Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror

By Steven T. Wax

American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award — Winner in the Book category
Independent Publishers — Winner of the Gold Medal in the Autobiography/Memoir category       
ForeWord Book of the Year Awards — Winner of the Bronze Medal in the Social Science category
The Eric Hoffer Award - Winner in the Memoir category

A public defender’s dedicated struggle to rescue two innocent men from the recent Kafkaesque practices of our vandalized justice system

“Our government can make you disappear.” Those were the words Steven Wax never imagined he would hear himself say. In his twenty-nine years as a public defender, Wax had never had to warn a client that he or she might be taken away to a military brig, or worse, a “black site,” one of our country’s dreaded secret prisons. How had our country come to this? The disappearance of people happens in places ruled by tyrants, military juntas, fascist strongmen—governments with such contempt for the rule of law that they strip their citizens of all rights. But in America?

Under the current Bush administration, not only are the civil rights of foreigners in jeopardy, but those of U.S. citizens. Wax interweaves the stories of two men that he and his team represented: Brandon Mayfield, an American-born small town lawyer and family man, arrested as a suspected terrorist in the Madrid train station bombings after a fingerprint was incorrectly traced back to him by the FBI; and Adel Hamad, a Sudanese hospital administrator taken from his apartment to a Pakistani prison and then flown in chains to the United States military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Kafka Comes to America reveals where and how our civil liberties have been eroded for a false security, and how each of us can make a difference. If these events could happen to Brandon Mayfield and Adel Hamad, they can happen to anyone. It could happen to us. It could happen to you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781590514559

Reviews for Kafka Comes to America

[callmecayce · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure that I have the right words to express how good this book was. Kafka Comes to America is part memoir, part criticism of the US government and it's practices and part exploration of freedom. It's a brilliant and exceptional book. While many non-fiction books can't get that page-turner aspect down, Wax has no problems. It helps that his topic is so intense. Wax, a public defender, gives us a first hand look at what it's like, not just about being a public defender, but what it really means to defend the people who have no one looking out for them. He gives us a chance to truly understand what the war on terror really means as he fights for justice. Wax, his coworkers and employees worked to defend an American, 'the citizen,' who was arrested in connection with the Madrid train bombings (he was innocent) and a Sudanese aide worker, 'the alien,' who was grabbed from his apartment and eventually ended up in Guantanamo (he was also innocent). While Wax's firm defended more than just those two men, they are the focus of this book. Kafka Comes to America is a study in the importance of justice, but also what it means to live in this country. I highly recommend this book to anyway (American and non) to truly understand the other side of the war on terror, the side no one talks about. Wax's voice is strong, just as strong as his desire to do what's right for his clients.

[marywhisner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Kafka Comes to America, Steven T. Wax -- the long-time Federal Public Defender for Oregon -- recounts his experience representing two clients, Brandon Mayfield and Adel Hamad.Mayfield was a youngish attorney starting a practice in Beaverton, OR. Then he was suddenly in the international news, arrested as a material witness in the Madrid train station bombings, with leaks from the government indicating that his fingerprint matched one found on a bag of explosives. Much later, it was revealed that the Spanish National Police never agreed with the FBI's identification and in fact eventually matched the print to an Algerian suspect. By the way, it appears that the FBI focused on Mayfield largely because he was a Muslim married to an Egyptian-American.Hamad was one of several Guantánamo detainee's Wax's office represented. Sudanese, he had spent years working for relief organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan: he taught school in a refugee camp and he was a hospital administrator. One day Pakistani police -- along with someone with an American accent -- picked him up in his apartment in July 2002. He was questioned (again and again) in a prison in Pakistan, suffering physically to the point that his captors hospitalized him, and then in March 2003 questioning and rough treatment in the Middle East, he was flown to Guantánamo. Two years later, after Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004) the Army notified detainees that they could petition for habeas corpus and, in March 2005, Hamad handwrote his petition. It was in February 2006 that he first met his lawyer. In December 2007, he finally returned home. He still hopes to have a hearing that will declare that he never was an enemy combatant. The book presents a good picture of the multi-faceted advocacy Hamad's team presented -- administrative, judicial, political. The snarls of the system are scary -- but the dedication of the public defender team (indeed, the very existence of a public defender system) is inspiring.