"That was not an order to murder the Jews, it was an order to exclude them from participation in society. Once you start excluding a group for whatever reason you are on the path to the ultimate exclusion. -- Stephen Smith, executive director of the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation Institute
Visitors get a close view of the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, promulgated by the Third Reich as the beginning of persecution of Jews AP Photo
The Bush administration's establishment of a 'rights-free-zone' at Guantanamo was similarly predicated on exclusion of an arbitrarily selected group of individuals from the protections accorded other citizens of the world. We would do well to heed lessons from the not-so-distant past to enforce accountability for war criminals like John Yoo who employed law in their own project of dehumanization.Â
