Forum
 P. Sabin Willett  Gita Gutierrez  Thomas B. Wilner |
Thursday, March 30 6:30 p.m.
Ford Hall Forum
Faneuil Hall
Boston, MA
Guantanamo Bay: Who Are the Detainees and Why Does the U.S. Continue to Hold Them?
Joshua Rubenstein, Northeast Regional Director, Amnesty International USA will moderate a program with lawyers currently defending prisoners in Guantanamo Bay talk about who the detainees are and why the United States continues to hold them.
Thomas B. Wilner, Partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP and lead counsel to the Kuwaiti citizens in Supreme Court case Rasul v. Bush; P. Sabin Willett, Partner at Binghman McCutchen and legal counsel to several Uighur detainees; Gita Gutierrez, civil rights attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, conducted the first visit by a habeas attorney to Guantanamo.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States government has held hundreds of men at Guantanamo Bay as part of its "global war on terrorism." Some see the methods employed there as necessary to protect ourselves against new and horrifying threats to national security. However, the secrecy and questions about the legality of the imprisonments have drawn concern from lawmakers, foreign governments and human rights groups. They claim that such measures violate the Geneva Conventions, inspire anti-Americanism, and infringe upon the very foundations of our civil rights.