diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
index 224abc3..a892403 100644
--- a/project.clj
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -1,14 +1,15 @@
 (defproject diamondap/clj-apache-https "1.0.15-SNAPSHOT"
   :description "Clojure HTTP library using the Apache HttpClient. Based on clj-apache-http, but includes support for SSL client certificates and HttpAsyncClient."
 
-  :dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.2.0"]
-                 [org.clojure/clojure-contrib "1.2.0"]
+  :dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.2.1"]
+                 [org.clojure/data.json "0.1.1"]
                  [org.apache.httpcomponents/httpcore "4.1.1"]
                  [org.apache.httpcomponents/httpmime "4.1.1"]
                  [commons-logging/commons-logging "1.1.1"]
                  [org.apache.httpcomponents/httpclient "4.1.1"]
-                 [org.apache.httpcomponents/httpasyncclient "4.0-alpha2"]]
-  :dev-dependencies [[swank-clojure "1.3.0-SNAPSHOT"]]
+                 [org.apache.httpcomponents/httpasyncclient "4.0-alpha2"]
+                 [commons-codec "1.5"]]
+  :dev-dependencies [[swank-clojure "1.3.0-SNAPSHOT"]] 
   :repositories {"releases" ~(str "file://"
                                   user/local-maven-clone "/releases")
                  "snapshots" ~(str "file://"
diff --git a/src/com/twinql/clojure/async_client.clj b/src/com/twinql/clojure/async_client.clj
index a56d030..2d4ae60 100644
--- a/src/com/twinql/clojure/async_client.clj
+++ b/src/com/twinql/clojure/async_client.clj
@@ -45,9 +45,9 @@
             StrictHostnameVerifier))
   (:import (org.apache.http.impl.nio.reactor
             DefaultConnectingIOReactor))
-  (:require [clojure.contrib.io :as io])
-  (:require [clojure.contrib.base64 :as base64])
-  (:require [clojure.contrib.string :as string])
+  (:import (org.apache.commons.codec.binary
+            Base64))
+  (:require [clojure.string :as string])
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.http :as http])
 
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.sync-libs :as sync])
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@
 
 (defn response-body [response]
   "Returns the body of the response."
-  (io/slurp* (.. response getEntity getContent)))
+  (slurp (.. response getEntity getContent)))
 
 (defn create-request
   "Returns a new instance of a request of the specified method. Param method
@@ -374,12 +374,16 @@
          (interpose "&")
          (apply str))))
 
+(def UTF8 (java.nio.charset.Charset/forName "UTF-8"))
+
+(defn- encode-str [^String s]
+  (String. (Base64/encodeBase64 (.getBytes s "UTF-8") false) UTF8))
 
 (defn get-basic-auth-value
   "Returns the value of the basic auth header."
   [user pwd]
   (str "Basic "
-       (string/chomp (base64/encode-str (str user ":" pwd)))))
+       (string/trim-newline (encode-str (str user ":" pwd)))))
 
 
 (defn add-basic-auth-header!
diff --git a/src/com/twinql/clojure/http.clj b/src/com/twinql/clojure/http.clj
index fe93845..79bbc9a 100644
--- a/src/com/twinql/clojure/http.clj
+++ b/src/com/twinql/clojure/http.clj
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
   (:refer-clojure :exclude [get])
   (:use clojure.set)
   (:require
-     [clojure.contrib.io :as io]
-     [clojure.contrib.json :as json])
+     [clojure.java.io :as io]
+     [clojure.data.json :as json])
   (:import 
     (java.lang Exception)
     (java.net URI)
@@ -205,17 +205,17 @@
 
 (defmethod entity-as :string [#^HttpEntity entity as status]
   (with-open [#^InputStream stream (.getContent entity)]
-    (io/slurp* stream)))
+    (slurp stream)))
 
 ;;; JSON handling.
 ;;; We prefer keywordizing.
 (defmethod entity-as :json [#^HttpEntity entity as status]
   (with-open [#^InputStream stream (.getContent entity)]
-    (clojure.contrib.json/read-json (io/reader stream) true)))
+    (json/read-json (io/reader stream) true)))
 
 (defmethod entity-as :json-string-keys [#^HttpEntity entity as status]
   (with-open [#^InputStream stream (.getContent entity)]
-    (clojure.contrib.json/read-json (io/reader stream) false)))
+    (json/read-json (io/reader stream) false)))
 
 
 ;;; To avoid overhead in shutting down a ClientConnectionManager,
diff --git a/src/com/twinql/clojure/x509_connection_manager.clj b/src/com/twinql/clojure/x509_connection_manager.clj
index 2da6ba8..63cbb9e 100644
--- a/src/com/twinql/clojure/x509_connection_manager.clj
+++ b/src/com/twinql/clojure/x509_connection_manager.clj
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 (ns com.twinql.clojure.x509-connection-manager
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.http :as http])
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.NaiveTrustManager :as trust-mgr])
-  (:require [clojure.contrib.java-utils :as jutil])
+  (:require [clojure.java.io :as io])
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.sync-libs :as sync])
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.async-libs :as async])
   (:import
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
    within the jar at the specified path."
   [#^String path]
   (try
-    (if (. (jutil/file path) exists)
+    (if (. (io/file path) exists)
       (FileInputStream. path)
       (load-embedded-resource path))
     (catch Exception _ (throw (new FileNotFoundException
diff --git a/tests/async_client.clj b/tests/async_client.clj
index 1b3965f..3a6b8ff 100644
--- a/tests/async_client.clj
+++ b/tests/async_client.clj
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.async-client :as async])
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.async-libs :as async-libs])
   (:require [com.twinql.clojure.http :as http])
-  (:require [clojure.contrib.io :as io])
   (:use clojure.test)
   (:import
      (java.net URI)))
@@ -113,7 +112,7 @@
 
        ;; This post has no body, but it does have query params,
        ;; so query params go in the body.
-       (io/slurp* (.. req2 getEntity getContent))
+       (slurp (.. req2 getEntity getContent))
        "name=Edgar&age=89&weight=166&city=Boston"
 
        ;; When query params go in the body, Content-Type header
@@ -128,7 +127,7 @@
        "Spongebob"
 
        ;; Be sure body was set from :body option.
-       (io/slurp* (.. req3 getEntity getContent))
+       (slurp (.. req3 getEntity getContent))
        sample-body )))
 
 ;; These are some default options for the HTTP connections we want to set up.