September 11, 2001, sparked a firestorm of racial profiling, detentions and deportations by the United States government so grievous as to evoke the shameful internment of Japanese Americans of more than half a century past. Thousands have been imprisoned without either trial or any kind of judicial hearing: detained, often indefinitely, solely on the say-so of the executive. Yet knowledge of the particular circumstances and incidents of the detentions remains dim."America's Disappeared: Secret Imprisonment Detainees and the "War on Terror"" brings together, for the first time, detainees' own testimonies with a comprehensive framework for understanding the issues by leading constitutional scholars working for their release. Going beyond the prevailing accounts to a detailed exploration of detention--the forms currently in use, and the conditions of each--the authors authoritatively refute its alleged justifications, boldly exploring its human costs.Beginning with a catalogue of dragnet schemes---voluntary interviews, NSEERs, the targeting of foreign students--"America's Disappeared" proceeds to document the blunt reality of this program of detention, presenting detainees' chilling accounts of solitary confinement, isolation, and physical and mental abuse. Turning to a history of American detention policy, the book surveys U.S. opposition to these illegal practices undertaken outside our borders and warns of the dangerous precedent set by this homegrown example.Michael Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He has led several cases representing detainees held at Camp X-Ray in Cuba; Rachel Meeropol is the Center's equal justice work fellow; Barbara Olshansky is the assistant legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of "Secret Trials and Executions"; Steven MacPherson Watt is human rights fellow at the Center.
