John Sifton is an attorney and investigator with experience in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States. He worked at Human Rights Watch from 2001 until 2007, from 2005 to 2007 as the senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism, focusing on Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and South Asia, and from 2001 to 2004 as a researcher in Asia Division, focusing on Afghanistan, as well as India and Pakistan.  He researched extensively on issues related to U.S. detention operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, and secret CIA prisons. 

Previously, Mr. Sifton worked in 2000 and 2001 for a humanitarian organization, primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in 1999 for a refugee advocacy organization in Albania and Kosovo.

Mr. Sifton has written extensively on terrorism and counterterrorism issues and on security and human rights issues in Afghanistan and Iraq, publishing articles in the International Herald Tribune, Slate, Salon, and the New York Times Magazine and New York Times Book Review. Mr. Sifton has also testified in the U.S. Congress on security issues in Afghanistan, and in European Parliament and Council of Europe committees on illegal CIA activities in Europe. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law (JD) and St. John's College, Annapolis (BA).

Mr. Sifton is now the executive director of One World Research, www.oneworldresearch.com, a research and investigation firm that focuses on public interest and human rights issues.