Wizner began working for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles in August 2001 , initially focusing on prison reform . Following the September 11 attacks , Wizner 's focus shifted to civil liberties issues relating to U.S. national security . Around 2004 , he moved to the ACLU 's headquarters in New York City . There , he argued legal cases relating to airport security , government watchlists , surveillance practices , targeted killing , extraordinary rendition , and torture . He made several trips to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp . Many of the cases Wizner took were dismissed ; he later commented that " on the worst days , I believed that what we were doing ... was n't litigation in the traditional sense . It was n't trying to get a court to do something , it was creating a record so that ... people would be able to look back and decide whether it had been the right decision or a disastrous decision . " Starting in 2005 , Wizner represented Khalid El-Masri , a German citizen arrested while travelling in Macedonia on suspicion of links to Al Qaeda , who was held by the CIA at a black site in Afghanistan for five months , despite evidence that he was the wrong person . El-Masri 's suit was dismissed in the U.S. on grounds of state secrecy , though the CIA ultimately admitted to making a mistake , in a report released by the U.S. Senate . The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Macedonia in the case
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Ben Wizner