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 … 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 … 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 has … 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 … 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 … 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 »
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, … 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 … Read more »
On October 12th, Judge Walton denied habeas relief to GTMO detainee Abdul Qader Ahmed Hussein (ISN 690), and the 22-page unclassified opinion is now available here.
I don’t think the opinion breaks any new legal ground (though footnote 11 … Read more »
The Associated Press and Dina Temple-Raston of National Public Radio have the story of Tarek Mehanna’s trial, which began today, and which Bobby discussed here.
Omar Khadr, a Guantanamo Bay detainee, is eligible for repatriation to Canada, reports Paul … Read more »
One of the interesting things about 18 USC 2339B (the 1996 material support law) and 18 USC 2339D (the prohibition on receipt of military-type training from designated foreign terrorist organizations) is that they extend, in theory, to noncitizens whose conduct … Read more »
Reuters has an interesting story about the NSA helping U.S. banks defend against foreign cyber attacks by providing them with “technical expertise.” According to the article, the NSA has already been helping NASDAQ protect against hackers. The government appears to … Read more »
An important case gets underway tomorrow in Boston: the civilian criminal prosecution of Tarek Mehanna, charged with an array of offenses stemming from allegations that he traveled to Yemen in 2004 in an effort to get training so he could … Read more »
For those who care about this site’s traffic data (people ask me about it sometimes): According to Google Analytics, yesterday was the highest-traffic day in the history of Lawfare–with nearly 10,400 people visiting the site. This beat out a previous … Read more »
Happy 10th birthday to the Patriot Act! Carrie Johnson at NPR celebrates the big day with a look at the the still-controversial legislation and an interview with Nicholas Merrill, who challenged a gag order issued in connection with a national … Read more »
Tomorrow, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will hear oral arguments in Lebron v. Rumsfeld, in which Jose Padilla and his mother, Estella Lebron, appeal a district court’s dismissal of a Bivens claim against former Secretary … Read more »
Scott Horton has a thoughtful essay at Foreign Policy that argues the fall of Gaddafi should be seen “through the lens of the law” as a “Pyrrhic” victory. From the domestic law perspective, Horton maintains that because of the administration’s … Read more »
The British government released a green paper on justice and security a few days ago — entitled, appropriately enough, the “Justice and Security Green Paper.” The full text is available here. For a briefer summary, here is the statement … Read more »
I’m afraid I owe Lawfare readers an apology. Because of a calendar foul-up, I missed yesterday’s D.C. Circuit argument in Alsabri v. Obama, a Guantanamo habeas case–nor did I write an oral argument preview. The briefs, however, are available … Read more »
Here is the latest salvo in the debate relating to the NDAA provisions relating to detainees: Last week Chairman McKeon sent this 7-page letter to the White House responding to the administration’s earlier Statement of Administration Policy (“SAP”) criticizing the … Read more »
Yesterday I asked whether there are any historical examples in which (i) a military commission prosecution occurred during an armed conflict rather than afterwards, (ii) the defendant was acquitted, and (iii) the defendant was nonetheless remanded back to military custody … Read more »
May God bless their little souls. The poor dears really are trying. The New York Times editorial page has now corrected its correction.
This is getting meta, and this post will be incomprehensible to those have not read my … Read more »
The defense in United States v. al-Nashiri (the next military commission proceeding set to come to trial) has moved for an order (see the second entry under al-Nashiri, # AEO11) obliging the government to declare whether it would continue to … Read more »
The latest public development in the long-running fight over the detention provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act occurred last Friday when a group of 13 Senate Democrats (all the Democrats on SSCI and some but not all from Judiciary) … Read more »
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton staunchly defended the Iraq withdrawal on several Sunday talk shows; her remarks on ABC’s The Week are available here, beginning at minute 6:54. However, President Obama’s announcement was met with harsh criticism from many … Read more »
An interesting story in the Post this weekend draws attention to the fact that about 7,000 detainees currently are held without criminal charge in various locations throughout Libya, and with varying degrees of accountability to the transitional government authorities. The … Read more »
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Kenneth Anderson writes of my post yesterday, “What should most concern the Times are the couple of emails I’ve received from several eminent professors, smart and intellectually scrupulous folks whose opinion I value a … Read more »
I awoke this morning to a genuine marvel: An actual real-live correction to a New York Times editorial on a national security issue. It reads as follows:
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 22,
Ongoing developments in Libya continue to generate abundant news. Most notably, the United Nations has called for an inquiry into Qaddafi’s death, reports Nick Cumming Bruce of the New York Times. Also, questions regarding the leader’s burial have caused friction … Read more »
The invaluable Josh Gerstein of the Politico offers these important pieces of the legislative politics puzzle surrounding the Kelly Ayotte amendment, which I wrote about here and here:
The vote, taken just after 1 a.m. Friday, broke largely along
As you probably have heard already, negotiations to extend the U.S. troop presence in Iraq beyond the end of this year have officially foundered, in the face of opposition from the Sadrists in general and disagreement over immunity from Iraqi … Read more »
Over at Opinio Juris, Lawfare Book Review Editor Ken Anderson raises a series of important questions about the CIA drone program. In that post, Ken very kindly notes the relationship of these questions to my Title 10/Title 50 project, … Read more »
A couple of military commission developments worth mention.
First, al Nashiri has filed a motion “To Determine If the Trial of this Case Is One From Which the Defendant May Be Meaningfully Acquitted.” The motion is not yet available to … Read more »
The Kelly Ayotte amendment I discussed yesterday was voted down late last night, reports the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted early Friday to reject a Republican effort to prohibit the United States from prosecuting foreign terrorist suspects
Judge Reggie Walton today dismissed on standing grounds the lawsuit challenging the legality of the military operation in Libya (via Josh Gerstein). The decision was not remotely surprising, and indeed was required by clear precedent.
Another unpleasant proposed spending restriction related to trying suspected terrorists–this time from Senator Kelly Ayotte. This is a proposed amendment to an appropriations bill for the Justice Department, among other agencies. It could receive a vote any day. It would … Read more »
Here is the text of Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson’s comments on AUMF reaffirmation, which I discussed yesterday in this post:
CULLY STIMSON: . . . there are proposals on the Hill regarding reaffirming, and perhaps some would say
Jeh Johnson’s speech at the Heritage Foundation, which Ben discussed in his earlier post, generated a lot of press today: the Washington Post’s Peter Finn reports on Johnson’s warning against the “over-militarization” of our counterterrorism efforts; the Wall Street … Read more »
I had been waiting for the video of Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson’s speech at the Heritage Foundation to be released to post thoughts it. But I awoke this morning to press coverage of the speech that seemed pretty consistently … Read more »
Lots going on since the weekend:
Saudi Arabia is pushing for the alleged Iranian assasination plot to be brought to the United Nations in a bit of regional power play, and the Iranian Foreign Ministry demanded information from the U.S. … Read more »
The text of the speech that Jeh Johnson, General Counsel of the Department of Defense, gave at the Heritage Foundation earlier today is available here. We will post the video of the event, including the Q&A, as soon as … Read more »
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
In one of the strangest stories I’ve come across in a long time—and there have been many—news reports say an FBI agent shot and killed an Orlando man with ties to deceased Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Ibragim Todashev was not suspected of playing a role in the bombings, but, during questioning, confessed nevertheless to playing a role in a triple homicide in the Boston area. After his confession, Todashev allegedly… Read more »
