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TORTURE DEBATE
Sam Adams goes to Guantánamo
BY MIKE MILIARD

"We do not torture!" says the president, jabbing his finger pugnaciously into the air. That is, uh, debatable, to say the least. So let’s have at it.

On Thursday, December 1, the Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice (MACLJ) hosts a debate between Professor David Cole, of Georgetown University Law Center, and Professor Amos Guiora, of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, at the Old South Meeting House, once home to the fiery protest meetings that led to the Revolutionary War. At issue: the rights of detainees at Camp Delta, the razor-wired redoubt at Guantánamo Bay.

How should the US government treat detained terrorist suspects? What, if any, are their rights? Should the rules be bent when trying to prevent attacks? Does anything go? While the debate will ostensibly focus on Gitmo and its prisoners, the topic is all the more germane with the recent reports of CIA-sponsored "black sites" in Thailand, Afghanistan, and secret spots in Eastern Europe where Al Qaeda suspects are interrogated in ways we know not how. President Bush’s peevish protestations notwithstanding, his promise to veto a defense-spending bill — one that passed the Senate 90 to nine — because it contains language, inserted by former POW John McCain, that prohibits "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of prisoners in American custody speaks volumes.

"There’s an underlying question to how we treat our prisoners of war," says MACLJ’s Simone Albeck. "What’s ethical and what’s responsible to our country? It’s not just stuff that’s happening in Guantánamo. It’s happening in Abu Ghraib, and all these other places that just came out."

Professor Cole is a civil-liberties lawyer and author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards And Constitutional Freedoms In The War On Terrorism (New Press) in which he exposes human-rights abuses at Guantánamo and looks at the long history of government’s quashing of dissent in the name of security. "The lesson of history is that what the government does to non-citizens in the name of security will eventually be extended to citizens," he writes. "The transition may take many years, or it may happen swiftly. But it will happen."

Professor Guiora, a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli military who helped capture the PLO warship Karine A, sees things differently. "The greatest contemporary challenge faced by liberal-democratic societies in confronting terrorism," he’s said, "is the dilemma of balancing the legitimate national-security interests of the state and the civil liberties of the individual."

Here in the capital of the bluest of blue states, it’s not too hard to guess what side of this ideological fence most members of the audience will be on.

"I’m really looking to Professor Guiora to make a strong case," says Albeck. "And to kind of throw people for a loop. Otherwise it would just be too simple. It is a complex issue, and he does have some ground to stand on."

Whatever your opinions on torture and the treatment of prisoners, this promises to be an enlightening and provocative exploration of a hugely important issue, Albeck says. "It reflects on America. And who we are in the world. And who we want to be."

"Guantánamo: A Debate" takes place at 6:30 pm on Thursday, December 1, at the Old South Meeting House (310 Washington Street, Boston). Tickets are $15 for students, and $25 general admission, with proceeds benefiting the MACLJ. Visit www.communityroom.net or call 617.482.5665.

 


Issue Date: November 25 - December 1, 2005
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