By Marty Lederman and Steve Vladeck*
[Cross-posted at OpinioJuris]
Section 1021 of the NDAA and the Laws of War
In our companion post, we explained that section 1021 of the NDAA will not have the dramatic effects that … Read more »
By Marty Lederman and Steve Vladeck*
[Cross-posted at OpinioJuris]
Editorial pages and blogs have been overrun in the past couple of weeks with analyses and speculation about the detainee provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act, which the President … Read more »
According to the AP, President Obama signed H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act, into law this morning in Hawaii. Below the fold is the text of the signing statement accompanying the bill:
As Raffaella mentioned earlier, the Ninth Circuit released three opinions on Thursday relating to class action litigation against the government and major telecommunications companies (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) for the warrantless wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) under … Read more »
A generally light news day.
Charlie Savage has this terrific piece in the New York Times on the GOP presidential candidate’s views on executive power, based on their responses to a Times survey. The Times is collecting and posting each … Read more »
There’s been a fair amount of media and blog attention to the proposed new rules governing (and substantially widening) the government’s access to communications between military commission defendants and their counsel. The draft order (courtesy of the Miami Herald) … Read more »
Headlines and Commentary took a short respite despite the plethora of goings-on this past week, so brace yourself for a lengthy news roundup today, as we go over some of the stuff you may have missed.
Two French soldiers were … Read more »
Joel Brenner’s America the Vulnerable offers the best general-interest treatment I have yet read of this country’s cyber-vulnerabilities. It is elegantly argued, teeming with facts and illuminating anecdotes, sophisticated about technology, and all written with an insider’s understanding of the … Read more »
Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed Al-Kandari has filed a petition for rehearing en banc with the D.C. Circuit Court in his case against the U.S. His singular question is whether the Federal Rules of Evidence apply to habeas corpus cases brought by … Read more »
I’m taking a break from de-ornamenting my Christmas tree (or, more accurately, spreading an astonishing number of dried-out pine needles around my living room) to draw attention to this very interesting piece from Greg Miller at the Washington Post (assissted … Read more »
A dispatch from the Lawfare North Pole: the White House seems to be using more aggressive language, in opposing Congress’s recent efforts to limit the executive branch’s authority over detainee affairs.
Two days ago, the Administration released a statement on … Read more »
On Thursday, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court in D.C. issued a little-noticed decision granting dismissal in Al Janko v. Gates. The case is noteworthy, however, because Al Janko–unlike other former detainees who have filed civil suits–“is … Read more »
In September, a team of Dutch virologists announced that they had created a strain of the avian influenza (H5N1) that, at least in lab animals, was as contagious as the seasonal flu. (A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has … Read more »
Cully Stimson of the Heritage Foundation, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs between 2006 and 2007, writes in with the following thoughtful essay about the Daqduq case:
There is an old saying that only the
With the next semester quickly approaching, I’m going through the annual struggle to decide just how much I want to cover current (national security) events in my first-year Constitutional Law course. This is always difficult for me for several reasons, … Read more »
The New York Times and columnists Charlie Savage and Scott Shane have filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act against the Department of Justice for access to the OLC memo authorizing the targeted killing of Anwar Al-Aulaqi.
Read the … Read more »
Stephen Voss, a philosophy professor at Bogazici University in Istanbul, writes in with the following response to Bobby’s and my NDAA FAQ:
The current NDAA contains, in section 1021, legislation that may drastically expand the government’s detention authority. The
David Glazier (Loyola Los Angeles) writes in with the following guest post in response to my earlier musings on the distribution of blame for the outcome in the Ali Musa Daqduq case:
I think the analysis of who bears the
Joanne Mariner of Hunter College’s Human Rights Program, writing at Justicia.com, has this lengthy analysis of the NDAA from a human rights and civil liberties point of view. It is the first half of a two-part series.
…this one from The Onion is not quite up to their usual standards, but it has a few smiles in it.
It’s hard to believe this video made it through the vetting process over at Amnesty International. My first instinct was that it had to be a group of high school students parodying an Amnesty International video. But no; it appears … Read more »
The Obama Administration filed an amicus curiae brief today with the Supreme Court in support of the Nigerian petitioners in the Kiobel case (which was brought against Shell Oil, relating to its activities in Nigeria), arguing that corporations may be … Read more »
…comes Justice and the Enemy: Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, by William Shawcross.
Counsel for Guantanamo habeas petitioners Uthman, Almerfedi, and Latif–all of whom have cert petitions pending or imminent–have asked the Supreme Court to hold off on deciding whether to grant until the petitions can be considered in concert. In … Read more »
A jury has returned a guilty verdict against Tarek Mehanna, in a case that raises questions about the scope of criminal liability for online activities promoting violence. The case raises very interesting First Amendment issues, which I discuss briefly here… Read more »
Raha Wala of Human Rights First has rewritten Bobby and my NDAA FAQ. Here is his very commendable effort:
While I agree that much of he public discussion of the NDAA provisions has been hyperbolic, I also think there’s much
As Lawfare readers know only too well, I don’t engage with He Who Must Not Be Named on this Blog. I do, however, engage with Seema Saifee, who represents four Guantanamo Uighurs (three of whom are no longer detained … Read more »
Another bad development in the Daqduq situation (see here if you don’t know whom I’m talking about). According to the AP, Iraqi officials have indicated that the only charge they plan to bring against Ali Musa Daqduqwould be a … Read more »
We’ve previously covered the Fourth Circuit’s pair of decisions in September dismissing tort suits against various contractors arising out of claims of torture at various detention facilities in Iraq–including Abu Ghraib. In the cases, Al Shimari v. CACI Int’l, Inc.… Read more »
Let’s start today’s news roundup with drone news:
First they replace soldiers with drones; now, as if the pressures on the media industry weren’t bad enough, they’re going after journalists. The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Europe blog rounds up a … Read more »
The volume of sheer, unadulterated nonsense zipping around the internet about the NDAA boggles the mind. There was a time–only a few months ago–when the NDAA detention provisions were the obscure province of a small group of national security law … Read more »
Ritika has decamped to an undisclosed location for a few weeks, so I have seized sole control of the Headlines and Commentary feature for a spell. Please send noteworthy articles I may have missed to wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com, and feel free … Read more »
In our final installment of NDAA transcripts, we bring you the Senate’s debate on December 15th on the conference report’s detention provisions.
Here are some highlights:
Senators Carl Levin and John McCain tout the strengths of the detention provisions starting … Read more »
David Cole, writing in the New York Review of Books blog, has this essay on the President’s decision not to veto the NDAA. Key passage:
the law as amended continues to contain extraordinarily dangerous principles. It creates a presumption in
Former DHS policy official Paul Rosenzweig has this new contribution to a paper series published by the Hoover Institution’s Task Force on National Security and Law–of which I am a member. The paper, entitled “Cybersecurity and Public Goods: The Public/Private … Read more »
Scott Peterson and Payam Faramarzi at the Christian Science Monitor have an interview with an unnamed Iranian engineer who says that Iran took over the computer systems of the RQ-170 Sentinel UAV, cut off its communication links with the USG, … Read more »
Neat fact for Lawfare Traffic Nerds: Today, only 16 days into December, we passed our previous monthly record for traffic on this site. As of this hour, December has seen 69,810 visits–passing our October record of 67,457, according to data … Read more »
What an interesting day for the question of how to address cases involving participation in the insurgency in Iraq.
Earlier today we learned that Ali Musa Daqduq, the last American military detainee in Iraq (who is believed to have orchestrated … Read more »
Oh my. Ali Mussa Daqduq, a Hezbollah agent held by the U.S. military for many years in Iraq and believed to have been responsible for an episode involving the capture, torture, and murder of a group of U.S. soldiers, has … Read more »
Rejoice Greatly! The Iraq War is officially over–”after nearly nine years, 4,500 Americans dead, 32,000 wounded and more than $800 billion,” says the Associated Press. Here are the Washington Post and the New York Times acounts.
There have been a … Read more »
You can read the detention-specific portions of the December 14th House debate on the conference report here.
Here are some highlights:
Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL) presented a strident opposition to the provisions. His comments begin right on page 1:… Read more »
It may surprise some readers, but I find myself oddly attracted to the Due Process Guarantee Act–which Steve described last night. The bill is cast as a response to the NDAA detention authorization provisions. But I’m not really sure … Read more »
Well that was fast… With the ink barely dry on the Senate’s passage of the NDAA, Senator Feinstein yesterday introduced on behalf of herself and 13 Senate colleagues (including Republican Senators Lee, Kirk, and Paul) the “Due Process Guarantee … Read more »
Last week, Nazul Gul and Adel Hassan Amad – both former Guantanamo detainees who were transferred by the United States to their home nations before their habeas petitions were resolved – sought a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court. … Read more »
The Senate just voted for final passage for the NDAA conference report (H.R. 1540). The vote was overwhelming: 86-to-13. All seven senators who voted against the Senate version earlier this month (S.1867) also voted against the conference report. Six … Read more »
Shane Bilsborough, a student at Pepperdine University, has this very interesting essay over at the Small Wars Journal on “Counterlawfare in Counterinsurgency.” In opens:
In recent years, something akin to a cottage industry has grown around the definition, analysis, and
Breaking in Boston: animal rights activists today filed a First Amendment challenge to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (“AETA”), which reportedly makes it a “terrorism” crime, among other things, to “intentionally damage[] or cause[] the loss of any real … Read more »
Let’s start with an NDAA update: As Bobby reported last night, the House passed the conference version of the NDAA. For the Congress nerds among us, the motion to recommit the bill failed in a 183-234 vote. Sixteen Congressmen … Read more »
The House has passed the conference version of the NDAA. It will go on to the Senate, probably coming up tomorrow (Thursday). With the White House veto threat lifted, the NDAA likely will be law in very short order.
After … Read more »
Back in May, I noted that the House version of the NDAA contained a very interesting section addressing “military activities” in cyberspace. Section 962 of that bill would have “affirmed” that DOD may conduct military activities in cyberspace (including clandestine … 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 »
