The Long Shadow of 9/11 Hangs Over Guantánamo Bay

Philip Luke Johnson is a Political Science Ph.D. candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a lecturer in the undergraduate writing program at Princeton University. His dissertation research is supported by fellowships from the Graduate Center, The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He has published articles about his research on the Guantánamo Bay prison in Critical Military Studies and the online magazine Critical Violence at a Glance, with a post titled “What Will It Take to End Indefinite Detention at Guantánamo Bay?” He previously wrote about terrorism and organized crime in Mexico in Perspectives on Terrorism. Johnson discussed his research in Mexico on episode 78 of The Thought Project podcast. This week, Johnson joins The Thought Project to discuss the military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay of five men accused of aiding the 9/11 attacks. The Guantánamo Bay prison was established under controversial terms: The U.S. government declared that the U.S. Constitution did not apply to those being put on trial. Johnson believes that this extralegal history undermines the legitimacy of the tribunals. He argues that the indefinite detention of accused terrorists serves neither the interests of the U.S. government nor the legal concerns of those detained. Listen to this Thought Project conversation about the crimes that took place on 9/11 and their aftermath 20 years later.