Coordinating Counterterrorism to Be Explored by Top Experts at NYU Global Conference

After May 23, Joan Dim, Grande Hotel Minerva, Florence, 39 055 272 30 or Serena Burgisser, Florence, 39 055 500 7258

To be held in Florence, Italy, May 26-28

Florence, Italy (May 26-28, 2005)—-The world’s top experts in counterterrorism—judges, prosecutors, legal experts, scholars, policymakers, journalists, and law enforcement officials—will convene for three days of intense policy discussions in Florence, Italy. The event will be held from Thursday, May 26, to Saturday, May 28, 2005.

The annual conference, mounted by NYU School of Law’s Center on Law and Security, is entitled, “Prosecuting Terrorism: The Global Challenge.” This year’s topic is Coordinating Counterterrorism. The conference marks the first time that principals in both the Bush and Clinton administrations discuss major aspects of terrorism and law enforcement. Among the topics to be discussed are law enforcement policy in the Muslim communities of England, France, and the United States; Chechnya and the New Terrorism; Spain and Morocco; the lessons of Madrid; and the van Gogh murder. Significant policy proposals are expected to be announced. The annual conference is part of NYU’s Center on Law and Security’s Global Terrorism Project.

To make a press reservation, please contact Joan Dim at NYU in New York City at 212.998.6849. Space is limited. After May 23, please call Joan Dim in Florence at 39 055 272 30. Email joan.dim@nyu.edu

A partial list of attendees includes:

• Judges Baltasar Garzón (currently a Fellow in Residence at the Center on Law and Security), Jean-Louis Bruguière, Armando Spataro, and Stefano Dambruoso, and Gijs de Vries, Counterterrorism Coordinator, Council of the European Union
• Daniel Benjamin, director for counterterrorism on the NSC during the Clinton Administration; Richard Clarke, author of the bestseller, Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror and Bush’s chief of counterterrorism until his resignation in 2003; Cofer Black, director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center from 1999 to 2002; Paul Clement, Acting U.S. Solicitor General; Roger Cressey, former director for Transnational Threats on the NSC; Neil MacBride, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel, U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr;
• NYU Law Professor Noah Feldman, senior advisor on constitutional law to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq for the writing of its new constitution and author of After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy; Joshua Dratel, Guantanamo defense attorney; Andrea Schulz, German defense attorney representing co-plaintiffs in the Motassadeq trial; Olivier Roy, research director, Center for International Studies and Research and author of Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah.
• Richard Churchhouse, Detective Chief Inspector, Metropolitan Police, UK; Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Anti-Terrorist Branch at New Scotland Yard and National Co-ordinator for Terrorist Investigations; Carlo De Stefano, Prefetto, Il Directtore Centrale; Colin Hale, Police International Counter Terrorism Unit, UK.
• NYU Law Professor Stephen Holmes, author and historian on European liberalism and the disappointments of democracy and economic liberalization after communism; Johns-Hopkins Professor of International Law Ruth Wedgewood; Georgetown Professor of Law Viet Dinh.
• Journalist Peter Bergen, famous for his face-to-face interview with Osama Bin Laden; Ian Buruma, author of Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies; author Amos Elon; and author David Pryce Jones.

“This conference will raise questions and issues that address the current advances and hurdles, both international and domestic, involved in the apprehension and prosecution of terrorists,” said Karen Greenberg, executive director of the Center and co-editor of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. “Importantly, many of this year’s participants attended last year, which provides a continuity of ideas that is essential to progress in formulating policy.”