Shami Chakrabarti in-house counsel, Chakrabarti was appointed director of Liberty in 2003. As director, she campaigned against what the pressure group saw as the "excessive" anti-terrorist measures that followed the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, such as the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA). The organisation is a prominent opponent of recent counter-terrorism legislation. Chakrabarti is a frequently invited contributor to BBC Radio 4 and various newspapers on the topic of human rights and civil liberties. "The Observer" wrote that she puts in "seemingly endless appearances on "Question Time" and the rolling news bulletins". She was also described
Yitzhaq Shami number of essays. Shami's birth name was Yitzhaq Sarwi. He was born in Hebron (al-Khalil) in 1888, eldest of three sons. His father, Eliyahu, was a textile merchant of Syrian Jewish origin, who relocated from Damascus to Hebron in 1885. The father was therefore known as "a-Shami" (the Damascene), and that was the origin of the pen-name later adopted by the writer. Eventually, it became his legal name as well. His mother, Rivka Castel, was a Hebronite from the illustrious Castel family, a traditional Sephardic family which had lived in Hebron for generations. Growing up, Shami spoke Arabic with his