Rehumanizing American Justice: New Strategies

Last January, American C-140 planes launched attacks on southern Somalia killing not only Islamic Courts leaders in flight from the Ethiopian army but also bystanders and livestock. Initially, news outlets reported that the strikes killed another intended target, Fazul Mohamed, accused of bombing U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. A few hours later, an Associated Press reporter sought my reaction as a survivor of the 1998 bombing and the widow of a victim. She asked whether Fazul's death made me feel that "justice has been done". Arguing that killing and justice should never be equated, I reminded her that, in July 2001, four embassy bombings suspects had been convicted and sentenced using a recognizable form of justice: U.S. federal court. That same day, AP reported that the strikes had not killed Fazul but had wreaked havoc in the region.

In the U.S.-led war on terror, incommunicado detention, abductions and disappearances, denial of medical care, solitary confinement, unique and arbitrary proceedings, many forms of torture, and other violent tactics short of killing have been used to bring suspects to justice in profoundly dehumanizing ways. These tactics position suspects outside the realm of humanity yet within the law. For instance, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is among the many terror suspects who have experienced legal dehumanization. Also indicted for the embassy bombings, Ghailani was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and then disappeared.

Human rights groups speculate that he was interrogated, and tortured, in a secret prison. A year ago, Ghailani surfaced and, along with 13 other detainees, was brought to Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The Military Commission case being prepared against Ghailani can use evidence obtained through coercion and suppress claims that he was tortured enroute to Guantanamo.

Legal dehumanization, which lies at the heart of bringing Ghailani and other suspects to justice, is eroding the legitimacy and efficacy of the U.S. legal system. As a prime symbol of such inhumanity, Guantanamo Bay detention camp can and should be the site where this erosion is reversed. From its inception Guantanamo's critics have decried the whole endeavor as inhumane, unjust, and unnecessary. Strong protests over denying detainees habeas corpus protections reject the idea that the U.S. could refuse to acknowledge the human beings held in custody. In recent months, personnel changes at the Justice Department and vows by Congress to reform the Military Commissions Act and other Bush administration policies portend that the tide might be turning. But unrelenting opposition toward trying terror suspects in open courts confirms that the dual frames of the global war on terror and national security continue to shape U.S. policy and produce justice options that have yet to renounce dehumanizing practices. Testifying last month at his nomination hearing to replace Attorney.

Relations between detainees and their families and attorneys, the media, and the public. Bringing the accused into a social world, albeit controlled to avoid compromising security, is a first step toward acknowledging their humanity. 3) Relations between the U.S. and a distrustful and disdainful world community. This could be accomplished by unconditionally and unequivocally renouncing assassinations, disappearances, torture, and similar dehumanizing tactics. 4) Relations between the U.S. and the community of nations. Here, nothing more complicated than embracing international human rights laws and treaties is required.

Images of the goggled, orange-jump suited Guantanamo detainee and the naked, terrified Abu Ghraib prisoner have come to symbolize American injustice. Replacing these images with more recognizable depictions of holding suspects legally accountable is an imperative goal. Yet it will have impact only if undertaken along with repairing broken relationships and thereby rehumanizing American justice. Susan F. Hirsch is the author of In the Moment of Greatest Calamity: Terrorism, Grief, and a Victim's Quest for Justice.