Reclaiming the Rule of Law: Guantánamo’s Forever Prisoners and the Fate of Liberal Democracy

Co-sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center & the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law

The rule of law is under global assault. America ought to be its champion, but the legacy of Guantánamo and its forever prisoners, scarred by torture and held for decades without trial, endangers our country’s credibility as its defender. This event will present new revelations about the origins of America’s post-9/11 torture program and the shocking lawlessness and lapses in professionalism that made it possible. It will also offer a bipartisan roadmap toward closure of Guantánamo, as well as a look at the Guantánamo debacle’s lessons, some of which are now being put into effect in Ukraine as that country investigates mass-scale war crimes.

Program

Welcome and Introduction: Professionalism and the Rule of Law
M. Gregg Bloche, M.D., Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Georgetown University

Opening Remarks: The Guantanamo Debacle: Cost and Consequence
Alberto Mora, Associate Executive Director for Global Programs, American Bar Association, former General Counsel, CERL Executive Board

Guest Remarks (live from Kyiv, Ukraine): War-Crimes Update from the Battlefield
Yuriy Belousov, Head of Department, Counterreaction to Human Rights Violations, Office of the Prosecutor General, Ukraine – Mendez Principles Advisory Council

Showing of Clips from The Forever Prisoner
Introduced by Cathy Scott-Clark, author and producer

Panel Discussions
Moderated by M. Gregg Bloche, M.D.

Truth Held Captive
Cathy Scott-Clark, Author, The Forever Prisoner (Grove Atlantic, 2022); Producer, The Forever Prisoner (HBO, 2021)

Mark Fallon, former NCIS Deputy Assistant Director, Chief Investigator, Guantanamo Military Commissions, Author, Unjustifiable Means (ReganArts 2017)

Professional Ethics Abandoned
Susan Brandon, former Research PM – High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group

Jack Cloonan, former FBI special agent – Bin Laden Unit

Colleen Kelly, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

Elisa Massimino, Executive Director, Georgetown Law’s Human Rights Institute, and 2019-2021 Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Chair in Human Rights

Charles A. Morgan, M.D., former Intel Officer – CIA Behavioral Science Staff