BU Law International Law Society and BU Amnesty International Participate in Unprecedented National Teach-In on Guantánamo Bay.
More than 200 colleges, law schools and seminaries joined journalists, doctors, clergy, military officers, scholars, released detainees and their lawyers in discussing Guantánamo: How Should We Respond?
The International Law Society of Boston University School of Law and Amnesty International of Boston University participated in the first national conference to study the U.S. government’s unprecedented detention in Guantánamo of hundreds of individuals described as “enemy combatants.” With public figures such as Thomas Friedman of The New York Times describing Guantánamo as “the anti-Statue of Liberty,” there could not be a better time for this event.
Inspired by the techniques of teach-ins of the 1960s, but utilizing the technology of the present, the conference was a collaboration of more than 300 colleges and law schools. Academics joined journalists, military officers, theologians, human rights activists, lawyers for detainees and released detainees themselves in Guantánamo: How Should We Respond?
Unlike prior efforts at teach-ins, this was a national program allowing academics and institutions of higher education to come together to consider an issue of great national importance. In the history of higher education there has never a time when so many schools joined together at the same time and on the same day to consider any issue.
“The Guantánamo Teach-in is a unique opportunity for students and citizens across the country to fully grasp the meaning of Guantánamo -- not only for the detainees but for all Americans,” said Alan Sussman, professor at Bard College and Teach-In co-chair.
The teach-in was carried in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Participating schools run from Maine to New Mexico, Florida to Hawaii, and Texas to Montana. At all levels the academy embraced the opportunity to participate in such a serious intellectual exercise
ILS of BU Law and BU AI joined in this historic national educational project. Organized around a series of panel discussions, the daylong event was simulcast to participating universities across the country from Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey, exploring two overriding themes: 1) whether Guantánamo can exist in a democracy committed to the rule of law, and 2) whether and how various communities – journalists, theologians and physicians – should respond to this unprecedented governmental action.
Among the many distinguished speakers:
- Joe Margulies, Professor of Law at Northwestern Law School, lead counsel in Rasul v. Bush and author of Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power.
- Jane Mayer, New Yorker, Ms. Mayer is the author of several major articles on elements of the administration's detention policy.
- Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald, the first print journalist allowed to report from Guantánamo.
- Adam Zagorin, Time, Mr. Zagorin and his colleague Michael Duffy were the first journalists to reveal the details of an interrogation at Guantánamo.
- Walter Pincus, who has reported on the history of coercive interrogations for the Washington Post
- Rear Admiral Donald Guter (Ret.), Dean of Duquesne Law School; Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy from 2000-2002
- Commander Charles Swift, who started the Hamdan litigation as military defense counsel to Mr. Hamdan two years ago.
- Capt. James Yee, former Chaplain at Guantánamo and author of For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire
- Dr. Gerald Koocher, President American Psychological Association
- Leonard Rubenstein, Physicians for Human Rights
- William H Taft IV, former Chief Legal Adviser, U.S. State Department
The simulcast Panel Sessions Included:
- “A Guantánamo Primer” by Joseph Margulies, author of the recent and acclaimed Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
- “Journalists Behind Wire:” how investigative reporters have covered the heavily guarded and controversial military prison
- “The Military and the Commander-in-Chief:” the challenges for military officers conscious-driven to dissent from their commanders
- “First, Do No Harm:” the medical professional as healer and interrogator
- “Matters of Faith:” Guantánamo and the religious communities
- “Touchless Torture:” American interrogation and the Geneva Convention
# # #
A Guantánamo Teach-In blog has been established to review and discuss the issues surrounding Guantánamo prior to the Teach-In. The blog can be accessed at www.gtmoteachin.blogspot.com.