Ben earlier noted an order, in which Judge John Bates instructed petitioners in Al Maqleh v. Obama to file, by no later than today, a “short summary, not to exceed two pages,” of any newly discovered facts that might … Read more »
Back in July, I noted that the Electronic Privacy and Information Center had petitioned the D.C. Circuit for a writ of mandamus to force the TSA to conduct a rulemaking under the Administrative Procedures Act regarding its adoption of Advanced … Read more »
Lots going on before the long weekend.
Lets begin with more coverage of the “squealing SEAL”—aka Mark Owen aka Matt Bissonnette. Mark Thompson at Time has this story on the letter the Pentagon sent Bissonnette and the book’s publisher, and … Read more »
Last night and this morning, I did a little tinkering with Lawfare‘s social networking features–which actually drive a good deal of traffic to the site. According to Google Analytics, Facebook is far and away Lawfare‘s biggest single source … Read more »
Some detainee treatment news here: Attorney General Eric Holder today announced the end of a criminal investigation into the deaths of two detainees while in U.S. custody. No charges will be filed because, according to Holder’s statement, “the admissible evidence … Read more »
Earlier today, Judge Rosemary Collyer rejected an attempt by attorneys for detainee Mohammed al Qahtani to modify two protective orders entered in al Qahtani’s habeas case.
The proposed modification concerned court-imposed rules for handling sensitive material. In particular, the lawyers … Read more »
The Obama administration confirmed yesterday that the Haqqani militant network’s #3 was killed by a drone strike in Pakistan last week. Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post reports.
In two incidents in Afghanistan Wednesday and Thursday, five Australian soldiers … Read more »
As promised yesterday, the organizers of the Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History have released a longer statement on their project. It reads:
Artists’ Website Project Closes Gitmo and Replaces It With Art Museum
On August 29th
The Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg reports:
The Pentagon war crimes prosecutor on Wednesday revived a Bush-era prosecution and charged a Saudi captive at Guantánamo with a 2002 terror attack on a French oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden,
I’m happy to report that I’ve recently completed drafting an article that has been much on my mind for the past few years. Beyond the Battlefield, Beyond al Qaeda: The Destabilizing Legal Architecture of Counterterrorism (Michigan Law Review, forthcoming 2013) … Read more »
While you weren’t looking, Guantanamo has been closed—and turned into an art museum!
I am writing to the museum staff now for any information they might be willing to provide about this remarkable alternative vision of present reality. I’ll … Read more »
Amnesty International’s web site has been hacked by supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, reports James Ball of the Washington Post.
Some new details are emerging about Matt Bissonnette’s book about the bin Laden raid, and they seem to … Read more »
U.S. District Judge John Bates has entered the following order in Maqaleh, the case testing federal court habeas jurisdiction for detainees at Bagram:
MINUTE ORDER: The Court has received 81 petitioners’ notice that they have recently discovered facts that
What follows is the list of speeches by senior officials of the Obama administration, from the President on down and particularly senior lawyers of the national security agencies, addressing national security and counterterrorism (last updated on August 28, 2012):
President
Recent Harvard Law School grads William Marra and Sonia McNeil–authors of the first Lawfare Research Paper–have released a short Brookings briefing paper on the regulation of future drones in domestic airspace. Entitled “Understanding ‘The Loop’: Regulating the Next Generation … Read more »
Over at the political science blog The Monkey Cage, UNC-Charlotte professor James Igoe Walsh shares some polling research on American views about the use of force. He conducted an online experimental survey to test the impact of using drone … Read more »
Today’s top story is that four Army soldiers based in Georgia allegedly formed an “anarchist militia group. . . that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks,” including the assassination of President Obama. Wells points out that, … Read more »
Just back from vacation I get to catch up on fun stuff that I missed while I was away. At the top of my list is the Tallinn Manual recently released by a distinguished group of NATO experts. The Manual … Read more »
The word from Judge James L. Pohl: the military commission in United States v. Mohammed et al, aka the 9/11 case, will “reconvene on Monday, 15 October 2012, and proceed through Friday, 19 October 2012.” Motions set for last … Read more »
Last month, I linked to an essay over at Foreign Policy by the mysterious Twitter phenom known as @drunkenpredator. Drunken Predator, who also blogs occasionally over at the Gunpowder and Lead blog is a pseudonym for a writer who—often … Read more »
News surfaced this morning that the Taliban has beheaded 17 Afghans who were dancing in a mixed-gender setting (two of the victims were women) Sunday evening. Sayed Salahuddin of the Washington Post reports on this attack, along with the news … Read more »
David Remes, who represents several Yemeni clients at Guantanamo Bay, writes in with the following reflections on his latest trip to Guantanamo:
David Remes’ Latest GTMO Adventures
I returned from GTMO on Thursday, unexpectedly soon. I had flown down on
Jonathan Witmer-Rich sends in the following commentary on the Amawi case, which I posted yesterday:
Just wanted to offer a bit of commentary on U.S. v. Amawi, which you flagged on the Lawfare blog . . . . I
The government has just posted a memorandum from March 12, 1945 in the Bahlul docket concerning the question of whether participation in a conspiracy to commit an offense against the law of war is punishable in a military commission.
The … Read more »
The current commander of ISAF has written this op-ed in the Washington Post on the progress that is being made in Afghanistan, the collaboration between NATO and Afghan security forces, and the uptick in “green on blue” attacks. He concludes:… Read more »
This is extremely impressive, and one video will give more information than I could with a long essay:
Lots of stuff today.
Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian gentleman who went on a bombing and shooting spree last summer that killed 77 people, has been found sane and has been sentenced to 21 years in prison. Here is Al … Read more »
Haven’t read this yet, but U.S. v. Amawi, which came down yesterday, looks pretty interesting. The opinion is by Judge Danny Boggs, and while the disposition was unanimous, one of the judges wrote separately concurring in the judgment. Here … Read more »
On August 16, a judge in the Southern District of New York dismissed a suit brought against the Emir of Kuwait, Sheik Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, under the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act, based on a … Read more »
These were just too good not to post immediately.
As Raffaela mentioned in this morning’s news roundup, a Navy SEAL is publishing a book about the Osama bin Laden raid. But did you know that, according to The Onion, … Read more »
Last week, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Henderson and Brown handed down a per curiam order in response to the government’s motion to remand Ravil Mingazov’s case to the District Court for consideration of his motion there under Rule … Read more »
I have refrained so far from commenting on this fascinating article by Cato’s Julian Sanchez—to which Raffaela linked yesterday—which outlines a new theory as to how the crisis developed in 2007 that led to, first, the Protect America Act … Read more »
Big news from the publishing world: a member of SEAL Team 6 has written an account of the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, to be published on September 11th. Julie Bosman at the New York Times reported yesterday, noting … Read more »
Yesterday it was a train crash and the resulting internet service outage. Today it’s an impending storm. But it looks like we have another postponement in the Monster Motions Hearings. Word on the street is that Guantanamo is battening down … Read more »
Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor Brig. Gen. Mark Martins has issued the following statement to the media:
Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins
Remarks at Guantanamo Bay
22 August 2012
Good morning. The military commission convened to try the charges referred to it
This is the second in a series of interviews I am doing with scholars around town who have non-legal expertise that bears on the national security law issues Lawfare readers care about. As I did in my first piece with … Read more »
Ben beat me to it, but this morning, the D.C Circuit issued a terse order removing United States v. al Bahlul (the “other” military commission appeal) from its argument calendar (it was scheduled to be argued before Judges Henderson, … Read more »
This is interesting. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has just entered the following docket order in the military commission appeal of Ali Hamza Ahmad al Bahlul:
CLERK’S ORDER filed . . . , on the court’s own motion, that
The Obama administration’s line-drawing yesterday on what it would take to bring U.S. involvement in the Syria conflict has some none too pleased. Critics of the decision say that Syrian President Bashar Assad may interpret U.S. policy as permissive of … Read more »
So reports Carol Rosenberg from the Miami Herald.
Apparently–and, as the Washington Post reports, for technical reasons–the train crash in Ellicott City, Maryland somehow lead to a break in the internet connection between Guantanamo and the Office of … Read more »
The motions hearing that begins tomorrow in the 9/11 military commissions case is far too sprawling to preview motion by motion. Instead, we’ve broken it up thematically. Nearly all of the 25 motions on which Military Judge James Pohl will … Read more »
Just so y’all know: the military commission expects a more orderly affair this time around, in United States v. Mohammed et al. More orderly, at any rate, than May’s rough-and-tumble arraignment. How do we know, exactly? Well, have a … Read more »
Over at SCOTUSblog, there’s a terrific symposium underway to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of The Least Dangerous Branch, Alex Bickel’s seminal work on the Supreme Court and judicial review. My own contribution thereto–”The Passive Virtues as Means, Not … Read more »
Russia be warned: According to the BBC, President Obama has said that American military intervention is a possibility if Syria uses its chemical weapons.
The Washington Post reports that Afghan soldiers will now spy on each other in an effort … Read more »
In Ben’s non-Lawfare life, he runs the Brookings Institution’s Campaign 2012 project, an event and paper series focusing on major issues the next president will face. Most of these papers are not relevant to this blog. But some of … Read more »
Here’s a timely new article as the D.C. Circuit considers the military commission appeals in Hamdan and Bahlul–both of which challenge convictions based on, among other charges, material support for terrorism. Peter Margulies of Roger Williams School of Law … Read more »
Let’s begin with drones. As Matt noted last week, The Hill reports that the International Association of Chiefs of Police released guidelines for the use of domestic drones. Read the recommendations here.
The Washington Post tells us that … Read more »
As Ben noted, this week and next will see one whopper of a hearing in the 9/11 case – two, really, the first spanning August 22-24 and the second August 26-28.
Apropos, Judge James Pohl recently amended – for the … Read more »
Hold onto your chairs. The motions hearing in the 9/11 military commissions case scheduled to begin on Wednesday promises to be a monster. The latest version of the docketing order is not yet public. The last one actually unsealed, … Read more »
Monday, May 20, 2013
As Jack posted yesterday—and as everyone is buzzing about—President Obama will give a major counterterrorism speech on Thursday at the National Defense University. The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Politico all report on the talk, and subjects that the President will likely address.
Speaking of Jack, he noted another of today’s big stories: the Washington Post’s piece on the FBI’s search, a few years… Read more »
