Guantánamo. In a 30 April letter in the New York Times, 19 members of the National Academy of Sciences accused the Bush administration of showing disdain for international law and crossing the limits of acceptable practices in the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Physicists Freeman Dyson, David Gross, Walter Kohn, Leonard Susskind, Frank Wilczek, and Edward Witten were among the letter’s signers.
Physicists have long been involved in promoting democracy and human rights, sometimes at the cost of their personal freedom, says Susskind. This interest makes many physicists especially sensitive about illegal imprisonment and other abuses of power, he adds.
“I don’t deceive myself into thinking that the letter will, by itself, change things,” says Susskind. “But perhaps it will add a tiny bit to a growing feeling that we are moving into dangerous territory.”
