On Saturday January 10, 2004, the Business Meeting of the American Historical Association unanimously approved the following resolution, which was proposed by Historians Against the War (HAW):

HAW Resolution

In view of current efforts to restrict free speech in the name of national security, the American Historical Association affirms the sanctity of rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, the decisive importance of unfettered discussion to the pursuit of historical knowledge, the necessity for open debate of US foreign policy and other public issues in order to safeguard the health of democracy and of our profession, and the need for open access to government records and archives.

HAW decided to submit the resolution last fall. At a meeting held on January 9, which was attended by forty historians, the group debated other measures they could take. Some wanted HAW to advocate stronger, more radical proposals. But these efforts were overwhelmingly defeated.

Related Links

• Reporter's Notebook: The 2003 Annual Meeting of the AHA
• 2003 OAH Annual Meeting: What Historians Against the War Want
• Reporter's Notebook: The 2003 Annual Meeting of the OAH

Robert John - 1/14/2004

How is American liberty? From the Anglo-American attack on Afghanistan in 2001, there were hundreds of prisoners kept as “enemy combatants” in Cuba without trial. Various forms of the writ of habeas corpus (Latin, have the body), developed in England from the 13th century and by Charles I’s reign established as a means of testing the freedom of the subject from wrongful imprisonment, it was formally established by the British Habeas Corpus Act of 1679.
Its importance is that it prevents people being imprisoned on mere suspicion or left in prison an indefinite time without trial—surely an example for the peoples of Afghanistan.
But in the 21st-century pseudoconservative New World Order misleaders denied them that example—that human right.

Barbara Cornett - 1/12/2004

Congratulations to all the historians and on behalf of all Americans and lovers of freedom everywhere THANK YOU!