Abstract: On September 11, 2001, terrorism instantly became the defining issue of our time. The resulting debate surrounding the inherent tension between national security and individual civil rights has focused national and international attention on how post-9/11 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and around the world have been interrogated. All concerned agree that, while interrogation practices represent a crucial meeting ground between human rights and counterterrorism measures, the limits placed on interrogators are perhaps the most difficult to define, for they determine how “far” a civil society is willing to go in eliciting information necessary for its self-defense. This book offers a theoretical analysis and practical application of coercive interrogation and in doing so, suggests developing and implementing a hybrid paradigm based on American criminal law, the Geneva Conventions, and the Israeli model of trial as the most relevant judicial regime. This book creatively utilizes a historical analysis of the system of “justice” for African Americans in the Deep South of the past century to serve as a guide for the constitutional rights and protections that should be granted or extended to an unprotected class. The book then indicates which methods are within the boundaries of the law while providing interrogators the tools required to protect America's vital interests.

Keywords: balancing rights, national security, detainee, counterterrorism, African Americans, torture, civil rights, hybrid paradigm