Judge Walton has released his unclassified opinion in Karim Bostan (ISN 975) v. Obama, denying Bostan’s habeas petition (the decisions appears to have issued in classified form on October 12th). The government had argued that Boston was part of an … Read more »
A whole unruly mess of weekend news to catch up on today.
A deadly attack in Kabul, pulled off by the Haqqani network, killed at least 12 Americans this weekend, according to Joshua Partlow and Greg Jaffe at the Washington Post… Read more »
Five years ago today, in remarks at the London School of Economics, I provided a comprehensive public statement of the U.S. Government’s views of the international legal framework applicable to the U.S. conflict with al Qaida, informed in part … Read more »
Oral arguments in Lebron v. Rumsfeld took place before the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday. The oral argument audio recording is available here, and my argument preview, with background on the case as well as links to the lower court decision … Read more »
Mark Erickson, who blogs under the most-unfortunate handle Norwegian Shooter, recently published some correspondence with me concerning his claim that the reported OLC memo reflects Lord Acton-style corruption on the part of its authors. Erickson—who, to be fair, he … Read more »
Speaking of the oddly-named Bmaz—which I was briefly yesterday—he has flagged an incredible snippet of a Politico interview with White House chief of staff Bill Daley on the subject of leaks. For those readers who thought Jack and I … Read more »
Milton J. Valencia and Martin Finucane of Boston Globe and Laurel J. Sweet of the Boston Herald report on the opening statements in Tarek Mehanna’s trial, which Bobby discusses here and here. Peter Gelzinis at the Boston Herald… Read more »
Adding to this year’s judicial cornucopia of Alien Tort Statute decisions on corporate liability, on Tuesday an en banc Ninth Circuit released its long-awaited decision in the even longer-running (eleven years!) Rio Tinto case, ruling that the ATS does not generally preclude claims … Read more »
The estimable, if oddly-named, Bmaz of the Empty Wheel blog asks in a Tweet “Why did al-Hajj withdraw his Habeas petition? Did he just give up like others have?” Short answer: I don’t know at this stage. The joint joint motion … Read more »
I posted a few days ago regarding the Mehanna prosecution, noting that the defense requested a jury instruction on First Amendment issues. It turns out this was a request for three preliminary instructions. The 7-page document is posted here. … Read more »
Judge Lamberth has granted a joint motion by Sharqawi Abdu ali Al-Hajj (ISN 1457) and the government to dismiss al-Hajj’s habeas petition, without prejudice. The one-page order is here. For prior coverage of this case, see here.… Read more »
Next week’s London Conference on Cyberspace will include a closed session on international security. Some maintain that the session “could be an early step to some kind of ‘ultimate cyber arms control.’” But on CNN’s Global Public Square blog, Adam Segal and Matthew … Read more »
Yesterday Harper’s ran a piece by Daniel Swift on drones, criticizing the extensive but selective leaking of details about the CIA drone program. It’s a fair point, resonating with Ken Anderson’s concerns regarding the legitimacy issues that arise with … Read more »
Musa’ab Omar Al-Madhwani, a Guantanamo habeas petitioner, has filed a cert petition seeking review of the DC Circuit opinion affirming his detention. That opinion, in turn, affirmed District Judge Thomas Hogan’s earlier opinion.
The petition presents the following questions:… Read more »
The Washington Post has a story this afternoon in which the Air Force confirms that it is operating armed Reaper drones out of a particular location in Ethiopia. It is an interesting contribution to the larger, ongoing story of America’s increasing focus on the Yem-Som theater … Read more »
