Richard M. Pious
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199217977
- eISBN:
- 9780191711541
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199217977.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter focuses on the president's use of prerogative powers and the treatment of detainees in the war on terror. President Bush asserted his prerogative power in interpreting and reinterpreting ...
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This chapter focuses on the president's use of prerogative powers and the treatment of detainees in the war on terror. President Bush asserted his prerogative power in interpreting and reinterpreting conventions and customary international law obligations, and in interpreting the obligations of government officials to execute faithfully statute law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and various directives. It is argued that officials at the highest levels of government made decisions based on the constitutional authority of the president (as administration lawyers defined it) that left open the probability that detainees would be subjected to inhuman treatment and torture as defined by international law. The chapter explores why the issue of the treatment of prisoners has not risen to the level of an Iran-Contra affair and what the reaction tells us about the politics of prerogative power.Less
This chapter focuses on the president's use of prerogative powers and the treatment of detainees in the war on terror. President Bush asserted his prerogative power in interpreting and reinterpreting conventions and customary international law obligations, and in interpreting the obligations of government officials to execute faithfully statute law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and various directives. It is argued that officials at the highest levels of government made decisions based on the constitutional authority of the president (as administration lawyers defined it) that left open the probability that detainees would be subjected to inhuman treatment and torture as defined by international law. The chapter explores why the issue of the treatment of prisoners has not risen to the level of an Iran-Contra affair and what the reaction tells us about the politics of prerogative power.
Brice Dickson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199571383
- eISBN:
- 9780191721854
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571383.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Article 5 of the European Convention makes it clear that detention may occur even if no arrest ensues (as with powers to examine travellers at ports, or to stop and question people on the streets), ...
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Article 5 of the European Convention makes it clear that detention may occur even if no arrest ensues (as with powers to examine travellers at ports, or to stop and question people on the streets), but it does not explicitly say how long detention can lawfully continue, whether before or after an arrest has occurred. This chapter addresses two particular aspects of that issue. First, for what period can detention continue without the detainee having to appear before a judge? Second, for what period can detention continue after the person has appeared before a judge? This second question can be further subdivided, focusing initially on the maximum period that can be permitted to elapse before the detainee has to be charged with an offence or released, and then on the period that can be permitted to elapse after the detainee has been charged but before his or her substantive trial begins.Less
Article 5 of the European Convention makes it clear that detention may occur even if no arrest ensues (as with powers to examine travellers at ports, or to stop and question people on the streets), but it does not explicitly say how long detention can lawfully continue, whether before or after an arrest has occurred. This chapter addresses two particular aspects of that issue. First, for what period can detention continue without the detainee having to appear before a judge? Second, for what period can detention continue after the person has appeared before a judge? This second question can be further subdivided, focusing initially on the maximum period that can be permitted to elapse before the detainee has to be charged with an offence or released, and then on the period that can be permitted to elapse after the detainee has been charged but before his or her substantive trial begins.
Emily Crawford
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199578962
- eISBN:
- 9780191722608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578962.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration, Public International Law
This chapter looks to the law of international human rights, which provides further rules regarding the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in relation to a non-international armed ...
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This chapter looks to the law of international human rights, which provides further rules regarding the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in relation to a non-international armed conflict. The protections of international human rights law act to supplement the IHL rules, so that it is possible to speak of a substantial body of rules applicable in non-international armed conflict that effectively duplicate nearly all the protections afforded to combatants and POWs.Less
This chapter looks to the law of international human rights, which provides further rules regarding the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in relation to a non-international armed conflict. The protections of international human rights law act to supplement the IHL rules, so that it is possible to speak of a substantial body of rules applicable in non-international armed conflict that effectively duplicate nearly all the protections afforded to combatants and POWs.
Rebecca A. Adelman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823281671
- eISBN:
- 9780823284788
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823281671.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Figuring Violence catalogs the affects that define the latter stages of the war on terror and the imaginative work that underpins them. These affects—apprehension, affection, admiration, gratitude, ...
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Figuring Violence catalogs the affects that define the latter stages of the war on terror and the imaginative work that underpins them. These affects—apprehension, affection, admiration, gratitude, pity, and righteous anger—are far more pleasurable and durable than their predecessors. Hence, they are deeply compatible with the ambitions of a state embroiling itself in a perpetual and essentially unwinnable war. Surveying the cultural landscape of this sprawling conflict, Figuring Violence reveals the varied mechanisms by which these affects have been militarized. This book tracks their convergences around six types of beings: civilian children, military children, military spouses, veterans with PTSD and TBI, Guantánamo detainees, and military dogs. All of these groups have become preferred objects of sentiment in wartime public culture, but they also have in common their status as political subjects who are partially or fully unknowable. They become visible to outsiders through a range of mediated and imaginative practices that are ostensibly motivated by concern or compassion. However, these practices actually function to reduce these beings to abstracted figures and so make them easy targets for affective investment. This is a paradoxical and conditional form of recognition that eclipses the actual beings upon whom those figures are patterned, silencing their political subjectivities and obscuring their suffering. As a result, they are erased and rendered hypervisible at once. Figuring Violence demonstrates that this dynamic ultimately propagates the very militarism that begets their victimization.Less
Figuring Violence catalogs the affects that define the latter stages of the war on terror and the imaginative work that underpins them. These affects—apprehension, affection, admiration, gratitude, pity, and righteous anger—are far more pleasurable and durable than their predecessors. Hence, they are deeply compatible with the ambitions of a state embroiling itself in a perpetual and essentially unwinnable war. Surveying the cultural landscape of this sprawling conflict, Figuring Violence reveals the varied mechanisms by which these affects have been militarized. This book tracks their convergences around six types of beings: civilian children, military children, military spouses, veterans with PTSD and TBI, Guantánamo detainees, and military dogs. All of these groups have become preferred objects of sentiment in wartime public culture, but they also have in common their status as political subjects who are partially or fully unknowable. They become visible to outsiders through a range of mediated and imaginative practices that are ostensibly motivated by concern or compassion. However, these practices actually function to reduce these beings to abstracted figures and so make them easy targets for affective investment. This is a paradoxical and conditional form of recognition that eclipses the actual beings upon whom those figures are patterned, silencing their political subjectivities and obscuring their suffering. As a result, they are erased and rendered hypervisible at once. Figuring Violence demonstrates that this dynamic ultimately propagates the very militarism that begets their victimization.
Amos N. Guiora
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195340310
- eISBN:
- 9780199867226
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340310.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration, Constitutional and Administrative Law
On September 11, 2001, terrorism instantly became the defining issue of our time. The resulting debate surrounding the inherent tension between national security and individual civil rights has ...
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On September 11, 2001, terrorism instantly became the defining issue of our time. The resulting debate surrounding the inherent tension between national security and individual civil rights has focused national and international attention on how post-9/11 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and around the world have been interrogated. All concerned agree that, while interrogation practices represent a crucial meeting ground between human rights and counterterrorism measures, the limits placed on interrogators are perhaps the most difficult to define, for they determine how “far” a civil society is willing to go in eliciting information necessary for its self-defense. This book offers a theoretical analysis and practical application of coercive interrogation and in doing so, suggests developing and implementing a hybrid paradigm based on American criminal law, the Geneva Conventions, and the Israeli model of trial as the most relevant judicial regime. This book creatively utilizes a historical analysis of the system of “justice” for African Americans in the Deep South of the past century to serve as a guide for the constitutional rights and protections that should be granted or extended to an unprotected class. The book then indicates which methods are within the boundaries of the law while providing interrogators the tools required to protect America's vital interests.Less
On September 11, 2001, terrorism instantly became the defining issue of our time. The resulting debate surrounding the inherent tension between national security and individual civil rights has focused national and international attention on how post-9/11 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and around the world have been interrogated. All concerned agree that, while interrogation practices represent a crucial meeting ground between human rights and counterterrorism measures, the limits placed on interrogators are perhaps the most difficult to define, for they determine how “far” a civil society is willing to go in eliciting information necessary for its self-defense. This book offers a theoretical analysis and practical application of coercive interrogation and in doing so, suggests developing and implementing a hybrid paradigm based on American criminal law, the Geneva Conventions, and the Israeli model of trial as the most relevant judicial regime. This book creatively utilizes a historical analysis of the system of “justice” for African Americans in the Deep South of the past century to serve as a guide for the constitutional rights and protections that should be granted or extended to an unprotected class. The book then indicates which methods are within the boundaries of the law while providing interrogators the tools required to protect America's vital interests.
Philip B. Heymann
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195335385
- eISBN:
- 9780199851690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335385.003.0015
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines what effort was made to identify all important classes of consequences and then to predict and assess them. It begins with the overall government choice and, after that, looks ...
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This chapter examines what effort was made to identify all important classes of consequences and then to predict and assess them. It begins with the overall government choice and, after that, looks specifically at the decision by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Nowhere in the process leading up to the Bybee memo, nor in the series of discussions after that, does anyone seem to have carefully considered the categories of cost, or the doubts about benefits, associated with the decision the White House seems to have wanted. On October 5, 2005, the Senate voted on John McCain's amendment to a military spending bill, which would prohibit cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of detainees in US custody anywhere in the world.Less
This chapter examines what effort was made to identify all important classes of consequences and then to predict and assess them. It begins with the overall government choice and, after that, looks specifically at the decision by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Nowhere in the process leading up to the Bybee memo, nor in the series of discussions after that, does anyone seem to have carefully considered the categories of cost, or the doubts about benefits, associated with the decision the White House seems to have wanted. On October 5, 2005, the Senate voted on John McCain's amendment to a military spending bill, which would prohibit cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of detainees in US custody anywhere in the world.
Amos N. Guiora
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195340310
- eISBN:
- 9780199867226
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340310.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration, Constitutional and Administrative Law
One clear assertion of this book is that the present system of interrogations and detainee status requires our collective and immediate attention. To that end, the hybrid paradigm was created. ...
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One clear assertion of this book is that the present system of interrogations and detainee status requires our collective and immediate attention. To that end, the hybrid paradigm was created. Although not a perfect solution to a complicated problem, the hybrid paradigm proposes an alternative that addresses the dilemma of how to balance legitimate civil and political rights of the individual with the equally legitimate national security rights of the state. Accordingly, the detainee held by the US in Guantanamo Bay and similar facilities will be granted certain constitutional rights, in particular those based on the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The operative words in this chapter are granting certain rights to non-Americans held by the United States outside the United States. Such an analysis facilitates an examination of whether the proposal sufficiently protects the rights of those it presumes are a constitutionally protected class.Less
One clear assertion of this book is that the present system of interrogations and detainee status requires our collective and immediate attention. To that end, the hybrid paradigm was created. Although not a perfect solution to a complicated problem, the hybrid paradigm proposes an alternative that addresses the dilemma of how to balance legitimate civil and political rights of the individual with the equally legitimate national security rights of the state. Accordingly, the detainee held by the US in Guantanamo Bay and similar facilities will be granted certain constitutional rights, in particular those based on the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The operative words in this chapter are granting certain rights to non-Americans held by the United States outside the United States. Such an analysis facilitates an examination of whether the proposal sufficiently protects the rights of those it presumes are a constitutionally protected class.
Mary Ellen O'Connell
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195368949
- eISBN:
- 9780199871100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368949.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
This chapter begins with an overview of the entire volume, starting with a report of top United States government lawyers after 9/11 developing legal arguments to justify torture and coercion of ...
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This chapter begins with an overview of the entire volume, starting with a report of top United States government lawyers after 9/11 developing legal arguments to justify torture and coercion of detainees during interrogation. These lawyers could draw on an anti-international law tradition that denigrates international law for its lack of enforcement means. In fact international law has means of enforcement, but, more importantly, it is accepted by the international community as law. Acceptance and enforcement together support the claim that international law is law. With this acceptance, international law has the capacity to support the common aspirations of all humanity.Less
This chapter begins with an overview of the entire volume, starting with a report of top United States government lawyers after 9/11 developing legal arguments to justify torture and coercion of detainees during interrogation. These lawyers could draw on an anti-international law tradition that denigrates international law for its lack of enforcement means. In fact international law has means of enforcement, but, more importantly, it is accepted by the international community as law. Acceptance and enforcement together support the claim that international law is law. With this acceptance, international law has the capacity to support the common aspirations of all humanity.
Rebecca A. Adelman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823281671
- eISBN:
- 9780823284788
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823281671.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
In its depictions of Guantánamo Bay detainees, the state’s agenda is obvious. But the state is not the only entity that mediates detainees’ voices: so, too, do the individuals and organizations that ...
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In its depictions of Guantánamo Bay detainees, the state’s agenda is obvious. But the state is not the only entity that mediates detainees’ voices: so, too, do the individuals and organizations that work on their behalf. Reading the history of anti-Guantánamo activism, the chapter demonstrates that it often relies on an erasure of detainee political subjectivity and a refusal of the possibility of detainee anger. Three case studies bear this out. First, a set of city-council resolutions from Massachusetts and California that extended hypothetical welcomes to select detainees on their hypothetical release; the chapter queries the politics of this deeply conditional hospitality and the presumptions of American exceptionalism underpinning it. American exceptionalism is central to the analysis of the next object, the Witness to Guantánamo documentary project, which collects testimonies from former detainees. W2G does crucial documentary work, but its structure also compels the detainees to offer forgiveness and recuperative visions of American goodness. Next, the chapter explores the politics of detainee creative production, with a particular attention to practices of circulation and consumption, and the fictive experiences of intimacy that they promise their audiences. The chapter ends with a critique of a fanciful renarration of Guantánamo’s past and future.Less
In its depictions of Guantánamo Bay detainees, the state’s agenda is obvious. But the state is not the only entity that mediates detainees’ voices: so, too, do the individuals and organizations that work on their behalf. Reading the history of anti-Guantánamo activism, the chapter demonstrates that it often relies on an erasure of detainee political subjectivity and a refusal of the possibility of detainee anger. Three case studies bear this out. First, a set of city-council resolutions from Massachusetts and California that extended hypothetical welcomes to select detainees on their hypothetical release; the chapter queries the politics of this deeply conditional hospitality and the presumptions of American exceptionalism underpinning it. American exceptionalism is central to the analysis of the next object, the Witness to Guantánamo documentary project, which collects testimonies from former detainees. W2G does crucial documentary work, but its structure also compels the detainees to offer forgiveness and recuperative visions of American goodness. Next, the chapter explores the politics of detainee creative production, with a particular attention to practices of circulation and consumption, and the fictive experiences of intimacy that they promise their audiences. The chapter ends with a critique of a fanciful renarration of Guantánamo’s past and future.
Laurel Fletcher and Eric Stover
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520261761
- eISBN:
- 9780520945227
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520261761.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This book, based on a two-year study of former prisoners of the U.S. government's detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, reveals in graphic detail the cumulative effect of the Bush ...
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This book, based on a two-year study of former prisoners of the U.S. government's detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, reveals in graphic detail the cumulative effect of the Bush administration's “war on terror.” Scrupulously researched and devoid of rhetoric, it deepens the story of post-9/11 America and the nation's descent into the netherworld of prisoner abuse. Researchers interviewed more than 60 former Guantánamo detainees in nine countries, as well as key government officials, military experts, former guards, interrogators, lawyers for detainees, and other camp personnel. We hear directly from former detainees as they describe the events surrounding their capture, their years of incarceration, and the myriad difficulties preventing many from resuming a normal life upon returning home. Prepared jointly by researchers with the Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley, and the International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights, the book contributes to the debate surrounding the U.S.'s commitment to international law during war time.Less
This book, based on a two-year study of former prisoners of the U.S. government's detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, reveals in graphic detail the cumulative effect of the Bush administration's “war on terror.” Scrupulously researched and devoid of rhetoric, it deepens the story of post-9/11 America and the nation's descent into the netherworld of prisoner abuse. Researchers interviewed more than 60 former Guantánamo detainees in nine countries, as well as key government officials, military experts, former guards, interrogators, lawyers for detainees, and other camp personnel. We hear directly from former detainees as they describe the events surrounding their capture, their years of incarceration, and the myriad difficulties preventing many from resuming a normal life upon returning home. Prepared jointly by researchers with the Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley, and the International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights, the book contributes to the debate surrounding the U.S.'s commitment to international law during war time.
Jared Del Rosso
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231170925
- eISBN:
- 9780231539494
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170925.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
This chapter compares the response of Congress to the abuse of the “September 11 detainees” at the Metropolitan Detention Facility (MDC) in Brooklyn, N.Y., with its response to the release of ...
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This chapter compares the response of Congress to the abuse of the “September 11 detainees” at the Metropolitan Detention Facility (MDC) in Brooklyn, N.Y., with its response to the release of photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Given the available evidence and the political context of the time, Congress chose to frame the abuses at Abu Ghraib within the context of the Iraq War, the improvement of human rights in Iraq, and the precarious political relationships required to win the war. Within this framework, the U.S. abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib appeared to be a disruptive force, a threat to the war's legitimacy and to the bonds that tethered U.S. public support and Iraqi “hearts and minds” to the war.Less
This chapter compares the response of Congress to the abuse of the “September 11 detainees” at the Metropolitan Detention Facility (MDC) in Brooklyn, N.Y., with its response to the release of photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Given the available evidence and the political context of the time, Congress chose to frame the abuses at Abu Ghraib within the context of the Iraq War, the improvement of human rights in Iraq, and the precarious political relationships required to win the war. Within this framework, the U.S. abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib appeared to be a disruptive force, a threat to the war's legitimacy and to the bonds that tethered U.S. public support and Iraqi “hearts and minds” to the war.
Laurel E. Fletcher
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520261761
- eISBN:
- 9780520945227
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520261761.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
The Bush Administration, within days of 9/11, began developing what came to be known as “the New Paradigm” for the “war on terror,” under which the president authorized “a new, ad hoc system of ...
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The Bush Administration, within days of 9/11, began developing what came to be known as “the New Paradigm” for the “war on terror,” under which the president authorized “a new, ad hoc system of detention and interrogation that operated outside any previously known coherent body of law.” This book presents interviews with 62 former detainees held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as 50 U.S. government officials, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, attorneys representing detainees, and former U.S. military and civilian personnel who had been stationed in Guantánamo or Afghanistan in order to answer questions regarding the detention and interrogation. A high degree of consistency is found when comparing the patterns and trends in the interview data with data on detention and interrogation procedures in documents released by the Department of Defense and reports published by the U.S. government, independent organizations, and the media.Less
The Bush Administration, within days of 9/11, began developing what came to be known as “the New Paradigm” for the “war on terror,” under which the president authorized “a new, ad hoc system of detention and interrogation that operated outside any previously known coherent body of law.” This book presents interviews with 62 former detainees held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as 50 U.S. government officials, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, attorneys representing detainees, and former U.S. military and civilian personnel who had been stationed in Guantánamo or Afghanistan in order to answer questions regarding the detention and interrogation. A high degree of consistency is found when comparing the patterns and trends in the interview data with data on detention and interrogation procedures in documents released by the Department of Defense and reports published by the U.S. government, independent organizations, and the media.
Laurel E. Fletcher
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520261761
- eISBN:
- 9780520945227
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520261761.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
The U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay is an institution of total confinement, designed largely to serve the needs of interrogators and their superiors. Most former detainees interviewed for ...
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The U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay is an institution of total confinement, designed largely to serve the needs of interrogators and their superiors. Most former detainees interviewed for this study experienced their detention in Guantánamo as arbitrary and humiliating, punctuated at times by excruciating mental or physical pain. Nineteen of the 62 detainees interviewed stated they had been punished for various infractions at Guantánamo. Half of the respondents who participated in the Guantánamo study undertook hunger strikes due to the desecration of the Quran or interference with detainees' religious practice. Suicide attempts at the camp are high stakes for both detainees and guards. The health status of detainees, and their struggle for release, are explored. Over 65 percent have been released from Guantánamo. Most respondents said they left Guantánamo the same way they had arrived—on U.S. military transport planes.Less
The U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay is an institution of total confinement, designed largely to serve the needs of interrogators and their superiors. Most former detainees interviewed for this study experienced their detention in Guantánamo as arbitrary and humiliating, punctuated at times by excruciating mental or physical pain. Nineteen of the 62 detainees interviewed stated they had been punished for various infractions at Guantánamo. Half of the respondents who participated in the Guantánamo study undertook hunger strikes due to the desecration of the Quran or interference with detainees' religious practice. Suicide attempts at the camp are high stakes for both detainees and guards. The health status of detainees, and their struggle for release, are explored. Over 65 percent have been released from Guantánamo. Most respondents said they left Guantánamo the same way they had arrived—on U.S. military transport planes.
Laurel E. Fletcher
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520261761
- eISBN:
- 9780520945227
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520261761.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
Many respondents said they were elated when they learned about their impending departure from Guantánamo. In the weeks and months ahead, many former detainees had simply moved into a “post-Guantánamo ...
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Many respondents said they were elated when they learned about their impending departure from Guantánamo. In the weeks and months ahead, many former detainees had simply moved into a “post-Guantánamo phase” in a different land. Detainees are not aware of their fate as they leave Guantánamo. The U.S. government has repeatedly stated that its decision to release detainees is not an admission that they are cleared of wrongdoing, or that U.S. forces committed an error in capturing them or later detaining them in Guantánamo. Virtually all of the released Afghan detainees reported that their family's wealth had been substantially diminished by their incarceration. Many Afghan former detainees stressed they wanted the authorities to find and punish the individuals in Afghanistan who had reported them, and also wanted compensation sufficient to resume a “normal life.” For many, the “stigma of Guantánamo” hindered their ability to find meaningful employment.Less
Many respondents said they were elated when they learned about their impending departure from Guantánamo. In the weeks and months ahead, many former detainees had simply moved into a “post-Guantánamo phase” in a different land. Detainees are not aware of their fate as they leave Guantánamo. The U.S. government has repeatedly stated that its decision to release detainees is not an admission that they are cleared of wrongdoing, or that U.S. forces committed an error in capturing them or later detaining them in Guantánamo. Virtually all of the released Afghan detainees reported that their family's wealth had been substantially diminished by their incarceration. Many Afghan former detainees stressed they wanted the authorities to find and punish the individuals in Afghanistan who had reported them, and also wanted compensation sufficient to resume a “normal life.” For many, the “stigma of Guantánamo” hindered their ability to find meaningful employment.
A. W. Brian Simpson
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198259497
- eISBN:
- 9780191681974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198259497.003.0010
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
In 1943, with finance from the Duke of Bedford, G. A. Aldred, a Glasgow anarchist, published a pamphlet attacking Regulation 18B; it records the experience of detainees, and was mainly compiled by ...
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In 1943, with finance from the Duke of Bedford, G. A. Aldred, a Glasgow anarchist, published a pamphlet attacking Regulation 18B; it records the experience of detainees, and was mainly compiled by John Wynn, himself detained under 18B (1A) from June 1940 to January 1943. One documentable case illustrates both the fear caused by the initial detentions and the witch-hunting atmosphere of the times. John Ellis was a considerable businessman in Leeds. He had joined the British Union (BU) as a non-active member in 1935 or 1936, and had entertained Sir Oswald Mosley during a speaking tour. Another documentable case involved a medical student, Henry A. Steidelman, detained in late July not so much as a BU supporter but as a pro-Nazi and potential spy. As well as mistakes, some revealed in litigation, there were some quite absurd arrests. Winston Churchill took a lively interest in the great incarceration and received weekly lists of ‘Prominent Persons’ detained until September 14, 1940.Less
In 1943, with finance from the Duke of Bedford, G. A. Aldred, a Glasgow anarchist, published a pamphlet attacking Regulation 18B; it records the experience of detainees, and was mainly compiled by John Wynn, himself detained under 18B (1A) from June 1940 to January 1943. One documentable case illustrates both the fear caused by the initial detentions and the witch-hunting atmosphere of the times. John Ellis was a considerable businessman in Leeds. He had joined the British Union (BU) as a non-active member in 1935 or 1936, and had entertained Sir Oswald Mosley during a speaking tour. Another documentable case involved a medical student, Henry A. Steidelman, detained in late July not so much as a BU supporter but as a pro-Nazi and potential spy. As well as mistakes, some revealed in litigation, there were some quite absurd arrests. Winston Churchill took a lively interest in the great incarceration and received weekly lists of ‘Prominent Persons’ detained until September 14, 1940.
A. W. Brian Simpson
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198259497
- eISBN:
- 9780191681974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198259497.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
Executive detention in Britain normally began with arrest without warning. There were ugly incidents. R. R. Reynolds of Tottenham was slapped. Some resisted arrest. Amongst the Anglo-Italian ...
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Executive detention in Britain normally began with arrest without warning. There were ugly incidents. R. R. Reynolds of Tottenham was slapped. Some resisted arrest. Amongst the Anglo-Italian communities, the 600 Regulation 18B detentions coincided with 4,000 or so arrests under the prerogative, and produced terror. Arrests separating parents, particularly mothers, from young children, seem peculiarly harsh. No special arrangements were made for the care of families and dependants; they could apply like anyone else to the Local Assistance Board. The techniques adopted at Latchmere House are clinically described by Hinsley and Simkins in an appendix, so drafted as to impose responsibility on the Home Office for what went on. There was fear in Military Intelligence Section 5 that information about Latchmere House, and the double agents, might leak. As early as June 11, it had been suggested that detainees should be held in camps. Winston Churchill had long been a romanticiser over habeas corpus, and although initially a strong advocate for detention he soon began to have doubts.Less
Executive detention in Britain normally began with arrest without warning. There were ugly incidents. R. R. Reynolds of Tottenham was slapped. Some resisted arrest. Amongst the Anglo-Italian communities, the 600 Regulation 18B detentions coincided with 4,000 or so arrests under the prerogative, and produced terror. Arrests separating parents, particularly mothers, from young children, seem peculiarly harsh. No special arrangements were made for the care of families and dependants; they could apply like anyone else to the Local Assistance Board. The techniques adopted at Latchmere House are clinically described by Hinsley and Simkins in an appendix, so drafted as to impose responsibility on the Home Office for what went on. There was fear in Military Intelligence Section 5 that information about Latchmere House, and the double agents, might leak. As early as June 11, it had been suggested that detainees should be held in camps. Winston Churchill had long been a romanticiser over habeas corpus, and although initially a strong advocate for detention he soon began to have doubts.
A. W. Brian Simpson
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198259497
- eISBN:
- 9780191681974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198259497.003.0013
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
The threat to the integrity of Norman Birkett's committee stemmed from the War Cabinet decision of May 22. Until then the committee evaluated the threat to security posed by individuals; there had to ...
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The threat to the integrity of Norman Birkett's committee stemmed from the War Cabinet decision of May 22. Until then the committee evaluated the threat to security posed by individuals; there had to be a case against each person, and each recommendation was independent of what was recommended for other detainees. After May 22 all this changed; the War Cabinet had decided that the fascists were potentially dangerous, and the British Union (BU) was to be crippled. There could be no question of the advisory committee going against this and recommending the release of Sir Oswald Mosley and his principal followers, quite irrespective of what emerged in hearings. Nor was the release of Capt. Maule Ramsay conceivable. The executive detention of the lesser BU activists also implemented a general policy decision, as did the arrest of the Anglo-Italian members of the Fascio. Where, after May, individuals were detained simply on the basis of their own actions or sympathies, the committee could proceed much as before; such cases, however, now formed a minority.Less
The threat to the integrity of Norman Birkett's committee stemmed from the War Cabinet decision of May 22. Until then the committee evaluated the threat to security posed by individuals; there had to be a case against each person, and each recommendation was independent of what was recommended for other detainees. After May 22 all this changed; the War Cabinet had decided that the fascists were potentially dangerous, and the British Union (BU) was to be crippled. There could be no question of the advisory committee going against this and recommending the release of Sir Oswald Mosley and his principal followers, quite irrespective of what emerged in hearings. Nor was the release of Capt. Maule Ramsay conceivable. The executive detention of the lesser BU activists also implemented a general policy decision, as did the arrest of the Anglo-Italian members of the Fascio. Where, after May, individuals were detained simply on the basis of their own actions or sympathies, the committee could proceed much as before; such cases, however, now formed a minority.
A. W. Brian Simpson
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198259497
- eISBN:
- 9780191681974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198259497.003.0015
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
In 1941, a number of detainees had recourse to the courts, including Captain Charles H. Bentinck Budd, Arthur C. H. Campbell, Ben Greene, John Mason, and Captain George H. L.-F. Pitt-Rivers. There ...
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In 1941, a number of detainees had recourse to the courts, including Captain Charles H. Bentinck Budd, Arthur C. H. Campbell, Ben Greene, John Mason, and Captain George H. L.-F. Pitt-Rivers. There were possibly others; some actions were formally begun, as by Oswald Mosley and Maule Ramsay, but were never actually pursued. In addition, J. R. Smeaton-Stuart after his release tried to collect damages for false imprisonment. Of these litigants, Greene and Liversidge went to the House of Lords. Mason's arrest was of some political significance since he was a communist shop steward. He was detained as being ‘involved in attempts to slow down war production’ and therefore guilty of ‘acts prejudicial’. The officials also knew that a further embarrassing case was in the pipeline, that of Campbell. He had been in the British Union until 1937.Less
In 1941, a number of detainees had recourse to the courts, including Captain Charles H. Bentinck Budd, Arthur C. H. Campbell, Ben Greene, John Mason, and Captain George H. L.-F. Pitt-Rivers. There were possibly others; some actions were formally begun, as by Oswald Mosley and Maule Ramsay, but were never actually pursued. In addition, J. R. Smeaton-Stuart after his release tried to collect damages for false imprisonment. Of these litigants, Greene and Liversidge went to the House of Lords. Mason's arrest was of some political significance since he was a communist shop steward. He was detained as being ‘involved in attempts to slow down war production’ and therefore guilty of ‘acts prejudicial’. The officials also knew that a further embarrassing case was in the pipeline, that of Campbell. He had been in the British Union until 1937.
A. W. Brian Simpson
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198259497
- eISBN:
- 9780191681974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198259497.003.0016
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
The detainees who did take appeals to the House of Lords were Robert Liversidge and Ben Greene. Both lost, the judicial opinions being delivered on November 3, 1941; the resulting legal position ...
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The detainees who did take appeals to the House of Lords were Robert Liversidge and Ben Greene. Both lost, the judicial opinions being delivered on November 3, 1941; the resulting legal position seemed, from a technical point of view, exactly what the Home Office wanted. But success had its price, for the two cases brought the Home Office, the security service, and the courts, into very considerable disrepute. The executive detention of both Liversidge and Greene was entirely understandable, but they were in fact loyal citizens who, in an absolute sense, ought never to have been detained. The administrative mechanisms for Liversidge's and Greene's protection had delivered to them nothing of value, and as the year 1940 drew to a close both had been driven to the conclusion that their only hope lay in an appeal to the judges, the traditional if unenthusiastic guardians of British liberty against the over-mighty executive.Less
The detainees who did take appeals to the House of Lords were Robert Liversidge and Ben Greene. Both lost, the judicial opinions being delivered on November 3, 1941; the resulting legal position seemed, from a technical point of view, exactly what the Home Office wanted. But success had its price, for the two cases brought the Home Office, the security service, and the courts, into very considerable disrepute. The executive detention of both Liversidge and Greene was entirely understandable, but they were in fact loyal citizens who, in an absolute sense, ought never to have been detained. The administrative mechanisms for Liversidge's and Greene's protection had delivered to them nothing of value, and as the year 1940 drew to a close both had been driven to the conclusion that their only hope lay in an appeal to the judges, the traditional if unenthusiastic guardians of British liberty against the over-mighty executive.
A. W. Brian Simpson
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198259497
- eISBN:
- 9780191681974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198259497.003.0018
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
Although most orders were made in 1940, quite a few were made in later years. A few names are discoverable, such as Thomas Hubert Beckett. Some suspended orders were reactivated, and a number who ...
More
Although most orders were made in 1940, quite a few were made in later years. A few names are discoverable, such as Thomas Hubert Beckett. Some suspended orders were reactivated, and a number who escaped were recaptured. But after 1940, the main task was suspending or revoking orders already made. Once the Home Office won the dispute with Military Intelligence Section 5 over British Union (BU) detainees about 450 could be released. By the end of 1941, only 200 BU detainees were still in executive detention. There never developed widespread sympathy or support in Britain for Regulation 18B detainees as people; in so far as there was a popular view it is that they were a crowd of traitors who richly deserved all that happened to them. More surprisingly perhaps, there never developed a strong principled objection to the regulation as a gross invasion of civil liberty; no doubt the explanation lies in the desperate conditions in which it was principally employed. Once World War II ended and the detainees were all released, the subject died.Less
Although most orders were made in 1940, quite a few were made in later years. A few names are discoverable, such as Thomas Hubert Beckett. Some suspended orders were reactivated, and a number who escaped were recaptured. But after 1940, the main task was suspending or revoking orders already made. Once the Home Office won the dispute with Military Intelligence Section 5 over British Union (BU) detainees about 450 could be released. By the end of 1941, only 200 BU detainees were still in executive detention. There never developed widespread sympathy or support in Britain for Regulation 18B detainees as people; in so far as there was a popular view it is that they were a crowd of traitors who richly deserved all that happened to them. More surprisingly perhaps, there never developed a strong principled objection to the regulation as a gross invasion of civil liberty; no doubt the explanation lies in the desperate conditions in which it was principally employed. Once World War II ended and the detainees were all released, the subject died.
