Guantánamo in Spotlight with Taliban-Bergdahl Release Deal

More men may be moved out of the Guantánamo base in light of the recent prisoner exchange of Taliban leaders for Bowe Bergdahl ("Obama Administration Considers Transfer of More Guantánamo Detainees," Guardian (London, UK), June 9, 2014). Obama stated in 2013 that he plans to close the detention center. Some 149 detainees remain at Guantánamo, but a review board has been created to allow men to petition for freedom.

Review selected hard copy and online library books related to Guantánamo at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library.

Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• Afghan War 2001 prisoners
• combatants
• Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp
• Guantánamo Bay Naval Base

Selling Guantánamo: Exploding the Propaganda Surrounding America's Most Notorious Military Prison by John Hickman
University Press of Florida, 2013.
call number: 355.129 Hic
"Americans have been sold a bill of goods on the rationale for detaining "unlawful combatants" at the Guantanamo prison facility according to this probing study. Hickman, associate professor of govern-ment at Berry College, makes a bold case that official Washington keeps the majority of these men imprisoned as pawns in an ongoing propaganda war manufactured for domestic consumption." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

The Terror Courts: Rough Justice at Guantanamo Bay by Jess Bravin
Yale University Press, 2013
call number: 345.73 Bra
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"Jess Bravin, the Wall Street Journal 's Supreme Court correspondent, was there within days of the prison's opening, and has continued ever since to cover the U.S. effort to create a parallel justice system for enemy aliens. A maze of legal, political, and moral issues has stood in the way of justice--issues often raised by military prosecutors who found themselves torn between duty to the chain of command and their commitment to fundamental American values. While much has been written about Guantanamo and brutal detention practices following 9/11, Bravin is the first to go inside the Pentagon's prosecution team to expose the real-world legal consequences of those policies. Bravin describes cases undermined by inadmissible evidence obtained through torture, clashes between military lawyers and administration appointees, and political interference in criminal prosecutions that would be shocking within the traditional civilian and military justice systems." - publisher summary excerpt