By Chris Falcone

University students put on a play reenacting what it is like to be a detainee in U.S custody on Wednesday as part of a series to create discussion on governmental procedures and to shed light on some questionable actions.

The performance, “Could it Happen Here? Witnessing Guantanamo,” was followed by a brief question and answer session sponsored by the Long Island Teachers for Human Rights and the Muslim Students Association, in conjunction with the University Cultural Center.

“The performance was the second part of a two-part performance designed to really create a space for dialogue about some of the procedures that the government has been using with regards to detaining people without representation and access to lawyers,” Keith Pounds, a professor of speech communications, said.

Most of the text was a combination of newspaper reports of different kinds of abuses that have been taking place, some original writing and excerpts of the play “Guantanamo,” which is running in New York City.

That play is taken from testimony of detainees and the synopsis is the journey of one man who has been detained. Similarly, The performance shed light on the process of being interviewed and interrogated, Pounds said.

The most riveting part of the interactive session, following the performance, was a remark made by one of the Arabic performers who said after a long discussion recently with a black man that the Muslim population in the U.S. had become “the new niggers in town.”

The first performance of the series was a staged arrest in the Hammer Lab of a student who appeared to look like a stereotypical Muslim.

“This was done with the hopes of raising the idea that these detentions can and do happen and happen very suddenly,” Pounds said. “Our government now has laws that many people are not aware of that allow them to just pick somebody and keep them without giving them any reason as to why.”

These government actions can even take place on what is normally considered a safe haven, college campuses, Pounds said.

Following the performance there was a presentation of the International Scene Lecture Series: Foreign Policy Issues in the 2nd Bush Administration. The two foreign policy dissidents on hand were Anne Wright and Mel Goodman.

Both spoke from experience and were passionate in their remarks. Wright was particularly emotional when questioning students if they wanted to be drafted, claiming that recruitment and retention in the military is way down and the draft seemed to be on the horizon as long as we continue to occupy Iraq.

Goodman, on the other hand, spoke mainly about his knowledge of the CIA and its failure to do its job by honoring the truth in reporting to the powers that be. He said the truth is the most important job description of the CIA. That is all that is asked of them and yet there is a continual failure to comply with that creed in regards to Iraq.

This was evident in the lack of success in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, which according to Goodman, counter-intelligence officials knew from the beginning were not going to be found in Iraq. He also balked at the current administrations stance on the “war on terrorism.”

“Terrorism is not an enemy, it’s a tactic,” he said.

Goodman seemed to strike a cord when condemning the current administration for painting the picture that Iraq sand Saddam Hussein were connected to the events of 9/11.

“That is one of the most distasteful and deceitful things that this administration has done,” he said. “To use the power of 9/11 for the purpose of waging a war is a disgrace.”