Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism

Description

In Guantanamo Bay approximately 650 "enemy combatants" are being held without trial, without charges, and without access to their families or legal representation. They are as young as thirteen and as old as eighty. They have attempted suicide twenty-seven times. Since the war on terror began, over 5000 people in the U.S. - including British nationals - have been detained in antiterrorism initiatives, yet only five have been charged with a terrorist crime and only one convicted. Why has the U.S. government locked up so many with so little to show for it? Are these sweeping ethnicity-based detentions effective security measures? Enemy Aliens, answers these vitally important questions. In the wake of Inspector General Glenn A. Fine's report documenting extensive abuse of detained immigrants in the wake of September 11, there is mounting pressure for the recognition of the human rights and civil liberties of foreign nationals. In this milieu, David Cole's constitutional expertise, personal litigation experience, and lucid analyses are ever more relevant.

David Cole is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, legal affairs correspondent for The Nation. He is the author of No Equal Justice and Terrorism and the Constitution. He lives in the United States.

"A powerful synthesis...a comprehensive and persuasive critique of the US legal and administrative response to the al-Qaida attacks of two years ago. - Times Higher Education Supplement"