Also in Politics & Social Justice

Guantánamo

What the World Should Know

by Michael Ratner, Ellen Ray

Including "A President Beyond the Law" by Anthony Lewis

Praise

Many of us already know that imperial policies abroad undermine democracy at home. Guantánamo: What the World Should Know drives this point home like a nail through butter. Abusing people and violating international law will make us less secure, not more secure, and the policies of the Bush administration must be reversed as a priority issue of national security.

—Dr. Kevin Danaher, cofounder of Global Exchange

Guantánamo Bay used to be a symbol of liberty or of capitalist recalcitrance, depending on your view of Fidel Castro. Today it is the foremost symbol of American arrogance. The name alone is now sufficient to elicit disbelief, even from our staunchest allies. Michael Ratner is the perfect guide to this strange new world. In a lively, highly accessible conversation with Ellen Ray, he makes the complex simple and the convoluted clear. We come away from our exposure to this noted activist feeling both enlightened and outraged. And we feel one thing more: that it is good to live in a world with a Michael Ratner in it.

—William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA

From Anthony Lewis's compelling introduction, 'A President Beyond the Law,' through the appendices documenting U.S.-Cuban agreements, Guantánamo, with its panorama of prisoner abuse, should be required reading for any American who considers himself a patriot and a defender of human rights.

—Rose Styron, poet, journalist, and human rights activist

The human rights catastrophe that is the Bush administration's current foreign policy will be the stuff of analysis for centuries to come, but this book serves us now as a succinct analysis of the camp that will stand as a symbol of that policy for posterity. The chasm between constitutional ideal and actual policy that Guantánamo opens up is one more illustration of the capacity for absolute power to corrupt absolutely. Ratner and Ray at least give us the facts we need to solidify our own stand against the Bush administration's neo-medievalism. Feel outraged, then get active.

—Dame Anita Roddick

A brilliant and eloquent indictment of our current administration's disrespect for basic human rights. Ratner breaks down what Guantánamo is, why it matters, and the ramifications for national and international law. This book should be required reading for those concerned with truth, justice, and maintaining our humanity.

—Rachel Neumann, Rights and Liberties Editor, Alternet.org

Michael Ratner is America's most important civil libertarian. If this book doesn't frighten the public into action, nothing will.

—John R. MacArthur, publisher of HarperÂ’s and author of Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War