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October 8, 2009
| Author: | Ashley S. Deeks, International Affairs Fellow, 2007-2008 |
|---|
This academic module features teaching notes by author Ashley S. Deeks for the Council Special Report Avoiding Transfers to Torture, along with additional resources to supplement the text. In this report, Ms. Deeks addresses the dilemma that occurs when the United States obtains assurances that released detainees will not be tortured by their home countries upon return, guarantees that are an important tool for dealing with dangerous suspects.
What is a CFR Academic Module?
Academic Modules—featuring teaching notes by the authors of CFR publications—are designed to assist educators in creating or supplementing a course syllabus. The modules are customized packages built around a primary CFR text, such as a book or report, and include teaching notes; additional readings; video, audio, and transcripts of CFR meetings; Foreign Affairs articles; and other online resources. Use of these modules is free of charge. They may be used in part or in their entirety.
June 2008
Council Special Report No. 35
This report analyzes the debate over U.S. use of assurances against torture, explaining the contexts in which they are used, how they can be conveyed, and what they can contain, and recommends a number of ways to respond to criticism so that the United States can continue using assurances.
February 12, 2009
President Obama has called for closing the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. But he faces tough choices on where to send inmates and how to prosecute the most serious terrorist suspects.
Updated: February 3, 2009
President Barack Obama's attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., has criticized some of the Bush administration's counter-terrorism moves, calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center and bans on torture.
Updated: January 21, 2009
The Bush administration's approach to the detention and prosecution of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. But the battle continues.
March 27, 2006
The prosecution of alleged terrorists in U.S. civilian criminal courts and in new military tribunals has been fraught with controversy. U.S. federal courts have gradually asserted their role in the military tribunal process, and a case before the U.S. Supreme Court could make a major statement about the power of the U.S. presidency in prosecuting the war on terror.
February 2009
Seven years after 9/11, there is still no durable framework for effectively securing the United States against terrorism while also upholding its values. This Working Paper by Daniel B. Prieto calls on President Obama and Congress to engage these issues in a bipartisan fashion and craft comprehensive long-term counterterrorism policies that reaffirm the U.S. commitment to core values; only then will the United States be able to develop the kind of foreign policy necessary to meet the modern terrorist threat.
February 2005
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the United States awoke to find itself at war. If that much was clear, many other things were not—including the identity and nature of the enemy, the location of the battleground, and the strategy and tactics necessary for victory.
April 2004
In Power, Terror, Peace, and War, Mead—one of the most original writers on U.S. foreign policy—provides a fascinating and timely account of the Bush administration’s foreign policy and its current grand strategy for the world.
October 2002
With the Cold War won and the economy booming, the United States relaxed during the 1990s, letting go of the tension it had sustained for decades. All that changed on September 11, 2001. The nation awoke to find itself at war. But it was a strange kind of war, one without front lines, fought in the shadows against an elusive enemy, by a country lacking a clear sense of where it would lead or how it would end.
January/February 2009
Summary
International law must find a way to combat modern threats, but it cannot diminish U.S. sovereignty in doing so.
July/August 2008
Summary
The limits of judicial reasoning in the post-9/11 world.
May 17, 2009
As the Obama administration contemplates what to do with the detainees who remain in Guantanamo, Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) in Singapore--which tries to rehabilitate terrorist detainees--could provide a model.
February 27, 2009
Report
January 22, 2009
Presidential Memorandum
January 22, 2009
The torture debate is critical not only because it gets us to the core of our values, but because the danger to American cities is not from tanks and armies, but from individuals and their intentions.
2009
Ashley S. Deeks examines international law regarding administrative detention in non-international armed conflicts.
March 1, 2007
Report from The Stanley Foundation that examines the interrogation, detention, and trials of detainees in the US ‘War on Terror,’ and argues that issues of detainee treatment raise profound questions of American values.
December 2006
Approximately 775 detainees have been held in Guantánamo since January 2002. As of late November 2006, some 345 had been released or transferred to around 26 different countries. The vast majority were never charged and are now at liberty. Some have been detained again. Others have faced harassment by the authorities. Amnesty International campaigned on behalf of some of the men who have been released from Guantánamo; in this report the organization highlights details of some of these cases.
December 2006
Amnesty International’s summary of concerns that detainees at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have suffered ill-treatment amounting to torture under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention. Amnesty alleges that many of those held at Guantánamo have been ill-treated, whether in Afghanistan or elsewhere prior to their transfer to Guantánamo, or during their transfer, or as part of the interrogation process at the base, or as a result of the isolating, indefinite and punitive nature of detention in Guantánamo.
May 21, 2009
CFR's Marisa L. Porges says the mounting political debate over the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees underscores the steep challenges President Barack Obama faces in closing the camp within a one-year timeline.
December 18, 2008
Matthew C. Waxman, a former Pentagon official overseeing detainee affairs, says the controversial camp at Guantanamo Bay should be closed but that doing so will raise several key questions about legal process and the fate of the most dangerous detainees.
May/June 2008
From the May/June 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs: Shutting down Guantánamo will cause new problems. Rather than hold the terrorism suspects, the United States should turn them over to its criminal justice system.
May 19, 2006
CFR Adjunct Fellow Noah Feldman, discussing the legal issues at stake in the upcoming Hamdan decision, says the case will decide whether military tribunals are constitutionally sufficient and warns that if the Supreme Court rules current trial procedures inadequate, it may be difficult to try many of the nearly 500 Guantanamo detainees.
Updated: July 13, 2007
James Jay Carafano of the Heritage Foundation and Gabor Rona of Human Rights First debate the merits of shutting down the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Updated: February 12, 2007
David B. Rivkin, a legal expert and author, and Karen J. Greenberg, executive director of NYU’s Center on Law and Security, debate the appropriate venue for prosecuting “enemy combatants.”
July 15, 2008
In prepared testimony to the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission), Matthew Waxman discusses the legal and policy decisions regarding the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and the possibility of closing it down.
September 24, 2001
February 14, 2008
Report
Author: Ashley Deeks
October 10, 2007
Article
Author: William Glaberson
June 8, 2007
Testimony
Author: Clint Williamson
April 14, 2005
Report
Human Rights Watch
March 17, 2005
Testimony
Author: Patrick Leahy
The United States and the Future of Global Governance: The Use of Force and Accountability in International Law - A U.S. Perspective
Related Project: The United States and the Future of Global Governance Symposium
| Speakers: | Matthew C. Waxman, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations |
|---|---|
| John B. Bellinger III, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law, Council on Foreign Relations | |
| David J. Scheffer, Professor of Law, Northwestern University | |
| Moderator: | Jeffrey Toobin, Staff Writer, The New Yorker |
Do current trends in international law threaten U.S. sovereignty? What international legal or normative restraints on the use of force should the United States accept and promote? What should be the place of international law in U.S. jurisprudence? What attitude should the United States take toward the International Criminal Court?
Transcript: The Use Of Force And Accountability In International Law: A U.S. Perspective
Audio: The Use of Force and Accountability in International Law: A U.S. Perspective (Audio)
Video: The Use of Force and Accountability in International Law: A U.S. Perspective (Video)
This meeting is on the record.
A Conversation with Michael Chertoff
| Speaker: | Michael Chertoff, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security |
|---|
Audio: A Conversation with Michael Chertoff (Audio)
Video: A Conversation with Michael Chertoff (Video)
This meeting is on the record.
Al-Qaeda and the Threat to the American Homeland
| Speaker: | Jane Harman, Member, U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA) |
|---|---|
| Presider: | Arnaud de Borchgrave, Director, Transnational Threats Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies |
As the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, approach—and with news of the recently foiled attacks in Europe making headlines—homeland security returns to the forefront of discussion among the public and policymakers alike. Join Representative Jane Harman for a discussion about the continuing threat of al-Qaeda and what it could mean for U.S. interests at home and abroad.
Transcript: Al-Qaeda and the Threat to the American Homeland [Rush Transcript; Federal News Service]
Audio: Al-Qaeda and the Threat to the American Homeland (Audio)
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