Check out the composition of this panel–which must of stressed all of Dahlia Lithwick’s copious social skills to keep civil.
I haven’t watched it yet, but I thought I would flag it for interested readers. The Aspen Security Forum describes … Read more »
The indictment in United States v. Abdo, alleging a plot to bomb a restaurant in the Killeen area frequented by soldiers from Fort Hood, is available here.
Over at Secrecy News, Steve Aftergood writes:
The government’s treatment of former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake was abusive and akin to acts of British tyranny in pre-Revolutionary War days, said Judge Richard D. Bennett at the July
The UK Human Rights Blog has this analysis of the British government’s detainee inquiry, which is just getting off the ground. It includes useful links to the investigation’s terms of reference and protocol documents, as well as a description of … Read more »
Congressional reporters may have been left with nothing to write about last night, but we sure have plenty to read about today in the world of national security, the war on terror, and cybersecurity.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence … Read more »
The Onion has the story:
WASHINGTON—In a 30-minute video released Thursday, al- Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri criticized the mass transportation infrastructure of the United States, claiming significant repairs and upgrades would need to be implemented before the militant group
Two weeks ago, I posted a short piece–which grew out of a paper I am writing on the relationship between liberty and security–concerning what Ben Franklin really meant when he said that “Those who would give up essential Liberty, … Read more »
Unsurprisingly in a world dominated by debt ceilings, Rupert Murdock, and Amy Winehouse, there is little to report today.
Ayman al-Zawahri released his first video as Al Qaeda chief and successor to Osama bin Laden. In it, he encouraged Syrian … Read more »
An interesting column by David Ignatius pointed me to this fascinating-looking report by Richard Danzig, Marc Sageman, and others. Published by the Center for a New American Security, the report is entitled “Aum Shinrikyo: Insights Into How Terrorists Develop Biological … Read more »
I’ve written a lot over the years about the way law responds to changing practical phenomena such as the emergence of non-state actors as a strategic threat, ala al Qaeda, as have many others. This vein of scholarship often emphasizes … Read more »
There are few topics more slippery–and more emblematic of the current age–than the intersection of transnational organized crime, narcotics, illicit arms, and violent non-state actors. On that front, this has been a busy week. Consider the pair of indictments announced … Read more »
I came away from today’s HASC hearing much more optimistic about the future course of our detention/prosecution policy than I had been coming in, as there were signs of what I hope will become consensus on two key issues.
The … Read more »
Today’s House Armed Services Hearing on “Ten Years After the 2001 AUMF: Current Status of Legal Authorities, Detention, and Prosecution in the War on Terror” included testimony from the following witnesses:
And, … Read more »
On Tuesday morning, the House Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing titled “Ten Years After the 2001 AUMF: Current Status of Legal Authorities, Detention, and Prosecution in the War on Terror.” I’m not sure if it will … Read more »
I was lucky enough, unlike a number of other commentators, to be on the road on Friday when news of the attacks in Norway broke–and thus missed the opportunity to make an assumption that proved spectactularly wrong about who the … Read more »
We have made a few adjustments to Lawfare’s Facebook page and Twitter feed, which should make both more useful for the social networkers among our readers. Several of the people associated with the blog are now tweeting interesting law-and-security-related news … Read more »
I have now had a chance to read Gul, the other D.C. Circuit case that came down on Friday. Gul establishes a proposition that, in my opinion at least, should be pretty obvious: that Guantanamo habeas jurisdiction does not … Read more »
I normally have a pretty good read on the D.C. Circuit in habeas cases. Not this time. Al Alwi, one of the decisions which Wells posted yesterday, took me rather by surprise.
To be true to what I … Read more »
Today, the D.C. Circuit handed down opinions in two detainee cases, Al-Alwi v. Obama and Gul v. Obama.
***
The first affirms the decision of the district court, which found Al-Alwi lawfully detained by a preponderance of the evidence. In … Read more »
Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald reported the other day that lawyers for accused USS Cole bombing suspect Abd al Rahim al Nashiri had asked the convening authority of the military commissions to take the death penalty off the table … Read more »
Shane Harris of Washingtonian magazine has a lengthy profile on the magazine’s web site of William Welch, who is the Justice Department’s point man on leaks cases. It’s a hard-hitting and unflattering piece that suggests that Welch is over-aggressive and … Read more »
It’s not quite a trading card, which remains the high point, but an award for being “The Worst Possible Person in the World” comes pretty close.
Turns out that DOJ, in a footnote in a brief before the D.C. … Read more »
Wells rightly points out the ridiculousness of the various House committee chairs yesterday demanding that President Obama follow the terms of unenacted legislation. I want to point out another feature of their letter, and area in which the House GOP … Read more »
Bad day for Taliban cybersecurity. The Taliban is denying that their leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar is dead, following emails to that effect from the group and a notice on a Taliban web site. The group contends instead that its systems … Read more »
Earlier today, Raffaela noted a letter, sent by the Chairs of various House Committees to the President, regarding the latter’s approach to the Warsame case. Unsurprisingly, the letter critiqued the Administration on various grounds. Fair enough. But it’s worth … Read more »
Over at the Weekly Standard, Thomas Joscelyn has a response to Bobby and my earlier response to his response to our responses (here and here) to his piece on Matthew Olsen.
Several House committee chairs have sent this letter regarding the Warsame case to President Obama. Their primary concerns are summed up in the first full paragraph of the second page:
We are concerned that the lack of a comprehensive military
A new Congressional Research Service report reviews provisions in the competing versions of the National Defense Authorization Act regarding detainee affairs. Here is a summary of the report’s findings:
Both House and Senate bills competing to become the National Defense
This is Lawfare’s 1,000th post. It takes place during our 11th month of operation. During the blog’s brief life, it has gone from non-existence to a site which has averaged more than 1,700 visits daily over the past 30 days … Read more »
Senator John McCain wants a new Congressional panel created to deal with cybersecurity. Ben Pershing at the Post discusses McCain’s proposal sent to Senate leaders last week. Last week, Jennifer Martinez broke down the Pentagon’s cybersecurity strategy over at Politico… Read more »
United States v. Mohamed (D.Minn. July 18, 2011) is the latest in a series of convictions federal prosecutors have obtained in response to the recruitment of young Somali-American men in the Minneapolis area to travel to Somalia to fight for … Read more »
A quick thought in response to the very interesting exchange underway between Ben and Kevin (the most recent contribution to it is here). In an update to an earlier post, Kevin writes:
Ben is quite right — when it
Don Fassler and Vahid Brown at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center have published an interesting report on the role that the Haqqani Network had played over time in relation to al Qaeda. It’s useful to read for many reasons, including … Read more »
Over at Opinio Juris, Kevin Jon Heller gamely steps up to the plate to defend yesterday’s New York Times editorial:
As part of his ongoing war against the New York Times, Ben Wittes has a post today entitled
I am not sure how I stumbled into the role of unpaid fact-checker for the New York Times editorial page on matters of law and security. But as long as the Times keeps publishing editorials like this one, there … Read more »
On Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court handed down its decision in Al-Rawi v. Security Service, which arose from the British Government’s alleged role in detention and abuse at, among other places, Guantanamo.
The case presented the question of whether a … Read more »
( A joint response from Benjamin Wittes and Bobby Chesney)
On Thursday we criticized a piece by Thomas Joscelyn at The Weekly Standard concerning Matt Olsen and the GTMO Review Task Force, in which Joscelyn called into question the task … Read more »
No sooner had I posted my comment on Monday about the DC Circuit’s Alien Tort Statute decision in the ExxonMobil case than the Seventh Circuit issued its own decision on the question of corporate ATS liability in Flomo v. Firestone … Read more »
Only a few round-up items today.
On Thursday the U.S. government asked a judge to order the ACLU to return a secret document that was mistakenly given to the group.
The Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima reports that in announcing the … Read more »
In the aftermath of Harold Koh’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a few weeks ago, Senator Lugar sent a set of QFRs (Questions for the Record) that raised a number of interesting questions about the current position of … Read more »
Marty Lederman has a terrific post exploring in more detail the First Amendment issues raised by the Begolly indictment. It’s a must-read if you are interested in the prospects for prosecuting those who advocate terrorism in a generalized manner or … Read more »
A while back Ben posted about the pressing need for “radical transparency” in the military commissions process. It’s time to say it again: The Pentagon must make it much easier for outsiders to follow the details of military commission trials … Read more »
The armed conflict in Libya began as a non-international armed conflict, but was internationalized when a host of states intervened against the Libyan government. Now, the United States has joined a growing list of states recognizing the rebels as the … Read more »
Here’s an interesting historical fact I have dug up in some research for an essay I am writing about the relationship between liberty and security: That famous quote by Benjamin Franklin that “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to … Read more »
The Washington Post is reporting:
The U.S. government said it accidentally turned over a classified document about how it determines who are the most dangerous detainees in Afghanistan to the American Civil Liberties Union, and wants a federal judge
I want to pile on to Ben’s post in defense of NCTC nominee Matt Olsen. Ben notes that some are intimating that Matt somehow is soft on terrorism because the GTMO Review Task Force concluded that some existing detainees could … Read more »
An important and interesting indictment issued today (see here for the pdf), in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Emerson Begolly, an American citizen from Pennsyvlania (who already was under arrest after he assaulted FBI agents who were attempting to interview … Read more »
I was afraid that the nomination of Matthew Olsen to head NCTC would head in this direction. Over at the Weekly Standard, Thomas Joscelyn is suggesting that senators grill Olsen concerning the transfer recommendations of the Guantanamo review task force … Read more »
Thomas Barnett has an interesting post at Battleland playing off Thom Shanker’s piece in the Times today regarding biometrics and security in Afghanistan. Barnett’s point: such measures are more likely to be introduced over time at home if they are … Read more »
Twenty-three senators have sent a letter to new SecDef Panetta regarding the U.S. decision to try Warsame in a New York federal civilian court. Jennifer Epstein of Politico has the story.
In the Miami Herald, Halimah Abdullah discusses… 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 »
