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B Ack St OR Y b a c k s t o r y GUANTANAMO HONOR BOUND TO DEFEND FREE DOM Your behind-the-scenes look at TimeLine productions yesterday’s stories. today’s topics. message from theartistic director connection pj powers g u a n t a n a mo the play Dear Friends, how to fight a new kind of enemy tell their By Gillian Slovo Directed by Nick Bowling february 11 – m a rch 2 6, 2 0 0 6 and a new kind of war. stories as and Victoria Brittain previews 2/7 – 2/10 Welcome to the second edition of honestly as TimeLine Backstory, and thanks Recently, I’ve had a few people ask Originally produced to great journalist Victoria Brittain and nov- of their public statements. Like the possible and so much to all of you who shared if Guantanamo is a “traditional acclaim in London in 2004 and elist Gillian Slovo to create a piece tribunal plays, as Slovo explains, let you draw comments about our inaugural TimeLine history play” or more of a subsequent hit Off-Broadway, on the detentions at Guantanamo. “only the words of the real people your own edition. We’re thrilled to give a “current events play.” I guess my Guantanamo is based on inter- Over March and April of 2004, the involved could be used.” In decid- conclusions about how these you this behind-the-scenes look response is “yes” and “you betcha.” views with the families of men two interviewed former detainees ing how to structure the play, “I “current events” speak to broader at our work, and we’ll hopefully Surely, it’s increasingly apparent detained in Guantanamo Bay. (four of the British detainees had found that the best way was to questions regarding the history continue to offer new features that the tales of Guantanamo Bay This stirring drama weaves been released in early March), partially describe the journey and future of civil liberties. and insight with each issue. and the “War on Terror” are still together riveting personal stories, unfolding, and it may take quite With a very talented cast and legal opinion and political debate, “People want to hear the truth, not a journalist’s When TimeLine’s company awhile before we gain perspective design team, and in the always- putting a human face on the cut. In the theatre, you sit down and wrestle members first read Guantanamo: on how they’ll influence the wider inspired hands of director Nick world’s headlines and examining Honor Bound To Defend Freedom with an issue.” scope of history. We’ll leave such Bowling, we’re proud to share the divisive line between main- last spring we were blown away —Nicholas Kent, Artistic Director of London’s Tricycle Theatre work to historians and pundits Guantanamo with you. I look for- taining national security and by how the play presents such and leave the conclusions to a ward to seeing you at the theatre protecting human rights. detainees’ families, and lawyers. Victoria and I had gone on to complex ideas and emotions in future generation. But, as theatre soon to continue the conversation. From these interviews, conducted understand what had happened such a simple and personal way. London’s Tricycle Theatre has artists in the here-and-now, in a number of locations such as to these people—picked up and Playwrights Victoria Brittain and Best Wishes, made a name with their “tribunal” TimeLine is drawn to this play be- pubs, hotels, offices, and subur- taken to a place they might not Gillian Slovo conducted countless documentary plays, performances cause it asks us to consider how ban sitting rooms, they construct- even have known existed, and hours of interviews to bring you composed verbatim from the the voice of the individual can ed the play, also including letters kept there for who knows how face-to-face with the detainees, records of trials and reports (such resound in stories of monumental received by the families. Officials long, and to let the play then build families and lawyers who have as the Nuremberg Trial and the and historical significance. PJ Powers in the U.S. and U.K. governments into a more general understand- experienced the good, the bad, Bloody Sunday Inquiry). Nicholas declined to be interviewed, so ing of what this means, not only and the ugly events that have Guantanamo is made up of the Artistic Director Kent of Tricycle commissioned Brittain and Slovo included some for them, but also for all of us.” peppered headlines and ignited words and viewpoints of real a worldwide conversation about history-makers. Our goal is to gillian slovothe & victoria playwrights brittain Post-Show Discussions Backstory Credits South African born Gillian du monde in France and has been the Third World, for many Slovo lives in London. She is a made into a feature film starring publications in Britain and in Join members of the cast and production team for free Dramaturgy & Historical Research by Jennifer Shook. writer whose ten published novels Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor. France. She worked at The Guard- post-show discussions on every Thursday starting 2/16 Rehearsal Photography by Lara Goetsch. include five detective novels Her most recent novel, Ice Road, ian for twenty years, most recently and on Sundays 2/19 & 3/12 Design by Rogue Element. featuring the detective, Kate Baier, was shortlisted for the Orange as Associate Foreign Editor. She is a family saga, Ties of Blood, and Prize. She is currently working on currently a Research Associate at Sunday Scholar Series a thriller, The Betrayal. Her family a new novel. the London School of Econom- memoir, Every Secret Thing, was ics. She is a patron of Palestine Following the performance on Bridget Arimond, Assistant Joseph Margulies, Lecturer in Victoria Brittain has lived and an international best seller. Her Solidarity, on the editorial board Sunday, February 26, join us for Director, Center for International Law, The Law School, University worked as a journalist in Wash- novel, Red Dust, set around a of Race and Class, and a Trustee our Sunday Scholar Series, a one- Human Rights, Northwestern of Chicago ington, Saigon, Algiers, Nairobi hearing of South African Truth of Widows Rights International. hour panel discussion with experts University School of Law and London. She has reported Gary Isaac, Counsel working on and Reconciliation Commission, She is on the national executive talking about the themes and extensively from many parts of Guantanamo Bay detainee cases, won the prix RFI temoin council of the Respect Coalition. issues of Guantanamo. Panelists Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw will include: - - Assistant Pres. Franklin In Ex Parte Quirin, The U.S. leases 45 The base at Guantanamo is The fourth Geneva Conven In Johnson v. Eisenberger, the Al-Qaeda attacks U.S. Feb.square 1903Guantanamo miles offueling land Bayandstation. from water Cuba at to buildFeb. a Roosevelt 9, 19429066, signs incarcerationauthorizing ExecutiveJapanese theOrder of removaloverAmericans. 110,000July and the 31, Supreme 1942President byCourt aFranklin military upholds to commission. try 1943a decision Nazire-ratified, saboteurs by at approximately andcannot the leaseagreement be $4,000.terminated amountment of ofThe isboth thewithoutfixed treaty propertyparties, the or by abandon the U.S. 1949tion extendsagreement andpopulations codifiesonprisoners treatment internationalduring of ofwar. wartime, specific1950 Supreme includingcourt Court systemto ruleshear whodid casesthat not had the U.S.filed have been federal territory. by jurisdiction seizedenemy andaliens held outside1998 embassies with in suicide Kenya bombs.andSept. Tanzania Attorney 11, first2001 General thingmean discussed: John legallypowers Yoo and recalls“Whatof thein terms thegovernment?” did thisof the timeline of events a “new kind of war” the setting the detainees in the playthe players Since declaring a “war on terror” the U.S. from Cuba since 1903, what constitutes “custody” has Ruhel Ahmed training at a base for Al-Qaeda in 2001, the Bush administration is claimed as territory by neither encouraged much latitude in the Formerly known by his neighbors operatives. However, British intelli- has fought several international, country, and therefore a “legal process of “sharing the burden” as an avid kickboxer, Ruhel is now gence checked out the timeframe national, and internal battles over black hole.” Most of the detain- of detention and interrogation known as one of the “Tipton and found that all three men were the rules of engagement. ees have been held in various with third countries, even those Three,” a group of British college working at the Curry’s super- bases (such as Bagram and Abu known as human rights violators. store in Birmingham at that time, The rules that normally govern students from the West Midlands Ghraib) since the October 2001 invalidating their “confession.” All wartime behavior toward prison- who traveled to Afghanistan U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Nine Interrogation and Intelligence three were released and returned ers include U.S. civil law, the in October 2001 en route to a British citizens have been released The arguments in favor of indefi- to the UK with no charges in U.N. Convention Against Torture friend’s wedding in Pakistan. and repatriated to the UK without nite detainment are 1) A policing March 2004. With Jamal al-Harith, (adopted by the U.S. in 1994), Taken prisoner by the Taliban, charges. British residents without function, and 2) To “harvest the Tipton Three brought a and the Geneva Conventions. then taken by the U.S. to Kanda- the benefit of UK citizenship re- actionable intelligence” that may lawsuit against Donald Rums- The Geneva Conventions state har a month later, they wound main, including Bisher al-Rawi and be used to break down terror feld alleging mistreatment. The Actor Bobby Zaman playing that prisoners of war must be up with 3,000 others in a prison Supreme Court ruled in their favor “treated humanely,” and prohibit taken over by the U.S., were taken Bisher Al-Rawi in June 2004, agreeing that their “outrages upon personal dignity” “[We’ve got to] work through, sort to Kandahar a month later, and for a spy.
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