**2012 American Bar Association Gavel Award Honorable Mention for
Books
**
**2012 Scribes Book Silver Medal Award presented by the American Society
of Legal Writers
**
The U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay has long been synonymous
with torture, secrecy, and the abuse of executive power. It has come to
epitomize lawlessness and has sparked protracted legal battles and
political debate. For too long, however, Guantánamo has been viewed in
isolation and has overshadowed a larger, interconnected global detention
system that includes other military prisons such as Bagram Air Base in
Afghanistan, secret CIA jails, and the transfer of prisoners to other
countries for torture. Guantánamo is simply--and alarmingly--the most
visible example of a much larger prison system designed to operate
outside the law.
Habeas Corpus after 9/11 examines the rise of the U.S.-run global
detention system that emerged after 9/11 and the efforts to challenge it
through habeas corpus (a petition to appear in court to claim unlawful
imprisonment). Habeas expert and litigator Jonathan Hafetz gives us an
insider's view of the detention of "enemy combatants" and an accessible
explanation of the complex forces that keep these systems running.
In the age of terrorism, some argue that habeas corpus is impractical
and unwise. Hafetz advocates that it remains the single most important
check against arbitrary and unlawful detention, torture, and the abuse
of executive power.
