s Role in US Torture”

Retired civil rights attorney Frank Goldsmith, co-chair of the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT), will give a free public talk at noon on Thursday, Nov. 8, in Karpen Hall, Laurel Forum. This event is presented by UNC Asheville’s new minor in Human Rights Studies.

NCCIT provides this description:

In the years following 9/11, North Carolina was used as a staging ground to launch flights that picked up suspected terrorists abroad and transported them to CIA “black sites” and third-party countries where they were illegally detained and tortured. Declassified documents and news reports have confirmed that the CIA front company Aero Contractors, which is headquartered in the state, used North Carolina’s aviation infrastructure and public airports to launch these “torture taxi” flights in support of the United States’ Rendition, Detention and Interrogation (RDI) program.

The North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT) is a non-profit organization dedicated to investigating and establishing public accountability for the role that North Carolina’s government and state resources played in helping to facilitate the U.S. torture program. Following a series of public hearings, NCCIT recently released its comprehensive and well-documented report.

Frank Goldsmith serves as Co-Chair of the Commission.  He is a military veteran and retired civil rights lawyer who currently works as a mediator and arbitrator throughout Western North Carolina.  From 2007 to 2014, he represented several prisoners held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.