The perverse experiment in lawlessness at Guantanamo has gone on so long we find ourselves talking to a new generation where practices of indefinite incarceration and assassination have become the norm. The critical response of youth to exposure of government abuse gives me cause to anticipate renewed resistance to the crimes of our government.
For those of us watching the history of that hated prison camp unfold, willful blindness is no excuse. "If you want to remain ignorant of what is going on, of what has happened at Guantanamo, it's quite possible. But it shouldn't be," says UC Davis professor Almerindo Ojeda.
Ojeda is director of the university's Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas. Since 2005, the center has been documenting the testimonials of prisoners held at the U.S. Navy base. It's the hope of the scholars involved with the center -- a group that includes professors in a variety of disciplines -- that the Guantanamo Testimonials Project will make continued ignorance of human-rights abuses that occurred at the U.S. military base in Cuba inexcusable...
The project is important as a record of history; "it's also a moral tale about what can happen when the executive goes rogue, a cautionary tale about what can happen. Eventually, we hope that knowledge will free us of torture and crimes against humanity."
see Theater of pain
