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‘This book makes a very important contribution to the small but growing literature on the human rights implications of the US-led “War on Terror’’. Drawing on hours and hours of accounts from victims and families, it is relevant to scholars of international relations, international law, and human rights. It also appeals to human rights and civil liberties organizations, Muslim communities, political parties, and the general public, whose skepticism of British and US activities is growing.’ — Ruth Blakeley, University of Kent
Rules of the Game investigates global counterterrorism through the perspective of those affected by such measures. Asim Qureshi’s indefatigable research took him to East Africa, Pakistan, Sudan, the USA, Bosnia and Canada to record the testimonies of the victims of these detention policies.
320pp Feb 2010
| Hardback | | 9781850659693 | | £55.00 | | Buy Now | | Paperback | | 9781850659686 | | £12.99 | | Buy Now |
In the aftermath of the suicide bombings on London’s transport infrastructure in July 2005, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair said that ‘the rules of the game have changed’. He referred to how his government planned to respond to the attacks, but few people at the time anticipated that counterterrorism would become synonymous with circumventing time-honoured concepts such as the rule of law. It is associated now with words such as profiling, incommunicado detention, rendition and torture. Rules of the Game investigates global counterterrorism through the perspective of those affected by such measures. Asim Qureshi’s indefatigable research took him to East Africa, Pakistan, Sudan, the USA, Bosnia and Canada to record the testimonies of the victims of these detention policies. He analyses the effects of global counterterrorism not as individual policies or pieces of legislation, but rather as parts of a larger phenomenon that has uniformly changed the way governments view justice and eroded fundamental norms in pursuit of often phantom terrorists. Among the issues he discusses are profiling of Muslims by security services and concurrent mass arrests; the use of detention without charge, control orders and incommunicado detention; rendition; domestic detention policies in North America; and how the establishment of Guantánamo Bay has affected global perceptions of justice and imprisonment.
Reviews ‘When we arrived after the plane journey, they
untied my blindfold. I found there were women
and children on one side and men on the other
side of the plane. They were saying, “they are
taking us to Mogadishu”. The Kenyans who
bought me there were still here. I was crying and
screaming and telling them to let me go as I had
my passport and that I was from Dubai and they
should send me back. One man tried me to keep
me quiet by saying, “you are coming with us.”…
In total there were 22 women and children. Apart
from me and another lady, everyone else was 3-8
months pregnant.’—statement by Kamilya Tuweil
to Cageprisoners, Dubai, 2007
--- Rules of the Game
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