|
May/June 2006 Review America's Disappeared: Secret Imprisonment, Detainees, and the War on Terror
reviewed by P. Adem Carroll "America's Disappeared: Secret Imprisonment, Detainees and the War on Terror is a gripping collection of essays that provides a clear and useful framework for those who care about the relationship between torture and extralegal measures and the Bush administration's unprecedented claims for executive power. In this very fine book, lawyers associated with the Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights Watch offer strong reports on aspects of this human rights crisis. As counsel for Guantánamo detainees as well as for other Muslims detained since 9/11, these lawyers are uniquely informed and able to present their case in damning detail. The essayists describe the legal issues involved in the post-9/11 assault on civil liberties in sober prose that contrasts dramatically with its horrific subject matter (along with occasional flashes of anger). Each legal essay is accompanied by extensive footnotes. In addition, several testimonies by detainees provide moving personal accounts of detention, disappearance, and torture. America's Disappeared recalls that in March 2002, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld "dismissed claims of detainee abuse at Guantánamo as 'based on the shrill hyperventilation of a few people who didn't know what they are talking about.'" But there is nothing particularly shrill in this book, and the writers are, tragically, extremely well informed. One begins to imagine the cries of the victims. As perhaps one should. Some highlights: Steven Watt writes convincingly on conditions of abuse by various intelligence agencies. He places this activity in the context of privatized interrogation carried out by such corporations as Titan Co. and CACI; of the infamous memos providing legal justification for torture; of the history of "rendition" and the outsourcing of torture. He also provides a legal analysis of torture and degrading treatment. Rachel Meeropol writes on the history of "administrative segregation" and sensory deprivation for U.S. detainees. She shows how Muslim Americans rounded up after 9/11 were detained for long periods in isolation under a "hold until cleared" policy. She describes the use of repeated delays in the absence of evidence presentable in court, and the cynical use of immigration law to hold detainees for gathering intelligence: none of these detainees were terrorists or serious security risks, but many of them were treated like the Guantánamo prisoners. Recently one of them won a settlement of damages for his mistreatment. Barbara Olshansky contributes a well-organized final essay abut the recent unprecedented expansion of executive power as well as the manufacture of the term "enemy combatant" in an effort to allow the administration to circumvent the Geneva Conventions. It is clear that the president reserves the right to detain even citizens indefinitely. America's Disappeared is enlivened greatly by the testimonies of Maher Arar, "rendered" by the U.S. government to torture in Syria – a chilling and memorable story – and of Mohammed Maddy, one of my neighbors in Astoria, N.Y., who tells of his own ordeal at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York. In addition, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal write a letter to President Bush challenging their treatment in Guantánamo; and still other detainees offer spiritual, personal, angry, and poetic accounts of their nightmare detentions. But these are only a few voices; thousands remain silenced. The short book cannot include everything. My own agency has been slightly misnamed in the credits, but otherwise I did not notice such faults. There might have been more detail on surveillance, the numerous and growing terror watch lists, Special Registration, and more detailed discussion of the use of Aggravated Felony status as one of the forms of "prosecutorial advantage" that renders many long-term permanent residents deportable (including some of the writers in this book). In addition, Guantánamo Chaplain James Yee is hardly mentioned. But Yee now has a book out, and one hopes to see more such personal accounts. My own community feels safer protesting cartoons of our Prophet Muhammad than any abuses of human rights. This is disappointing. Yet I can only deplore lack of effective action from other faith leaders, and above all from their congregations. Is this acquiescence to torture? Is this fear? I pray that America's Disappeared may assist communities of faith in breaking the long public silence, and serve as an advocacy tool with policy makers and our elected officials. May God forgive us all.
P. Adem Carroll is 9/11 relief coordinator for the Islamic Circle of North America. As ICNA Relief representative, he coproduces a monthly radio show on WBAI in New York and writes a weekly column in the Muslim press.
|
Edited by Steven MacPherson, Rachel Meeropol, and Barbara Olshanksky