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Monthly Archives: February 2012

Yawn: Drone Strike Kills Four in Somalia

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 11:09 PM

In her news roundup for last Friday, Ritika briefly mentioned that a drone strike had killed four al-Shabab militants in Somalia.

 The New York Times had also cursorily mentioned the strike in this short AP report on page A5 of … Read more »

Some Initial Reflections on Today’s Due Process Guarantee Act Hearing

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 6:01 PM

While the experience is fresh, I thought I’d share some reflections on this morning’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Due Process Guarantee Act. [The SJC hearing page has copies of the witness statements (including my own), and … Read more »

Majid Khan Plea Agreement Documents

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Here for all the world to see.

We’ve got:

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Today’s Headlines and Commentary

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Interpol has arrested 25 suspected members of Anonymous, reports the AP.

Evan Perez and Julian E. Barnes at the Wall Street Journal (caution: paywall) report on the DOJ’s release of the Policy Directive and Fact Sheet, as do Sari … Read more »

Majid Khan Arraignment #5: Prosecution Remarks to the Press

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Here is Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins’s remarks to the press, which are being delivered at this hour:

Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins

Remarks at Guantanamo Bay on 29 February 2012

Good afternoon. Today, following his initial appearance and arraignment, a military

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Majid Khan Arraignment #4

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 1:09 PM

Judge Pohl then turns to his required colloquy with Khan to verify that his plea is truthful, voluntary, and made cognizant of consequences. Khan’s plea, he says, will not be accepted unless he validates every act alleged and unless Judge … Read more »

Majid Khan Arraignment #3

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 11:59 AM

The commission reconvenes and Judge Pohl announces that he has received the document. Trial counsel Sullivan reiterates that she had no notice about this document. But it turns out not to matter.

Judge Pohl says he’s going to deny the … Read more »

Majid Khan Arraignment #2

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 10:02 AM

Military Judge James Pohl walks in promptly at 9:00 am and calls the military commission to order.

Trial counsel Courtney Sullivan of the Justice Department begins by announcing that there have been minor changes to the charge sheet. She introduces … Read more »

Majid Khan Arraignment #1

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 8:24 AM

When my daughter was in day care and I would pick her up in the evening and ask her what she did during the day, she would sometimes respond, a little alarmingly, “I sat in a dark room and stared … Read more »

Initial Comments on the Implementing Procedures for NDAA Section 1022

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 11:25 PM

Raffaela earlier posted the President’s implementation procedures for Section 1022 of the NDAA–that is, the not-so-mandatory military detention provision. I have only had a chance to read it over quickly, but here’s a quick and dirty summary.

Bottom line: The … Read more »

NDAA Fact Sheet and Presidential Policy Directive on §1022

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 7:10 PM

This just in from the Department of Justice:

Today at 6:30 pm, the White House issued the following Fact Sheet and a Presidential Policy Directive that sets forth procedures implementing Section 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY

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Kiobel: Justice Kennedy Questions Extraterritorial Application of the ATS

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 6:10 PM

The narrow question presented in the Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum case is whether corporations may be held liable for violations of international law under the Alien Tort Statute.  But during this morning’s Supreme Court argument, Justices Kennedy, Roberts, and … Read more »

Not So Fast on Khan Plea Bargain

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 4:12 PM

There’s been a lot of buzz in the press on the plea bargain reached between Majid Khan and the prosecution in his Military Commission case–and a lot of it has focused on the mere four years before Khan might be … Read more »

Kiobel and Mohamad Oral Argument Transcripts

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 2:51 PM

Oral argument transcripts from the Supreme Court hearing this morning:  Kiobel and Mohamad.  Update: Opinio Juris is posting several posts and guest posts on the oral argument, including this one by Chimene Keitner.  The comments to my … Read more »

Video of Jeh Johnson’s Speech at Yale Law School

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 11:20 AM

I just noticed this video of Jeh Johnson’s speech at Yale Law School, the text of which I have already posted:

 

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Today’s Headlines and Commentary

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 10:34 AM

As Jack has already noted, Ellen Nakashima has an article in the Washington Post and a post on Checkpoint Washington reporting that the White House has been pushing back on NSA efforts to widen its role in monitoring private … Read more »

White House Shoots Down NSA Efforts to Protect Private Domestic Networks

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 6:19 AM

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post reports that the White House thwarted NSA attempts to seek legislation that “would have required hundreds of companies that provide such critical services as electricity generation to allow their Internet traffic to be continuously … Read more »

Wednesday’s SJC Hearing on the Due Process Guarantee Act

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Monday, February 27, 2012 at 6:53 PM

I’ve blogged before about S. 2003, the “Due Process Guarantee Act” introduced late last year by Senator Feinstein, which would amend the Non-Detention Act to provide that

An authorization to use military force, a declaration of war, or any

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Readings: Micah Zenko on 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Drones … But Probably Need To

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Monday, February 27, 2012 at 5:33 PM

Along with the earlier reading on drones in Pakistan by Pia Zubair Shah in Foreign Policy, also check out Council on Foreign Relations fellow Micah Zenko’s short piece in the same March-April 2012 issue, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Read more »

Brookings Paper on China and Cybersecurity

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Monday, February 27, 2012 at 3:33 PM

Brookings scholars Kenneth Lieberthal and Peter W. Singer have just released a paper entitled “Cybersecurity and U.S.-China Relations.” It opens as follows:

There is perhaps no relationship as significant to the future of world politics as that between

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Today’s Headlines and Commentary

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Monday, February 27, 2012 at 10:59 AM

A bomb went off in Katmandu, Nepal, killing at least three people. Claiming responsibility for the attack  is the United Ethnic Liberation Front, reports the Associated Press.

Over the weekend, the AP released a study indicating that the civilian … Read more »

The Most Backhanded Praise I’ve Ever Received

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Monday, February 27, 2012 at 7:38 AM

I only just noticed Kevin Jon Heller’s “Update” to his post slamming my post about the Rahmatullah case. It is, I think I can say with confidence, the most backhanded praise I have ever received:

UPDATE: Ben links to my

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Readings: Pir Zubair Shah, My Drone War

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Monday, February 27, 2012 at 7:27 AM

Journalist Pir Zubair Shah writes in the March-April 2012 issue of Foreign Policy. My Drone War: American drones have changed everything for al Qaeda and its local allies in Pakistan, becoming a fact of life in a secret war that Read more »

Boumediene, “Global Constitutionalism,” and “Human Rights Universalism”: My Response to Professor Kent

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Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 10:36 AM

For those interested in the ongoing academic debate over the rationale and implications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene, I have a new (short) piece in the Iowa Law Review Bulletin responding to Professor Andrew Kent’s November 2011 … Read more »

Soliciting Podcast Feedback

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Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 9:21 PM

We have now had four episodes of The Lawfare Podcast. Each has been downloaded a goodly number of times, so I know that people are listening to the podcast, but I have less sense of what people think of … Read more »

Readings: The Royal Society Report on Neuroscience, Conflict, and Security

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Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 8:33 AM

The technological frontiers of conflict include cyberwar, robotics, and autonomous lethal weapons. It is time to add a new one: the use of neuroscience in conflict.  Whether by creating new weapons to be deployed against an enemy, cognitive enhancements to … Read more »

Lies, Crimes, and United States v. Alvarez

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Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:04 PM

Wednesday’s oral argument on the constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act generated a flurry of anticipatory and postmortem coverage, as well as divided commentary. The brief of the United States is here, the respondent’s brief is hereRead more »

Clive Walker on Rahmatullah

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Friday, February 24, 2012 at 8:30 PM

Clive Walker, a professor of law at the University of Leeds, responds to the following comment in my Rahmatullah post: “It’s funny how courts discover deference when they realize that they have no power anyway. . . . British … Read more »

Enforcing International Treaties in U.S. Courts @ OJ

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Friday, February 24, 2012 at 4:11 PM

There’s a fun virtual symposium underway over at Opinio Juris on a new article by Oona Hathaway, Sabria McElroy, and Sara Aronchick Solow titled “International Law at Home: Enforcing Treaties in U.S. Courts.” Among other things, the article Read more »

Today’s Headlines and Commentary

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Friday, February 24, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Protests in Afghanistan over the burning of Korans by NATO soldiers saw their deadliest day today with at least 10 casualties, says the New York Times. Guess a presidential apology only goes so far. Meanwhile, the Washington Post Read more »

Extraterritorial Application of the Alien Tort Statute: “A Noble Cause That Goes Too Far”

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Friday, February 24, 2012 at 1:19 PM

The Kiobel case will be argued next Tuesday before the Supreme Court.  I have an op-ed in today’s Washington Post (headlined in the print edition “A Noble Cause That Goes Too Far”) about the foreign policy tensions caused by extraterritorial … Read more »

Might Daqduq Face a Military Commission One Day After All?

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Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:31 AM

[Update: Over at Opinio Juris, John Dehn raises the interesting and important question whether it would be constitutional for a commission to convene at this point in regards to events in Iraq, given language in Yamashita suggesting that the Read more »

Lawfare Podcast Episode #4: Bobby on the Title 10/Title 50 Debate

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Friday, February 24, 2012 at 7:06 AM

On today’s episode of the podcast, Bobby discusses his encyclopedic new Title 10/Title 50 article with Jack. The article, “Military-Intelligence Convergence and the Law of the Title 10/Title 50 Debate,” has just been published in the Journal of Read more »

Kevin Jon Heller’s Response to My Rahmatullah Piece…

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Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 10:14 PM

…is entitled “Ben Wittes’ Appalling Take on Rahmatullah.”

I wonder what he really thinks, though.

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Discovering Deference: The Rahmatullah Climb-Down

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Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 4:42 PM

It is always an awkward spectacle when a court has to climb down, having issued an opinion that it has no real power to effectuate. That’s what has now happened in the British Court of Appeals in the case of … Read more »

Today’s Headlines and Commentary

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Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 11:29 AM

In breaking news, Majid Khan, a high-value Guantanamo Bay detainee, has reached a plea deal with prosecutors that “calls for him to testify at the trials of other detainees in exchange for a much-reduced sentence and eventual freedom,” reports the … Read more »

SCOTUS Cert Petition Filed in Al Kandari

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Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 11:14 AM

Fayiz Mohammad Al Kandari, a Guantanamo detainee, has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in his habeas case. This comes after the D.C. Circuit denied his petition for en banc review in late January.

The petition opens:

In

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Thoughts On Judge Pohl’s Order and Ruling

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Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 11:03 AM

I have two thoughts on Military Judge James Pohl’s order and ruling, which I have now read.

The first is that on the narrow issue of the appropriate procedure for screening mail, this is largely a win for the … Read more »

Liability and the Cybersecurity Bill

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Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 9:48 AM

In an earlier post about the information sharing provisions of the cybersecurity bill pending in the Senate I highlighted the issue of liability protection and the preemption of State law, musing that those provisions might prove controversial with those who … Read more »

Military Judge Pohl’s Order on Attorney-Client Communications…

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 10:33 PM

…in the Al Nashiri case is now available. I will have comments after I’ve actually read it.

UPDATE: There is also a ruling, which I had not noticed earlier.

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Duke Law Conference on Afghanistan

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 5:25 PM

The Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke Law School will hold its annual conference on Friday, April 13th and Saturday, April 14th. The Center’s executive director, Air Force Maj. General Charles Dunlap, writes:

This year’s theme is … Read more »

Jeh Johnson Speech at Yale Law School

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 4:30 PM

Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson is giving a speech today at the Yale Law School. The prepared text is as follows:                          

Dean’s Lecture at Yale Law School    

“National security law, lawyers and lawyering in the Obama Administration”

By Jeh Charles

Read more »

NACDL Ethics Advisory Committee Opinion on mail review

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 1:23 PM

This just in: the Office of Chief Defense Counsel in the Military Commissions asked the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Ethics Advisory Committee for an advisory opinion on whether defense counsel can comply with Rear Admiral David Woods’ order … Read more »

Today’s Headlines and Commentary

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 10:48 AM

Over at USA Today, Kevin Johnson writes on the details coming to light about Amine El Khalifi, who was arrested last Friday for plotting to bomb the Capitol.

A U.S. District Court Judge in the Northern District of Texas … Read more »

Ben’s Two Al-Zahrani Questions

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 10:06 AM

Ben’s two questions in response to my post yesterday on the D.C. Circuit’s decision in al-Zahrani are both right on the money, but I think they both have answers–and take a shot below the fold.

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A Question for Steve on Zahrani

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 9:25 AM

Steve is quite right that yesterday’s decision in Al Zahrani is no surprise. Indeed, after the total train wreck of an oral argument, in which the judges literally walked out on counsel for the plaintiffs, I wrote that “everyone … Read more »

Today’s Headlines and Commentary

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 11:15 PM

Apologies for the delay on this post today. It was in every sense Ben’s fault.

Protests have erupted at Bagram over NATO personnel who disposed of Korans by burning them. The New York Times and Wired’s Spencer Ackerman have the … Read more »

Drone Warfare Getting Out of Hand

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 7:14 PM

Here is your moment of Not-Zen for the day (with thanks to my student Daniel).  (With apologies to the senior editors of Lawfare for momentarily lowering the tone.)

 

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Readings: Eric De Brabandere on Corporations in the International Legal System

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 6:16 PM

With the Supreme Court scheduled to hear arguments over corporate liability in the Alien Tort Statute later this month, this short book chapter makes for a good, useful read.  Dr. Eric De Brabandere is an associate professor of international law … Read more »

The Subtle New (Constitutional) Holding in Al-Zahrani

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 2:47 PM

Given Ben’s report on the oral argument, today’s fairly cryptic D.C. Circuit opinion in al-Zahrani v. Rodriguez, throwing out a damages suit arising out of the deaths of several inmates at Guantanamo, is hardly surprising. Writing for a … Read more »