New NIU law professor to participate
in nationwide teach-in on Guantánamo Bay

Marc D. Falkoff, a new professor in the NIU College of Law, was counsel to prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and one of the first U.S. citizens to visit the controversial military detainment camp in Cuba.

Now Falkoff is among a distinguished group of panelists participating Thursday, Oct. 5, in a national teach-in titled “Guantánamo: How Should We Respond?”

The teach-in is a series of panels and lectures featuring Guantánamo lawyers, journalists, doctors, theologians, historians, human rights activists and released detainees. It will be simulcast from Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CDT. As one of more than 250 participating colleges, NIU Law will broadcast the conference live in Altgeld Hall Room 100.

For his part in the event, Falkoff will introduce and read poetry written by Guantánamo Bay detainees.

Following his morning presentation at Seton Hall Law School, Falkoff will return to NIU and preempt the simulcast to present a 4 p.m. lecture in Altgeld Room 100. He will share his personal experiences as counsel for 17 Yemeni men detained at Guantánamo Bay and read more of the detainees’ poetry.

As one of the first American citizens to travel to the camp and meet directly with the detainees, Falkoff has returned to the camp on eight occasions since his first visit in November 2004. During these visits, Falkoff took a special interest in the poetry written by detainees and was able to collect the “declassified” poems, which will be published in a volume by the University of Iowa Press.

“The significance of these poems is to remind us that these are human beings being detained, not terrorists. They haven’t even been charged with anything. They are not ‘animals,’ and our legal system is slow to give opportunities to prove these labels aren’t true,” Falkoff said. “You will not find hatred in these poems. But you will find hope, disappointment, disillusionment and faith as these men try to make sense of this horrible time in their lives.”

While an attorney at Covington & Burling in New York, Falkoff was principal counsel in filing the first habeas petitions requesting court hearings for 17 Yemeni men detained at Guantánamo Bay.

Although it has been more than two years since Falkoff filed the petition, his clients still remain imprisoned without charges or a trial.

The United States has held more than 450 people for nearly five years at the camp without having trials or charges filed against them, which the detainee lawyers assert is unlawful under both the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law. The United States government, however, has sought to dismiss the cases on the basis that the detainees are “enemy combatants” and therefore are not protected by any law, national or international.

In January 2005, a federal district court ruled that the detainees are indeed entitled to a hearing in civilian court. However, the United States filed an appeal in the case and a decision has yet to be made.

“Congress is now trying to strip the courts of their jurisdiction,” Falkoff said.

Guantánamo is just the tip of the iceberg, he added, noting that there are 14,000 prisoners illegally detained in U.S. prisons worldwide. 

“This is the most important case since Brown v. The Board of Education,” Falkoff said. “We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of our self-definition as people and our respect for the rule of law. We cannot abandon our commitment to human rights. Our job as educators and students is to cut through the military and administration’s misrepresentations and their ‘Orwellian’ language to learn the truth of what is really going on at these detention camps.”

Thursday’s teach-in will explore two overriding themes: whether Guantánamo can exist in a democracy committed to the rule of law, and whether and how various communities should respond to this unprecedented governmental action.

Among the noteworthy panelists are Jane Mayer of the New Yorker; Adam Zagorin of Time magazine; Capt. James Yee, former chaplain at Guantánamo; Rear Admiral Donald Guter, retired judge advocate of the U.S. Navy; Gerald Koocher, president of the American Psychological Association; and William H. Taft IV, former chief legal adviser, U.S. State Department.

The public is welcome to view the all-day simulcast at NIU in Altgeld Hall Room 100.

10-2-06