Guantanamo, Lawlessness, and the Myth of American Exceptionalism

The Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT)
AS PART OF THE NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTION TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO
Presents
JONATHAN HAFETZ
“Guantanamo, Lawlessness, and the Myth of American Exceptionalism”
Thursday, January 11, 2018
7:00-9:00 p.m.
University of Washington Law School, Room 138
4293 Memorial Way Northeast, Seattle, WA
Abstract:
After 9/11, the United States created a network of secret prisons where it held terrorism suspects for years without charge or access to a court, and subjected them to torture and other mistreatment, in violation of the Constitution and international law. While the US has renounced several of these practices, Guantanamo, the symbol of US lawlessness remains. The US has also failed to implement any mechanism to ensure accountability for the worst abuses.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has raised concerns about US backsliding on providing basic due process guarantees to all persons in US custody. This talk will examine what the US treatment of terrorism suspects reveals about the notion of American exceptionalism.
Jonathan Hafetz is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Center for Democracy.
He is also a professor of law at Seton Hall University School of Law, where he teaches courses on constitutional law, national security law, and international law. Mr. Hafetz works on issues involving detention, torture, surveillance, racial and religious discrimination, and the intersection of immigration and national security law. . . . He has written books on habeas corpus and on international criminal law and authored numerous articles for academic journals and popular publications. Hafetz is an enormously important figure in the fight against torture and unlawful practices of detention. It would be hard to understate his significance. He is a celebrated litigator, a multiple award-winning author, and a world class legal scholar.
CO-SPONSORS:
*UW: Center for Human Rights; Jackson School of International Studies; Simpson Center for the Humanities; Department of Political Science; Department of Law, Societies & Justice; Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies; Center for Global Studies; International Human Rights Clinic; Sustainable International Development graduate program; Amnesty International at UW. Additional co-sponsors forthcoming.
*Community co-sponsors: Amnesty International Puget Sound; ACLU-WA, National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT). Additional co-sponsors forthcoming.
***WSRCAT will likely be coordinating an additional action on January 11th. Additional information will be provided.