They are here.

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For those interested in more detail on Anwar Al-Aulaqi’s alleged operational role in terrorist plots, this piece from the Long War Journal back in March, written by Thomas Joscelyn, is well worth a read. It details Al Aulaqi’s email exchanges … Read more »

Professor Michael Lewis writes in with the following guest post:

Why IHL and not Self-Defense Should be Considered the Legal Basis for the Awlaki Operation

Anwar al-Awlaki is dead, apparently killed by a US drone strike in Yemen.  From the

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A senior administration lawyer involved in national security issues writes in with the following:

I read the commentary by He Who Must Not Be Named On This Blog on the killing of Aulaqi, and while I understand that you refuse

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A corollary to Bobby’s second point in this post is that it is not enough to say the words “due process” by way of denouncing the Al Aulaqi strike, as though those words represent a discussion-ending argument. One has to … Read more »

In the flurry of al-Awlaki coverage today, there are two points that I think are particularly worthy of attention.

First, does this show that the U.S. government asserts authority to target based on speech alone?  One might get that impression … Read more »

Over at Salon.com, He Who Must Not Be Named on This Blog is upset by the fact that what he terms the “the due process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality.”

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Anwar al-Awlaki, an influential member of al Qaeda who was one of the most wanted members of any terrorist organization, has been killed in an airstrike in northern Yemen, as Sudarsan Raghavan at the Washington Post reports, as does … Read more »

From the President of GWU Law’s National Security Law Association:

The ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security and GW Law School’s National Security Law Association are organizing a National Security Law Career Fair for all DC-area law schools,

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Here’s the New York Times coverage, the Washington Post story, and the coverage on CBS News. Al Aulaqi appears to have been killed with a drone.

National Public Radio is blogging the news.

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On Tuesday, lawyers for Abdulrahman Abdou Abou Alghaith Suleiman filed this letter with the Clerk of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  The letter replies to an earlier letter, which was filed by … Read more »

The case is United States v. Ferdaus, and the complaint and underlying affidavit for the arrest are attached here and here.  In brief, the case involves a US citizen who thought he was working with members of al … Read more »

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee released  this lengthy study today of oversight of national security and intelligence agencies by member states. Entitled “Parliamentary Oversight of Security and Intelligence Agencies in the European Union,” it includes … Read more »

Charges have just been referred in the al-Nashiri case.  Next step: arraignment.  Thanks to the very-slick new commissions website (www.mc.mil), the charges are available here.  They include some but not all the charges originally specified by prosecutors.   … Read more »

United States v. Alwan is the case in the Western District of Kentucky involving individuals accused of having been insurgents in Iraq who attacked American troops.  There have been some calls for shifting the case into the military commission system, … Read more »

Jeanette Catsoulis at the New York Times has this film review of “You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo,” which presents excerpts of the interrogation of Omar Khadr, who was 16 at the time of his interrogation. Film … Read more »

Over at Best Defense, Tom Ricks has another post on the role of JAGs in the civ-mil relationship.  I’d given him some recommendations previously in response to his first post and my call to readers for suggestions.  Some more recommendations … Read more »

As we have emphasized on this site quite often, the legitimacy of the military commission system has been hobbled in the past by a lack of transparency in its proceedings.  There was very good news on that front recently, as … Read more »

Interesting Charlie Savage story this morning about a newly released FBI document detailing rules for inclusion of terrorist suspects on watch lists. Of particular interest to Savage is the fact that those acquitted of crimes can still be included.

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This past Sunday, police in Birmingham, England, made a series of arrests in connection with a “homegrown-but-trained-abroad” terrorism plot.  Irfan Nasser and Irfan Khalid allegedly traveled to Pakistan to obtain training, made martyrdom videos, and planned to carry out suicide … Read more »

In the federal case brought by Judicial Watch in May to release photos depicting Osama bin Laden’s death, the federal government has filed several documents in support of its argument against release. Josh Gerstein at the Politico reviews the documents … Read more »

Raffaela linked earlier today to the Weekly Standard article in which the new military commissions chief prosecutor, Brig. General Mark Martins, announced some important new steps towards transparency in commission trials. The point appears in passing in what is really … Read more »

Let’s start with some big military commissions news. Mark Martins, the new Chief Prosecutor for Military Commissions has proposed that Guantanamo cases be broadcast on a 40-second delay to sites in the United States to allow more people, including the … Read more »

And a rather snazzy-looking one at that. It’s called Intercross and its first post, by Simon Schorno, says it is about “the plight of children, women and men affected by armed conflict and armed violence. Intercross is about humanitarian action. … Read more »

Charlie Savage of the New York Times has a long essay, available on Amazon (for 99 cents), called Power Wars: Unmasking National Security Legal Policy Deliberations Under Bush & Obama.  The essay is adapted from his keynote presentation … Read more »

The government has moved the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear en banc the Vance case, which last month allowed a suit to proceed against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by U.S. citizens who claim they were illegally detained … Read more »

I have written previously about the pros and cons of the military commission option for Ali Mussa Daqduq, a member of Hezbollah whom we have been holding in military custody in Iraq for some period based on his involvement in … Read more »

An update on the Suleiman case: on Friday, the government filed this letter, which sought to clarify the government’s views of three issues that were raised at oral argument on September 16.

First and most significant, attorneys Robert Loeb … Read more »

A Second Circuit panel has affirmed, in United States v.Kassar (2d Cir. Sep. 21, 2011), the conviction of three defendants who were convicted on charges stemming from a sting operation involving a faux effort by the FARC to obtain … Read more »

Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman, a Guantanamo habeas petitioner, has filed a cert petition, asking the Supreme Court to review the D.C. Circuit’s March decision in his case. The cert petition presents two questions for review:

1. Whether

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Speaking of OFAC’s process for sanctions designations, the 9th Circuit has just ruled against it in a case involving the constitutionality of its designation process, though it also held that the designation of the plaintiff (al-Haramain) was appropriate.  The opinion … Read more »

I had not realized till today that the State Department has not yet gotten around to designated the Haqqani Network to be a Foreign Terrorist Organization (see the current list here).  Such a designation would bring to bear, among … Read more »

It comes in the case of Abdah and is available here, posing the following question:

Whether, in a habeas corpus action, a Guantánamo detainee has a right to challenge his transfer to a
foreign country on the ground that

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Yesterday, the Fourth Circuit announced decisions in Al Shimari v. CACI International and Al-Quraishi v. L-3 Services, Inc. Both cases involved tort suits brought by Iraqi civilians against U.S. military contractors alleged to have engaged in detention and interrogation abuses … Read more »

Admiral Mullen, who will soon step down as CJCS, offered the following blunt language in his prepared testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning:

Extremist organizations serving as proxies of the government of Pakistan are attacking Afghan troops

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At Best Defense, Tom Ricks takes note of recent comments from Senator Graham relating to clashes between the TJAGs and DOD-OGC during the Bush Administration, and then asks:

Is it time for a military journal or law review to step

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A drone attack in southern Yemen has killed 10 al Qaeda suspects, reports the AFP. Greg Miller at the Washington Post reflects on lessons learned as the U.S. moves to build secret drone bases in Yemen and north Africa. … Read more »

Adding to the flurry of recent Alien Tort Statute appellate decisions, on Monday the Fourth Circuit issued its opinion in Aziz v. Alcolac, an ATS and TVPA suit brought by Iraqi Kurds against a US company that had supplied … Read more »

Those who enjoyed my two recent posts reflecting on Benjamin Franklin’s and Robert Jackson’s comments on the liberty-security relationship, may enjoy the larger piece of work from which those posts were spun off. The paper, just published on the Brookings … Read more »

Lots of drones news today. The U.S. is building secret drone bases in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Read Tim Mak’s report in the Politico here, the Washington Post’s coverage by Craig Whitlock and Greg Miller here, and … Read more »

I promised last week to give some thoughts on Judge Henry Kennedy’s recent opinion in Hentif as soon as I had a chance to read it. I was busy running some events over the past few days and only just … Read more »

I often disagree with Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, but this column strikes me as right on. Thiessen bewails the lack of serious debate in the Republican primaries on national security issues, and he suggests a series of questions the … Read more »

In 2002 the Bush administration received a lot of heat for its flexible understanding of the imminence requirement of the self-defense doctrine in international law in connection with modern terrorism.  Here is the 2002 National Security Strategy:

For centuries,

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A divided 11th Circuit panel has issued a lengthy opinion (112 pages in pdf, with the dissent) affirming the conviction of  Jose Padilla, Adham Hassoun, and Kifah Jayyousi, and granting the government’s cross-appeal challenging the adequacy of Padilla’s sentence.  Chief … Read more »

Friday afternoon’s oral argument in Suleiman saw pretty even questioning of counsel for both sides from an interested panel.  Judges Merrick Garland, Thomas Griffith and David Tatel pressed Abdulrahman Abdou Abou Alghaith Suleiman’s lawyer on the petitioner’s apparent waiver of … Read more »

Charlie Savage at the New York Times reviews the debate in the Obama administration over how to define the limits of the use of lethal force in the war against al Qaeda. Jack wrote about this already, as did Ben… Read more »

Britain amended its universal jurisdiction law last week to require private individuals who seek arrest warrants for foreign government officials for human rights offenses to obtain the consent of Britain’s director of public prosecutions.  Previously, a British magistrate could issue … Read more »

On September 14, General John R. Allen, who succeeded David Petraeus as the commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, presided over the change of the command of Rule of Law Field Force – Afghanistan from Brigadier General Mark Martins (whom Lawfare … Read more »

Below Gabor Rona has a sharp response to my earlier post on Charlie Savage’s story on the latest round of Johnson v. Koh.  I think his response significantly mischaracterizes both what I said and the proper state of the law, … Read more »

Video from last night’s speech by John O. Brennan is now available. We will be posting a better video as soon as it has been formatted, but this one will do in the meantime.

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