ODea

December 29th, 2004
Transcribed by Mark Baber and Ben Tupper

ECHO CHAMBER PROJECT: Okay. So why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and some of your experience at Amnesty International -- regarding the human rights, and what you were doing there.
JAMES O'DEA: Sorry. I mean, do you want me to say my name?
ECHO CHAMBER PROJECT: Just say, "My name is James O'Dea"
O'DEA: My name is James O'Dea, and for 10 years I worked for Amnesty International -- most of that period -- as the director of its Washington office. And really spent those years confronting governments about their involvement and complicity in human rights abuse. Both meeting foreign heads of state, defense ministers, foreign ministers, foreign representatives in the embassies in Washington, and of course the US government at Congressional testimony, and lobbying of the State Department, the White House, the Justice Department, National Security Council, to explore with the US government its own role in promoting human rights, and its obvious need to deal with some of its own complicity.