I had just finished reading the uncensored edition of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s book, In the First Circle (Harper Perennial, 2009), when I came across Chris Hedges article, ‘‘One Day We’ll All Be Terrorists’’ (Truthdig, Dec. 28, 2009). In Hedges’ description of the U.S. government’s treatment of American citizen Syed Fahad Hashmi, I recognized the Stalinist legal system as portrayed by Solzhenitsyn.

Hashmi has been held in solitary confinement going on three years. Guantanamo’s practices have migrated to the Metropolitan