Earlier today, General Mark Martins participated (by teleconference) in a press conference in order to bring folks up to speed on the Rule of Law-Field Force’s (ROLFF) latest activities in Afghanistan (for prior discussions of this topic by General Martins … Read more »
Today the D.C. Circuit issued its disposition of (Tofiq) Al Bihani v. Obama (Case No. 10-5352) with an order granting the parties’ joint motion for summary affirmance. The parties had agreed in their motion that “to pursue [the] appeal … Read more »
Last week, Under Secretary of the Army Joseph Westphal gave a speech at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics on the subject of “The Impact of Education on the Armed Forces in the 21st Century.” At … Read more »
Yesterday the government filed its opposition to the Kiyemba III petition for certiorari.
We mentioned Kiyemba III in this post a few months back, and discussed briefly the question in what was then a newly filed petition: whether the Supreme … Read more »
Tomorrow morning, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in another Guantanamo habeas case, that of Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman (Case No. 10-5235). The case, captioned under Abdah v. Obama, is a government … Read more »
Chapter 40 (“Law in a Time of War”) of Donald Rumsfeld’s new book, Known and Unknown, will be of special interest to Lawfare readers. In it, Rumsfeld discusses his views on “lawfare,” the origins and travails of military commissions, … Read more »
Today the final public merits brief became available in the D.C. Circuit case of Abdah v. Obama (No. 10-5319). The petitioner in this case is Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif, who won his case before Judge Henry Kennedy in July … Read more »
The Harvard people have kindly put up a video of the National Security and Law Association/National Security Journal event from 4 February. The event was called “Understanding Detention and Predicting Prosecutions: Legal Challenges and Legislative Options Ten Years After 9/11,” … Read more »
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that federal investigators “have been unable to uncover evidence that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange induced an Army private to leak government documents to his website.” This development, if it holds, appears to undermine DOJ’s … Read more »
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Kenneth Anderson, his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, offers a modest proposal for the United States government as to how it should handle Al Warafi’s claims to be medical personnel under the First Geneva … Read more »
The letter filed today with the D.C. Circuit by Al Warafi’s attorney, which Larkin noted earlier, appears to be a response to my earlier post on the argument. This is not explicit in Roger A. Ford’s letter, which … Read more »
Following yesterday’s oral argument in Al Warafi v. Obama, today petitioner’s counsel filed a letter with the D.C. Circuit to clarify the petitioner’s position on an issue that came up during questioning. The court had asked who bears the … Read more »
As Ben highlights in his summary of yesterday’s Al Warafi oral argument, a key issue for the D.C. Circuit in this case is the meaning of the district court’s finding that Al Warafi served as a medic with the Taliban … Read more »
Those Lawfare readers who do not use social networking sites should ignore this post.
For those, however, who do use Facebook and Twitter, I am writing to ask that you take modest steps using those sites to help us reach … Read more »
Aaron Zelin, who runs the Jihadology site, writes in with the following information by way of verifying the authenticity of the Taliban’s statement on the death of Awal Gul:
I noticed that you recently posted an article on your
An important order in Khalfih v. Obama snuck under our radar last week. It is a dismissal order in a Guantanamo merits case, granted on the petitioner’s motion. The motion and order follow several postponements of the briefing schedule, but … Read more »
In January I wrote a short piece for Foreign Policy arguing that the current military commission system is much less problematic than some critics claim though also not the ideal solution some perceive it to be. Among other things, the … Read more »
Lawfare readers, let my devotion to you never be questioned. To bring you this here summary of today’s oral argument in Mahktar Al-Warafi v. Barack Obama, I have had to engage in a mortification of the flesh. As the … Read more »
Tomorrow morning the D.C. Circuit will hear oral argument in Al Warafi v. Obama, a Guantánamo merits appeal that challenges Judge Lamberth’s March 2010 decision denying habeas relief to petitioner Mukhtar Yahia Naji Al Warafi. In addition to fairly … Read more »
In light of the statements released this past week by the Center for Constitutional Rights and lawyers for Awal Gul–the Guantanamo detainee who died of an apparent heart attack–the following statement, apparently issued by the Taliban, is, well, very … Read more »
That is Attorney General Eric Holder, on March 15, 2010, explaining to the House Judiciary Committee how long it would take the Obama administration to decide where to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Nearly eleven months later, still … Read more »
Harvard Law School’s National Security Journal and National Security and Law Association are co-hosting a great event today up in snowy Cambridge. Bobby, Ben, and Jack will be joining a host of other scholars to discuss terrorism-related detentions and prosecutions … Read more »
In other news from Guantanamo, the military has announced the death of one of the detainees:
MIAMI – Joint Task Force-Guantanamo announced today that a detainee died of apparent natural causes late Tuesday evening. The detainee is identified as Awal
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina has denied the habeas petition of Mashour Abdullah Mugbel Alsabri (ISN #324). We will post the opinion as soon as a declassified version is available and post updated numbers on our non-scorecard as well.
UPDATE: … Read more »
Eugene Volokh agrees with me that the New York Times editorial page is being less than candid about the legality of non-criminal detention. He writes:
the Times is not simply saying that particular detentions might be illegal, for instance because
Does international law permit the US government to kill Anwar al-Awlaki? That’s the question I examine in a draft article posted here (the paper is forthcoming in the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law). Taking al-Awlaki as a case study … Read more »
Last week, UK Home Secretary Theresa May announced completion of a much-anticipated review of UK counterterrorism laws and policies, and a corresponding set of recommendations that to some extent call for scaling things back. All the key documents are here… Read more »
As you may recall, Abu Ali originally was convicted on charges stemming from involvement with an al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia (including a plot to assassinate the President) and lost on his appeal of that conviction. The government had … Read more »
Today in Hatim v. Obama, the Guantanamo habeas merits case briefed and argued this past November, the D.C. Circuit just issued a most interesting order. It is a show-cause order asking the parties whether they object to documents … Read more »
All eyes are on Egypt for the moment, and for good reason. But let’s not neglect the news out of Yemen, especially in light of its potential ramifications for future U.S. counterterrorism operations there. Unlike Egypt, after all, the United … Read more »
. . . I actually agree with this one this morning, arguing that the separation of the investigative functions of the Justice Department’s inspector general and its Office of Professional Responsibility is a silly anachronism. The IG is, broadly speaking, … Read more »
Lawfare readers who have followed my mini-crusade (here, here, and here, for example) to get the New York Times to stop willfully misrepresenting the legality of military detention in its editorials will be amused by this … Read more »
The respondent’s merits brief recently became available in Ashcroft v. Al-Kidd, the case challenging whether John Ashcroft can be sued in his personal capacity for misuse of the material witness statute (18 U.S.C. § 3144). In December the government–the … Read more »
A court in Milan has convicted and sentenced to six years in prison a former Guantanamo detainee originally from Tunisia, the Associated Press reports. It’s another case that seems to me to beg the question of how we define … Read more »
Monday, May 20, 2013
As Jack posted yesterday—and as everyone is buzzing about—President Obama will give a major counterterrorism speech on Thursday at the National Defense University. The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Politico all report on the talk, and subjects that the President will likely address.
Speaking of Jack, he noted another of today’s big stories: the Washington Post’s piece on the FBI’s search, a few years… Read more »
