How do they get the wider American public to engage on an issue that has become mired in partisan battles over the war in Iraq and the larger war on terrorism?

"It's a hopeless situation," said Duane Poole, 80, who drove from his home in Clayton to attend. "What are going to do? Nothing?"

Poole made his statement after listening to a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, a human rights lawyer and a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation officer talk about America's war on terrorism and the Bush administration's authorization of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding.

The highlight of the conference for many was hearing from Moazzam Begg, a British citizen who spent more than three years in American prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo.

Begg, who has written a book about his ordeal, spoke to the roughly 30 attendees by video conference from his home in Birmingham, England.

Showing little anger or bitterness and a quick wit, Begg described how he was picked up by American authorities in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2002. He had gone to Afghanistan to open a girls' school and was living with his wife and three children when he was detained.

Begg said much of his time at Guantanamo was spent in isolation in an 8-foot-by-6-foot cell. He said his release in 2005 came only after his lawyer began drawing attention to his case in the media.

"I didn't know why I was being released," Begg said. "I didn't know why I was detained."

Tina Monshipour Foster, a human rights lawyer who represents detainees at Bagram military base in Afghanistan and other locations, talked about how difficult it is to get access to her clients.

Foster said she has never had a client released because of a ruling by a U.S. court. She said the court of public opinion is where the battle over torture will be won or lost. She advised activists to talk about how America's interrogation policies have made the country less safe.

"If you care about national security, this is not something you should support," Foster said.

Brad Garrett, a retired FBI officer, described the investigation techniques he used during his career. Garrett, who was a lead interrogator in the Washington, D.C., sniper case and the slaying of Central Intelligence Agency officers in 1993, questioned the value of information gathered through torture or harsh interrogation techniques.

"The military and intelligence community have a daunting job," Garrett said. "You can't make it worse by making people hate us."

Though a number of attendees were members of N.C. Stop Torture Now, a co-sponsor of the event, the conference also drew those interested in learning more about people being detained in American prisons around the world.

Aslam Mohammed, 38, a software engineer from Raleigh, and Fiaz Fareed, 51, a medical technologist from Raleigh, said they have concerns about some of the policies adopted by the U.S. since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Both Mohammed and Fareed, who is now an American citizen, were born in India, and they said the current policies go against the image they held of America.

"What we disliked about our country is being taken up here," Fareed said.