You’re Invited
“Let’s Go to Guantanamo! An On-the-Ground Perspective on the 9/11 Trial”
By Lisa Hajjar
Feb. 25, 7 p.m
Monroe Hall, Room 116
This talk focuses on the military commission trial for Khaled Sheikh Muhammad and four other men accused of responsibility for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a case often referred to as “the trial of the century.” Lisa Hajjar will offer a first-hand perspective on what it is like to go to Guantanamo, and will discuss the critical and contentious issues that this case raises.
Hajjar, professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, went to Guantanamo three times in 2010 to report on the trial of Omar Khadr, the Canadian “child soldier,” who was transferred to Guantanamo when he was 16. In December 2013, she went to Guantanamo to observe the military commission trial of five 9/11 suspects.
Hijjar’s research and writing focus on law and legality, war and conflict, human rights, and torture. She is the author of “Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza” (University of California Press, 2005) and “Torture: A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights” (Routledge, 2012). She serves on the editorial committees of Middle East Report, Jadaliyya, and Journal of Palestine Studies. She is currently working on a book about U.S. torture and the role of lawyers. In 2014-2015, she will be the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut.
