The Nashiri defense has filed a motion to depose Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who arrived recently in the United States for medical treatment. The motion is not yet public, but its title appears on the docket of his case … Read more »
Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda explores the emergence of new strategic thinking in American counter-terrorism. Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker are two consummate national security reporters at the New York Times and their … Read more »
Soon, Senator Harry Reid promises to bring a comprehensive cybersecurity bill before the Senate for consideration. The base draft bill to be considered remains shrouded in secrecy, the subject of urgent, on-going, behind the scenes negotiations. The general intent appears … Read more »
Today’s top story is the President’s maybe-a-little-too candid remarks on the CIA’s drone program, as Ben discussed here. Here are the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times on the story.
Lots of other drone news: Andrew Stobo … Read more »
I’m pleased to announce that Paul Rosenzweig will be guest blogging for Lawfare while Congress considers the cybersecurity legislation that is now headed for the Senate floor. Paul has a great deal of expertise in cybersecurity legal policy issues, and … Read more »
Riddle me this: At what point does official acknowledgment of a covert action become so strong that it can no longer be justified as a covert action–which is statutorily defined as action in which the role of the United States … Read more »
Drone strikes in Yemen raise important questions regarding the field of application of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the extraterritorial applicability of International Human Rights Law (IHRL), and the proper approach to norm reconciliation should both IHL and IHRL apply simultaneously. … Read more »
So amidst all of the gridlock in Congress and the presidential campaigning, there is actually a pretty good chance that Congress might get something significant and forward-looking done this year. The issue is cybersecurity, which is already covered in more … Read more »
Well, that didn’t take long. The government only submitted its opposition to Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari’s petition for en banc review on January 19. But the D.C. Circuit today denied the petition. A D.C. Circuit panel decided Al … Read more »
As Ben mentioned, we’re still waiting for iTunes to approve the Lawfare Podcast. Even before approval, however, you can subscribe to it through iTunes by following these simple steps:
Eric Schmitt and Michael Schmidt write in the New York Times that the drones keeping watch in Iraq are less than welcome these days, despite their being operated by the State Department, not the military.
The Jerusalem Post reports that … Read more »
It is a great pleasure to announce the first episode of the Lawfare Podcast:
The Lawfare Podcast quite literally speaks for itself, so I won’t spend a lot of time introducing it. Like a lot of things we do … Read more »
[The following guest post, from Geoff Corn (South Texas College of Law), extends the discussion of the Gotovina decision from Laurie Blanks's guest post yesterday]
On April 15, 2011, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia issued its
[This is the first of two posts concerning the ICTY's Gotovina decision (the ICTY summary of which appears here, and two volumes of trial documents are available here]
Professor Laurie Blank, Director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic … Read more »
The Blog of Legal Times tells us that the Department of Justice has ”filed court papers Wednesday in a public records suit in Washington asking U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to keep the photos [showing Osama bin Laden's dead body] … Read more »
No big surprise here: The D.C. Circuit has affirmed the judgment of the District Court in upholding the detention of Guantanamo detainee Abdul-Rahman Abdo Abulghaith Suleiman’s appeal. The opinion has not been released yet, but the order is available here… Read more »
The government has filed its opposition to cert in the case of Al Madhwani v. Obama–a Guantanamo habeas case. Al Madhwani’s cert petition seeks review of this DC Circuit opinion affirming his detention. That opinion, in turn, affirmed District … Read more »
Tomorrow morning, the en banc Fourth Circuit will hear oral argument in the two Abu Ghraib/contractor preemption cases about which we’ve blogged previously. Although there’s a serious question as to the Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction, the heart of the … Read more »
My earlier post prompted the following reply from Cully Stimson, whom I thank for sending such a thoughtful response, and which I think it only fair to post in its entirety:
My friend Steve Vladeck takes me to task for
Further to the ongoing exchange (begun on Salon and continued on this blog here and here) between Laura Pitter from Human Rights Watch and Ben on the fairness vel non of the al-Nashiri military commission proceedings, Cully Stimson has … Read more »
I don’t normally agree on detention policy matters with Seton Hall’s Mark Denbeaux–and there’s certainly some rhetoric in this piece in Jurist that I would never use and conclusiosn I do not reach. That said, I recommend it to those … Read more »
Let’s start with the Aghanistan news. There has been another suicide bombing in Helmand province, signifying the Taliban’s continued unwillingness to negotiate with the United States and causing three death and at least 30 injuries. Sayed Salahuddin writes from … Read more »
For all D.C. readers, this upcoming event at Georgetown University Law Center may be of interest.
The Georgetown Center on
National Security and the Law
Cordially invites you to a critical discussion of a newly-published book
by the ABA Section … Read more »
The New York Times reports on NYPD police commissoner Raymond Kelly’s decision to personally cooperate with the prooducers of “The Third Jihad,” an anti-Muslim film that drew ”angry condemnation from Muslim and civil rights groups.”
The Associated Press informs us… Read more »
As Jack and Steve have both noted, yesterday the Fourth Circuit issued its opinion in Lebron v. Rumsfeld, the appeal seeking reversal of a district court’s decision denying Jose Padilla declaratory and equitable relief against several current and … Read more »
As Ben pointed out yesterday, the Washington Post report about the possibility that non-Afghan detainees held at Parwan will be repatriated to their home countries is significant news. Apart from its import for U.S. detention policy generally, the development, if … Read more »
Laura Pitter of Human Rights Watch responds to my criticisms of her coverage of the Al Nashiri motions hearing:
Benjamin Wittes is correct in concluding that I (and Human Rights Watch) share his desire to see fair trials for Guantanamo
As Bobby and Steve have already discussed, John Kiriakou, the author of “The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror” has been indicted for allegedly leaking classified information to the media. Read Charlie Savage’s New York … Read more »
This story in today’s Washington Post won’t get the attention it would garner if it dealt with Guantanamo, but put it in the category of Very Important if True. According to Post reporters Peter Finn and Julie Tate,
The Obama
Daniel Klaidman at Newsweek, whose forthcoming book on the Obama Administration’s counterterrorism policies promises to be must-read material, reports that the decision has been made to go public with some form of defense of the legality of the al-Awlaki strike. … Read more »
The Islamic militant group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a string of terrorist attacks that killed more than 150 people in Nigeria. The New York Times, CNN, and BBC have the story.
Daniel Klaidman at Newsweek reports … Read more »
[Update: I've revised the text here to show that the Court did not actaully say a warrant is always required in such cases] What a day. Now we have a Supreme Court decision (United States v. Jones) holding … Read more »
Ashley Deeks (formerly senior State Department lawyer and currently a fellow at Columbia Law School) has posted to SSRN a new piece appearing in Virginia Journal of International Law, ‘Unwilling or Unable’: Toward an Normative Framework for Extra-Territorial Self-Defense. … Read more »
I just wanted to add one point to Bobby’s thorough post on the Kiriakou indictment from earlier today. As Bobby quoted from the DOJ press release:
According to the complaint affidavit, the investigation determined that no laws were broken by
Jack just flagged the Fourth Circuit’s unanimous 39-page opinion throwing out Lebron v. Rumsfeld–one of the two pending Bivens suits brought by Jose Padilla arising out of his detention (and alleged abuse) as an “enemy combatant.” Although Padilla’s allegations … Read more »
Opinion here. Commentary later, hopefully.
Jamshid Muhtorov is under arrest, facing material support charges predicated on the claim that he swore allegiance to an Uzbekistan group known as the Islamic Jihad Union, and that he attempted to travel abroad to join them. The complaint and … Read more »
Oh boy. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou has been arrested and charged with leaking classified to a journalist concerning interrogation at GTMO, including the identity of persons involved in interrogation sessions (information which was given to the defense team, allegedly, … Read more »
Writing in Salon magazine, Laura Pitter of Human Rights Watch declares that “fundamental procedural protections afforded defendants in federal courts simply do not exist in military commissions. And without comparable fairness and transparency, the promise of justice remains a … Read more »
Journalist Shane Harris (senior writer for Washingtonian magazine and author of the well-received 2010 book, The Watchers) has written a briefing paper for the Hoover Institution’s Task Force on National Security and Law’s Emerging Threats series, Out of the Loop: … Read more »
The D.C. Circuit has batted back Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the new mail search policy at Guantanamo Bay. A per curiam order by a panel consisting of Judges Merrick Garland, Janice Rogers Brown, … Read more »
Here it is–redactions and all. Enjoy!
Lots to report on Afghanistan today: According to a classified coalition report given to the New York Times, NATO-trained Afghan soldiers are killing the very people who trained them at an rising rate. France is contemplating, the Times … Read more »
It can be found here (and Wells’s review for Lawfare can be found here.) I liked the book, which uses the dilemmas and compromises of Nuremburg as a lens for Shawcross’s empathetic and fair-minded account of the cross-cutting pressures … Read more »
CHIEF PROSECUTOR MARK MARTINS
REMARKS AT GUANTANAMO BAY
18 JANUARY 2012
Good afternoon. Today, the military commission continued its consideration of a series of motions raised by the defense and the prosecution. To recap:
Ali Soufan’s recent book, The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda (written in conjunction with Daniel Freedman), has attracted a good deal of attention since its release a few months ago. Soufan—a native Arabic … Read more »
United States v. Mahamud (D. Minn.) is a case involving the prosecution of a man linked to al Shabaab (on charges go conspiring to provide and actually providing material support to that group). On Wednesday, Chief Judge Davis issued a … Read more »
Former Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak Al Janko has also filed a notice of appeal in the D.C. Circuit concerning a December decision by Judge Richard Leon throwing out his civil suit.
The brief isn’t public yet, but it appears to have been filed in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General released an interim report on the Department’s handling of “known or suspected” terrorists who have entered the government’s witness protection program. The report found, among other things, that information on some program participants had not been turned over to no-fly list authorities; and, that two such people could not be located—though one… Read more »
