Near the time we launched this blog last September (has it really only been half a year?), there was an impressive symposium on the topic of “lawfare” at Case. The articles for that symposium have now been published by the … Read more »
Last week, amidst the flurry of interest occasioned by the wikileaks disclosure of GTMO detainee assessment documents, I was asked to join a group of folks offering opinions on the matter for Foreign Policy’s website. My brief contribution sounds a … Read more »
…but it is kind of sad, anyway, that some people are taking the opportunity of the Left’s sliming of Paul Clement to begin attacking once again those Justice Department attorneys who in private practice represented Guantanamo clients. But it does … Read more »
Barton Gellman just published this lengthy profile of FBI Director Bob Mueller in Time. I haven’t read it yet but will post thoughts when I do.
I have mixed feelings about this New York Times oped by the ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer and Larry Siems of the Freedom to Write program at the PEN American Center, who are urging that government officials during the Bush administration “who … Read more »
…that every non-government employee in the world can discuss what the Wikileaked documents say about Guantanamo detainees except their own habeas counsel–who remain gagged as a consequence of their obligation to “protect” classified information that is all over the Internet. … Read more »
I am delighted to announce that Kenneth Anderson has agreed to become Lawfare’s new book review editor. As I noted a few weeks back, the volume of recent and forthcoming books of potential interest to readers of this blog … Read more »
I have recently blogged about two issues: whether congressional authorization is required as a constitutional matter for U.S. involvement in military operations such as the one in Libya, see here and here, and whether modern technology (such as unmanned … Read more »
There is still no institution in American politics by which I feel more represented than I do by my former colleagues at the Washington Post editorial page. This editorial makes, in my view, all of the important points:
The Human
NPR’s Carrie Johnson is reporting that Attorney General Eric Holder has spoken out strongly on behalf of Paul Clement:
To the list of prominent lawyers defending former Solicitor General Paul Clement’s decision to leave his law firm and keep defending
One of the few bright spots when the flap over the Justice Department lawyers who previously had Guantanamo clients broke last year was the rapidity with which prominent conservatives denounced the attacks once given the chance by the statement I … Read more »
For what it’s worth, I hate the Defense of Marriage Act and always have. I want it repealed and will shed no tears if it gets struck down in the courts. On its face, moreover, what happened today between former … Read more »
Habeas lawyer David Remes just sent in the following:
Whatever their significance may be in other respects, the Wikileaks documents have little significance for the detainees still at Guantanamo, because few if any of them will be transferred in the
National Public Radio has added its voice to that of the New York Times on the new Wikileaked Guantanamo files. NPR actually has a few stories, along with this database–done in conjunction with the Times. One meme that is … Read more »
The press coverage today of the leaked files concerning the Guantanamo detainees provides a dramatic contrast with public discussions over the operations in Libya. The focus on the detainees is agonizingly particularized and personal. By contrast, we know nothing about … Read more »
Here is the statement by Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell and Ambassador Dan Fried, Special Envoy for Closure of the Guantanamo Detention Facility in response to the New York Times story to which I just linked. One interesting feature of … Read more »
I can’t fathom right now who should be most upset–the government or the detainee bar–by this story in the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — A trove of more than 700 classified military documents provides new and detailed accounts of the
The most remarkable passage in the Washington Post story to which I linked earlier is this one, which highlights the remarkable naiveté with which the incoming Obama administration–including the President himself–approached the Guantanamo closure:
In late April, Obama heard some
The Washington Post this morning has this comprehensive account of the decline and fall of President Obama’s Promise to close Guantanamo. It is a very solid and, to my mind accurate, rendering of the tale. My favorite part:
On Obama’s
My post yesterday on possible civilian criminal charges against al-Nashiri included reference to my view that 2339B was not extraterritorial until a 2004 amendment. I should have been far more specific about my claim. Of course the statute from its … Read more »
In my discussion earlier this week of some of the problems with relying on historical practice to support a constitutional claim of presidential authority to initiate military operations without congressional authorization, I focused on two broad positions in the war … Read more »
The Associated Press is reporting that U.S. forces are using armed Predator drones in Libya:
President Barack Obama has approved the use of armed Predator drone aircraft in Libya to improve the precision of low-level attacks on ground targets, Defense
If a person can’t be troubled to agree with me, the very least he can do is to write good prose. Man, oh man, can Sabin Willett write good prose! Willett, who represented the Uighurs in their Supreme Court case, … Read more »
Last Monday Harvard Law School conferred its medal of freedom on one of its graduates, General Mark Martins, Commander of the Rule of Law Field Force -Afghanistan. The Harvard National Security Journal has just posted the speech, with slides… Read more »
News that charges have been re-sworn against al-Nashiri in the military commission system has prompted commentary regarding which Title 18 offenses could have been brought had he been charged instead in a civilian court. That’s an interesting question. Let’s assume … Read more »
We are thrilled to announce, that Curtis A. Bradley, the Richard A. Horvitz Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies of Duke University School of Law, is joining Lawfare’s august crew of occasional writers. Curt is an … Read more »
We at Duke University are initiating a year-long project in which a number of us will be considering and discussing the relationship between law and custom. In connection with that project, I have started thinking about the role of historical … Read more »
I do not have a copy of the sworn charges, but the details from the press release today appear below. For comparison’s sake, you can find the earlier iteration of charges and motion papers relating to Nashiri here. At … Read more »
Every summer the International Law Department of the Naval War College puts on a don’t-miss IHL conference (here are the videos from last summer’s event). This year’s event will focus on IHL in the context of non-international armed conflict, … Read more »
The other day, I expressed bewilderment at the intellectual convergence between the political Left and Judge Laurence Silberman over whether post-Boumediene litigation has left habeas an empty shell. I’ve been mostly out of pocket for the last two days, … Read more »
Jessica Stern, a well-known scholar on terrorism and the author of Terror in the Name of God and, more recently, Denial: A Memoir of Terror, has just published this enlightening article in The National Interest. Here’s an … Read more »
One GTMO-related case—Khadr v. Obama (No. 10-751) remains pending before the Supreme Court at the certiorari stage, and it has just been re-listed for the first time (Kiyemba, in which the Court just denied cert., was re-listed … Read more »
Those who access Lawfare on a mobile device, such as an iPhone or a Blackberry or an Android phone, will notice that the site looks different today. As an experiment, I have installed software to optimize the site for mobile … Read more »
The Harvard National Security Journal has just posted a very interesting essay by Steven Bradbury entitled The Developing Legal Framework for Defensive and Offensive Cyber Operations. (Steve was my successor in running the Office of Legal Counsel for the … Read more »
Today the Supreme Court denied cert. to the five Uighur detainees held at Guantanamo. The Uighurs had asked the Court to determine that a federal judge who has granted a detainee’s habeas petition also has the judicial power to direct … Read more »
Two quick comments on today’s New York Times editorial:
First, the Times begins with a remarkable normative assertion: “In bringing justice to those accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, it will never be possible to have military trials … Read more »
Columbia Law Professor Trevor Morrison has this lengthy review essay in the Harvard Law Review of Bruce Ackerman’s new book, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic. The essay, entitled “Constitutional Alarmism,” is rather devastating in my opinion. … Read more »
The Onion has the story:
WASHINGTON—After two years of false starts and protracted legal wrangling, President Barack Obama signed an executive order Tuesday authorizing the transfer of all 172 Guantánamo detainees to the next chief executive of the United
It isn’t every day that a representative of the National Security Agency gives a public speech on the agency’s understanding of “Protecting Civil Liberties in a Cyber Age.” So I thought I would take good notes for Lawfare readers on … Read more »
Yesterday the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on Guantanamo Detainee Transfer Policy and Recidivism.
The link to the hearing Web site, which has links to the prepared witness testimony, is here. The … Read more »
Bobby and I just finished an unusually good panel at the annual Duke University national security law conference. It was entitled “Indefinite Detention of Terrorists” and was one of the best such events I have ever participated in. In … Read more »
Michael Glennon, a longtime critic of presidential war unilateralism, has written a sharp critique of the April 1 OLC Opinion in support of the Libya intervention. The conclusion (footnotes omitted):
OLC’s Libya opinion cites its past opinions as though they
Today counsel for the five Kiyemba v. Obama petitioners who are seeking cert. in the Supreme Court submitted a supplemental brief to augment some of the arguments they made in their petition and reply brief. I’ve previously explained the … Read more »
The United States is still bombing, under NATO command. And Congress, which has not authorized this action, is still dithering. If this pattern continues for another month (or two), the administration will confront some interesting issues under the … Read more »
…but nobody who has read Detention and Denial (which, judging by the fact that it is burning up the Amazon sales ranking at #183,999, is not that many people!) can be remotely surprised by this Los Angeles Times story. … Read more »
The recent decision from the D.C. Circuit (the Esmail affirmance), and Supreme Court’s recent cert. denials in several cases, warrant an update to our habeas numbers. Before we get to that, however, it seemed appropriate to correct a … Read more »
They say you can’t tell how a case is going to come out from an oral argument. Sometimes you can, and today is one of those days. Hussain Salem Mohammad Almerfedi is going to have his head handed to him … Read more »
Mike Schmitt (Durham) has an very interesting piece at the Yale Journal of International Law Online concerning UNSCR 1973 and the use of force in Libya. Mike previously served as legal advisor to Operations Provide Comfort and Northern Watch, the … Read more »
Last week the AP published a rather breathless piece titled “AP Exclusive: US military holds terror suspects in secret jails for weeks without charge.” That certainly got my attention. From the title, one would assume that the black sites somehow … Read more »
Tomorrow morning, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in another Guantanamo habeas case, that of Hussain Salem Mohammad Almerfedi (Case No. 10-5291). The case is a government appeal of Judge Paul Friedman’s sole Guantanamo … Read more »
Friday, May 24, 2013
Coverage of President Obama’s speech yesterday is plentiful: Here are Peter Baker of the New York Times, Karen DeYoung and Greg Miller of the Washington Post, and Mark Mazzetti of the Times with an analysis of the key points of the speech. Scott Wilson of the Post also provides a rundown of the speech, and cites Ben. The Associated Press reports on lifting the transfer ban on Yemeni detainees, and Colleen McCain Nelson, Adam Entous, and Julia E. Barnes… Read more »
