One of the most important questions clouding the debate over the utility of military commissions has to do with the viability of material support charges in that forum. To be blunt, we need to know the final answer to this … Read more »
Just a quick post to give warm wishes for an excellent new year to Lawfare readers everywhere. In particular, here is wishing safety and success to our readers and their colleagues deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. May 2011 be the … Read more »
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist,” says the low-grade con man to the arrogant customs agent in the 1995 movie The Usual Suspects, speaking of the great criminal mastermind Keyser … Read more »
I am reliably informed (having checked the site) that Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor After Guantanamo is now available from Amazon.com–which presumably means it is available at other book stores as well. I will post a few excerpts … Read more »
Bobby is quite right to link yesterday’s New York Times editorial to the one about which I complained back in October. But Bobby is a more generous soul than I am, and I am disinclined to give the Times’ editorial … Read more »
In an editorial that ran on Monday, the Times took up the laudable task of defending the administration’s plans to substantially enhance the procedural safeguards associated with the annual review board process for GTMO detainees. All to the good if … Read more »
(By Benjamin Wittes, Jack Goldsmith, and Robert Chesney)
Lawfare readers will have noticed, by now, that we have installed a small quantity of advertising on the site. The purpose of these ads is to generate a revenue stream as the … Read more »
A few days ago, I expressed doubt as to the veracity of the President’s comments that “Guantanamo is probably the number one recruitment tool that is used by these jihadist organizations.” I did so tentatively because I am no expert … Read more »
A few weeks ago we posted the petitioners’ joint opening brief in a consolidated appeal before the D.C. Circuit that tests whether federal courts retain habeas jurisdiction even after a detainee leaves U.S. custody, and, accordingly, whether a court can … Read more »
The Washington Post published a typically thoughtful editorial today on the idea of an executive order to establish a review process for Guantanamo detainees who lose their habeas cases. Like me, the Post has mixed feelings. On the one hand,… Read more »
A few thoughts on President Obama’s remarks Wednesday on Guantanamo, the full text of which I posted earlier.
“Obviously, we haven’t gotten it closed. And let me just step back and explain that the reason for wanting to close … Read more »
At his news conference Wednesday, President Obama made the following remarks about Guantanamo and the forthcoming executive order:
Q Guantanamo, sir. I understand a draft of an executive order is being prepared for you, and I don’t expect you to
Having already introduced a bill this week to modify CIPA, Senator Cardin has now introduced a bill to modify espionage-related statutes. The Espionage Statutes Modification Act (“ESMA”) bill–S.4051–is here. A brief summary from the floor statement introducing the bill … Read more »
The combination of Jack’s post and sleeping on the subject has mostly set my mind at ease on the difference between an executive order and a statute for purposes of the Guantanamo review system currently on the table–but not entirely.… Read more »
During my 2003 confirmation hearings to be the head of DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, one Senator showed up to ask me one or two perfunctory questions. This was a time when relatively few people knew what OLC did or … Read more »
I think the proposed EO for periodic review of detainees is a sensible move. Ben says the EO belongs in a statute “because in the long run, a detention system based on an aging AUMF and an executive order is … Read more »
I promised earlier that I would describe my exceedingly mixed feelings about the stories today that President Obama is preparing to issue an executive order outlining a Guantanamo review process. As Bobby’s post a few minutes ago pointing out the … Read more »
Ben beat me to the punch in noting the stories by Dafna Linzer (ProPublica) and Peter Finn and Anne Kornblut (Washington Post) to the effect that the White House will soon announce an executive order creating a new annual review … Read more »
If you haven’t wasted a few minutes playing with Google Ngram, you’ve got to give it a ride. The basic idea, as I understand it, is that Google has put together a vast database of every word in every … Read more »
The Washington Post and Propublica are both reporting that the Obama administration is readying an executive order laying out a process for long-term detention for Guantanamo detainees. I will post some thoughts on my exceptionally mixed feelings about this development, … Read more »
[Update: Readers should also check out John Radsan's just-published paper on CIPA reform, in Cardozo Law Review, here. Further update: the server hosting that paper is down until the afternoon of Dec. 29th, FYI].
Senator Cardin has introduced a … Read more »
Gregg Easterbrook of TMQ making a point similar to one I have been harping on (thanks to Paul Stephan for pointing me to it):
Leaks Don’t Come Out of the Sky: Is the WikiLeaks disclosure of Pentagon and State Department
David Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey have this oped in today’s Wall Street Journal. As it is behind a paywall, I will maximize my fair use rights to bring its argument to the attention of Lawfare readers. The oped … Read more »
Today the D.C. Circuit released the public version of the appellant’s brief in another habeas merits appeal, Abdah v. Obama, No. 10-5319. In this case, the government appeals Judge Henry Kennedy’s July 2010 opinion granting a writ of habeas … Read more »
For the past several months, the Obama administration has been in a weird limbo about Guantanamo. On the one hand, it has barely lifted a finger to effectuate its declared policy of closing the facility–afraid of the politics of the … Read more »
A few of the habeas merits appeals before the D.C. Circuit were just scheduled for oral argument. Here are the dates and panel assignments:
Al Warafi v. Obama: Oral argument will be held February 7, 2010 before judges Ginsburg, … Read more »
I have received a number of inquiries from Lawfare readers about my my new book, Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor after Guantanamo. I am told there were sightings of it at Brookings this past week. Amazon has … Read more »
I disagree with the characterization in David’s latest post of Bush administration practices. But I am not going to change his mind on that issue, so I will end this exchange on my side by noting points of agreement. I … Read more »
[updated to remove/fix typos...]
Mark Mazzetti and Salman Masood for the New York Times report an immensely disturbing development in Pakistan. A Pakistani lawyer named Mirza Shahzad Akbar has filed a complaint with Pakistani authorities requesting legal action against the … Read more »
The shape of the pending GTMO transfer ban has morphed yet again. Again Adam Serwer has the update. The long and short of it is that the pending National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 (NDAA FY11) apparently … Read more »
Here’s a little cautionary tale about life in the information anarchy in which we all exist today. It is, I suspect, a metaphor for something, though I’m not sure what. I pass it on as it may amuse some readers … Read more »
David Cole sent in the following response to my post of the other day on his earlier New Republic article:
My piece took issue with the claim so often made by all sides of the debate that Obama has
I’m a little bit grouchy that the argument I made in this speech I keep linking to isn’t more a part of the debate over continuity and change between the Bush and Obama administrations than it is. It’s not just … Read more »
Ben has already commented on David Cole’s TNR essay (subscription needed) about how the Obama approach to counterterrorism differs from the Bush approach. But since David uses my own TNR essay on the subject as a foil for some of … Read more »
Today the full Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives held a hearing on the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks. Below are links to the prepared witness statements.
Abbe D. Lowell
Partner, McDermott Will … Read more »
Adam Serwer has a goodcatch on this one. As we’ve noted before, the pending omnibus spending package contains a wholesale prohibition on transfers of detainees from GTMO to United States territory. Or at least it did. Adam notes that … Read more »
Last week (and our apologies for the belated update), the D.C. Circuit released the public version of the appellant’s brief in another habeas merits appeal, Al Harbi v. Obama. In this case, the government appeals Judge Henry Kennedy’s May … Read more »
Charlie Savage reports in the New York Times that DOJ is considering charging Julian Assange as a conspirator to Bradley Manning’s undoubtedly illegal leak of classified information:
Justice Department officials are trying to find out whether Mr. Assange encouraged or
Today, the D.C. Circuit released the public version of the appellant’s brief in Al Madhwani v. Obama. In this case, Musa’ab Omar Al-Madhwani appeals Judge Thomas Hogan’s December 2009 bench ruling and January 2010 opinion affirming his detention, as … Read more »
Back in October, I posted a link to a speech I had given some months earlier on continuity and change between the Bush and Obama administrations on counterterrorism. I looked at the question through four different lenses and concluded that … Read more »
Last Friday, the Senate passed, by unanimous consent, S. 372, a bill designed to improve the existing whistleblower protection regime. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) introduced the bill in 2009 to improve statutory protection for government whistleblowers, including national-security … Read more »
How do we define the scope of military detention authority at the individual level? That is to say, how do we define with precision the necessary and sufficient conditions that make a particular person subject to detention? The issue obviously … Read more »
Today the D.C. Circuit released, in redacted form, its November order dismissing the government’s appeal in Basardh v. Gates. The brief order contains no reasoning. Basardh was a government appeal from Judge Ellen Huvelle’s March 2009 final judgment and … Read more »
Last week I raised the question whether Human Rights Watch has altered its position on the scope of application of international humanitarian law (“IHL”)—a topic with tremendous significance for both the detention and targeting debates. The issue arose because, in … Read more »
I’ve received a number of interesting responses to my post from Sunday on rewriting the Espionage Act. Two bear particular attention. The first is an email from a scholar who prefers to remain anonymous, who writes:
In your proposal, you
It was a big day for the war-on-terror cases at the Supreme Court yesterday–at least if you are into government briefs. The government filed two important ones. They are:
1) Its brief in opposition to Mohammed Al Adahi’s petition for … Read more »
I received the following note today from Guantanamo lawyer David Remes in response to my post from Friday on recidivism:
Ben raises important questions in his “Thinking about Recidivism” post, but to put the discussion in context, I must point
The New York Times has, for the second time, glibly proposed establishing a new court to authorize killing people. In an editorial today–I am not making this up–the paper publishes a detailed two-sentence road-map for this modest addendum to Article … Read more »
M.E. “Spike” Bowman, former senior counsel at the FBI and deputy director of the National Counterintelligence Executive, has an interesting piece in the Intelligencer opposing clemency for Jonathan Jay Pollard, the former U.S. naval intelligence analyst convicted of spying for … Read more »
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General released an interim report on the Department’s handling of “known or suspected” terrorists who have entered the government’s witness protection program. The report found, among other things, that information on some program participants had not been turned over to no-fly list authorities; and, that two such people could not be located—though one… Read more »
