Kafka Comes to America

Kafka Comes to America
Steven Wax
Other Press
ISBN: 978-1590512951
Non-Fiction, Current Affairs, Politics
Reviewed by Muhammed Hassanali

Wax takes the title of his book from Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel The Trail. The main character in Kafka’s novel is Josef K. who one morning is arrested and prosecuted for an unspecified crime. In Kafka comes to America, Wax gives a chilling account of two men who were wrongly imprisoned after 9/11. One is Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer in Oregon who was arrested by the FBI as a suspect in the Madrid Bombings in 2004. It turned out that the only piece of evidence the FBI had was a wrongly matched fingerprint.

The second “more heart wrenching story” is of a Sudanese Adel Hassan Hamad who was working for a relief agency in Pakistan as a hospital administrator was taken to a Pakistani prison and later held without charge at Guantanamo. Hamad’s arrested was probably motivated by the $5,000 bounty that America offered for al-Qaeda fighters.

The differences are striking: Mayfield is an American, was in custody 19 days. When he sued, he settled for $2 million. Hamad is not an American citizen; he was not in America, and not an enemy combatant. He was in custody for 2,000 days and got nothing.

Mayfield’s case illustrates the effects of the FBI’s “sneak-and-peak” searches that were authorized by the Patriot Act and Hamad’s story illustrates the effects of the laws, administrative decisions and court rulings that flowed out of the War on Terror. Both demonstrate how our civil liberties- specifically our rights to due process have been eroded in the name of security in a post 9/11 America.

Wax does point out that the government does pay him to represent these clients against the government. He also highlights that our judicial system does have judges who uphold the law, insiders who expose unfair or illegal practices, and lawyers who come forward to defend our rights.

The chapters alternates between the two men and are interspersed with discussions on the implications of Habeas Corpus. The plethora of people Wax communicated with (generally mentioned by name and title only) detracts from deepening the main characters. As a result, the narrative seems disjointed and choppy. While the book would have benefited from the services of a keen editor, the underlying message is clear and well worth the read.