Detention and Interrogation in the Post-9/11 World

Abstract:     
Our detention and interrogation policies in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have been a disaster. This paper, delivered as a Donahue Lecture at Suffolk University Law School in February 2008, explores the dimensions and source of that disaster. It first offers a clear and intelligible narrative of the construction and implementation of executive detention and interrogation policy and then analyzes the roles played by the different branches of government and the American people in order to understand how we have ended up in our current situation.

Keywords: Detention, interrogation policy, Guantanamo, executive detention, Congress, Judicial Branch, enemy combatants, torture

Accepted Paper Series