Guantánamo Turns 11...

Steve Vladeck
Friday, January 11, 2013, 9:19 AM
To commemorate (if that's even the right word) the eleventh anniversary of the detention of non-citizens at Guantánamo, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras (whose work includes, among others, The Oath) has this short op-ed and movie up on the New York Times' website, documenting the return home to Yemen of the body of Adnan Latif, who died at Guantánamo in September. Consider, in juxtaposition, my soon-to-be new colleag

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To commemorate (if that's even the right word) the eleventh anniversary of the detention of non-citizens at Guantánamo, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras (whose work includes, among others, The Oath) has this short op-ed and movie up on the New York Times' website, documenting the return home to Yemen of the body of Adnan Latif, who died at Guantánamo in September. Consider, in juxtaposition, my soon-to-be new colleague Jen Daskal's thoughtful if counterintuitive New York Times op-ed, "Don't Close Guantánamo" (about which Ben just posted...) Between these two works, I suspect we see a large part of why closing Guantánamo continues to be such a fraught issue--legally, politically, philosophically, and emotionally. I hope to have more to say later in response to Jen (and Ben). For now, though, let me just say that, whatever one's views, this is an anniversary that shouldn't pass unmarked...

Steve Vladeck is a professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law. A 2004 graduate of Yale Law School, Steve clerked for Judge Marsha Berzon on the Ninth Circuit and Judge Rosemary Barkett on the Eleventh Circuit. In addition to serving as a senior editor of the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, Steve is also the co-editor of Aspen Publishers’ leading National Security Law and Counterterrorism Law casebooks.

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