Empire crime, rendition and Guantánamo Bay : the case of David Hicks

This article argues that a concept of “empire crime” can usefully extend that of state crime to better comprehend the unlawful “extraordinary rendition”, detention without trial and torture associated with the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay and other sites where imperial “exceptions” to US and international law are claimed and practiced. Other nation states have been complicit in this regime – the UK, Canada and Australia among them. Their state crimes in this respect are inextricably part of the “empire crime” of the US-led empire of capital. This article considers one case in detail: that of David Hicks, one of the two Australians rendered to and detained at Guantánamo Bay with the connivance of the Australian and other states. The US state has variously denied, rationalized, exceptionalised and blamed the victims of the state crimes in this regime, and the Australian and other states involved have falsely denied knowledge and otherwise followed suit.