(1) Can you tell ZNet, please, what Tackling America’s Toughest Questions is about? What is it trying to communicate?
My book is intended to document, critique and refute all of the atrocities the Bush administration has inflicted upon international law, human rights, the United States Constitution and our Bill of Rights from 9/11 until they walked out of Office after giving Israel the proverbial green light to perpetrate their massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.: The "war on terrorism"; "unlawful enemy combatants"; Guantanamo; kangaroo courts; the torture scandal; extraordinary renditions; the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan; their threats to attack Iran and Syria; the anthrax attacks on Congress; their green light to Georgia to attack South Ossetia; spying on the American People; their Fascistic Federalist Society Lawyers; their Neo-Nazi Neo-Cons, etc. The Bush administration attempted to inflict a classic "paradigm shift" on America towards legal and constitutional nihilism. My book is intended to shift their paradigm back to where it should be. After reading this book, I would hope the reader would have a better understanding of how much ground we have lost and how to take it back in the Obama administration. After all, Obama is a law professor. One would hope that these arguments would resonate with him and those in his administration.
(2) Can you tell ZNet something about writing the book? Where does the content come from? What went into making the book what it is?
I am interviewed by mainstream news media sources all the time, but then usually heavily censored. So this book is a collection of interviews I have given to Alternative Media sources that permitted in depth discussion and analysis of the issues mentioned above. It shows the power and the value of Alternative Media sources such as ZNET. The interview format also enables me to comment upon complex legal/political issues in a manner that anyone can understand–not like a law review article. So I am hoping that it would be of interest to a general audience and not just legal specialists. For that reason my publisher and I have brought it out at a reduced price that most people can afford–compared to cappuccino at Starbucks.
(3) What are your hopes for Tackling America’s Toughest Questions? What do you hope it will contribute or achieve politically? Given the effort and aspirations you have for the book, what will you deem to be a success? What would leave you happy about the whole undertaking? What would leave you wondering if it was worth all the time and effort?
We the American People must now start to undo the terrible damage that the Bush administration, its Fascistic Federalist Society Lawyers and its Neo-Nazis Neo-Cons have done to international law, human rights, the United States Constitution, our Bill of Rights, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and Palestine. This book is intended to give the reader some ammunition to use to fight back and try to redress the balance under the Obama administration. It is intended to be used primarily by concerned citizens, grassroots movements, and activists in order to understand what the issues are and what their responses could be. We certainly cannot trust the Obama administration to do the right thing. We the American People must organize and pressure them to do the right thing! Toward that end this book was written.
A scholar in the areas of international law and human rights, Professor Boyle received a J.D. degree magna cum laude and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty at the College of Law, he was a teaching fellow at Harvard and an associate at its Center for International Affairs. He also practiced tax and international tax with Bingham, Dana & Gould in Boston.
He has written and lectured extensively in the United States and abroad on the relationship between international law and politics. His eleventh book, Breaking All the Rules: Palestine, Iraq, Iran and the Case for Impeachment was recently published by Clarity Press. His Protesting Power: War, Resistance and Law (Rowman & Littlefield Inc. 2007) has been used successfully in anti-war protest trials. In the September 2000 issue of the prestigious The International History Review, Professor Boyle's Foundations of World Order: The Legalist Approach to International Relations (1898-1922) was proclaimed as "a major contribution to this reinterrogation of the past" and "required reading for historians, political scientists, international relations specialists, and policy-makers." That book was translated into Korean and published in Korea in 2003 by Pakyoungsa Press.
As an internationally recognized expert, Professor Boyle serves as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine. He also represents two associations of citizens within Bosnia and has been instrumental in developing the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Professor Boyle is Attorney of Record for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, conducting its legal affairs on a worldwide basis. Over his career, he has represented national and international bodies including the Blackfoot Nation (Canada), the Nation of Hawaii, and the Lakota Nation, as well as numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases. He has advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare.
From 1991-92, Professor Boyle served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations. He also has served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, as well as a consultant to the American Friends Services Committee, and on the Advisory Board for the Council for Responsible Genetics. He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. That story is told in his book Biowarfare and Terrorism (Clarity Press: 2005).
In 2001 he was selected to be the Dr. Irma M. Parhad Lecturer by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary in Canada. In 2007 he became the Bertrand Russell Peace Lecturer at McMaster University in Canada. Professor Boyle is listed in the current edition of Marquis' Who's Who in America.
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