The torture warrants debate leaves out the details about the people actually detained after 9/11

Khalid el-masri German Citizen Born in Kuwait but

married a German woman

Handed over to the CIA and, according to a lawsuit, tortured in Afghanistan.

Khalid Al-masri The name of a

person alleged to have made contact in Germany with the 9/11 hijackers

No relation to El-Masri

The years after 9/11

Enemy Combatants (not prisoners of war,do not have legal protections)

Operatives working for Al Qaeda, Taliban

Islamic (and more generally Middle Eastern)

Names someone or something (a force) againstthe United States

Figure of evilFighter with access to arms, including nuclear,

and “weapons of mass destruction”Anti-democraticIsolates actions from other acts of violence

(e.g. mass murderers)

Relies on various oppositions:

West vs. EastChristian vs. IslamUS vs. terrorists (enemies)

"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” George W. Bush, 9/20/01

State of the Union Speech January 28, 2003

Transcript

http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html

Youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgwqCdv3YQo

(Part 6, :30 – 2:40)

Evidence from intelligence sources, secretcommunications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own. -----------------------------------------------------------But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by Saddam Hussein.

Professor of literature at Columbia University

Major influence in literary studies and postcolonialism

Culture and Imperialism (1993)

Reflections on Exile and Other Essays (2000)

Public intellectual and supporter of Palestinian statehood

The Question of Palestine (1979)

Covering Islam (1981)

“Islam’s role in hijackings and terrorism, descriptions of the way in which overtly Muslim countries like Iran threaten ‘us’ and our way of life, and speculations about the latest conspiracy to blow up buildings, sabotage commercial airliners, and poison water supplies seem to play increasingly on Western consciousness.” Said, 1993

Said’s work crossed various disciplines and fields

Women’s StudiesEcology (biology, earth science, society)

Area Studies (Latin American, “Orient”)

Ethnic Studies (African American, etc.)National Studies (American Studies - US)

• Academic and general• Opposition between Orient and Occident• Opposition is “man-made”• Not a set of “lies” but a way of thinking• A cultural and political fact• Creates a relationship of power• Situates the Occident as superior

“Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient – dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.” (3)

West as modern, rational, democratic, and ultimately superior

Orient as exotic and exaggerated (camels, belly dancers, sheiks, desert)

Assumes an essential difference

• “Strategic Location” – author’s position or starting point (20)

• “Orientalism is premised on exteriority” to what is described

• Not a question of accuracy but rather an emphasis on representation (style, figures of speech, setting, narrative devices, etc) (21)

• Does not address what is actually there. The people? What do they say?

• Presents information as monolithic. What about specifics/breaks?

• The field of Orientalist studies was more varied than Said’s argument.

• Does not distinguish between academic work and popular culture.

How do the types of perspectives that Said associates with Orientalism become intertwined with US racial visions and racism, particularly in the wake of 9/11 and the Bush Administration’s arguments about terrorism?

How does terrorism fit into US racial thinking?

Historical opposition between white/black

Historical opposition between white/other(including Asian, Mexican Am, etc.)

21st Century growing acceptance of anational multi-racial society.

Where does the terrorist figure fit in?

Race not biological, not essential

Racial constructions as appearing in history(historically contingent)

Shifting meaning and codes (race changes)

Role of the contemporary global context?

The Case of Jose Padilla

US citizen born in Brooklyn

Abdullah al-MuhajirArrested in 2002Held for 3+ years without

chargesEnemy combatantWas tortured

Where does the United States hold terrorists?