Committee of the American Founding 2010, March

This Spring Colloquium was held March 2 & 9, 2010. You can listen to talks below that are underlined by simply moving your mouse over them and clicking.

Talks & Speakers for the Colloquium

"Terrorist Trials and the Rule of Law: Military Tribunals or Civilian Courts"

Date: Tuesday, March 2

Time: 8:00 pm

Description: Andrew McCarthy, the lead federal prosecutor of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, delivered a talk titled “Terrorist Trials and the Rule of Law: Military Tribunals or Civilian Courts” on Tuesday, March 2, at 8 p.m. in Paino Lecture Hall of Amherst College. Sponsored by the Amherst College Colloquium on the American Founding, the talk is free and open to the public.

Author of Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad, McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor and a contributor to the National Review online. From 1993 to 1996, while an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, he led the prosecution against the jihad organization of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, in which a dozen Islamic militants were convicted of conducting a war of urban terrorism against the United States that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. McCarthy also made major contributions to the prosecutions of the bombers of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the Millennium plot attack Los Angeles International Airport.  Following the Sept. 11 attacks, he supervised the U.S. Attorney’s Anti-Terrorism Command Post in New York City, coordinating investigative and preventive efforts with numerous federal and state law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and then became Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District’s satellite office, responsible for federal law enforcement in six counties north of New York City.

McCarthy is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Justice Department’s highest honors: the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award (1996) and Distinguished Service Award (1988). He has served as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and as an Associate Independent Counsel in the investigation of a former cabinet official.  He has also been an adjunct professor of law at both the Fordham University School of Law and New York Law School. He writes extensively on a variety of legal, social and political issues for the National Review and Commentary, among other publications, as well as providing commentary for various television and radio broadcasts. 

Location: Paino Lecture Hall

Earth Sciences Building

Miriam Grossman

Date: Tuesday, March 9

Time: 8:00 p.m.

Description: Miriam Grossman, M.D., is a board-certified child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist. She writes and speaks to parents, students, educators and health professionals internationally on the dangers of political correctness in her profession. She is the author of "You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child" and "Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student."

Location: Pruyne Lecture Hall

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