“…the evidence indicates a pattern of abuse…”

“…the evidence indicates a pattern of abuse…”

“…the evidence indicates a pattern of abuse…”

Post-9/11 detainees at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn were held in lockdown twenty-three hours a day (an

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Post-9/11 detainees at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn were held in lockdown twenty-three hours a day (an actual cell at MDC is pictured above). Detainees said that guards slammed them against walls, tripped them using their ankle chains, called them “Bin Laden Junior” and told them, “You’re going to die here.” Guards disrupted afternoon prayers for a “stand-up count.” Guards would not let the detainees keep toilet paper or toothbrushes in their cells. The lights were kept on at all times, day and night.

Facts, photographs and quotation above picture from The September 11 Detainees: A Review of the Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration Charges in Connection with the Investigation of the September 11 Attacks, Office of the Inspector General, Justice Department (April 2003).

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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