Matthew Waxman is a law professor at Columbia Law School, where he co-chairs the Roger Hertog Program on Law and National Security. He is also Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law. He previously served in senior policy positions at the State Department, Defense Department, and National Security Council. After graduating from Yale Law School, he clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum of the U.S. Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.
This Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing which will cover, among other things, the question whether to alter the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. This is a question that we, Ben, and Jack addressed … Read more »
Earlier today I posted a commentary on “Boston Bombings: Local Police and Counterterrorism Intelligence,” based on reported claims that the FBI failed to pass on important threat information to the Boston Police Department, and further reported claims that … Read more »
The New York Times had a story yesterday headlined “F.B.I. Didn’t Tell Boston Police of Warning on Brother”:
Police Commissioner Edward Davis said that though some of his officers worked with the F.B.I. on a joint terrorism task
Amid the debate about how legally to handle the Boston Marathon bomber and the President’s recent remarks about closing Guantanamo, Ahmed Ghailani’s appeal was argued today in the Second Circuit. As the New York Times reports in this summary of … Read more »
In recent weeks, a coalition of NGOs launched a global campaign to ban “killer robots,” or fully autonomous weapon systems (see reporting here). Its statement calls “for urgent action to preemptively ban lethal robot weapons that would be able … Read more »
President Obama now finds his administration occupied with three WMD -related crises: Iran, North Korea, and Syria. The resolution of all of them will depend in part on the credibility of U.S. threats and commitments, in this case the President’s … Read more »
Last week a group of major human rights NGOs sent this letter to the President on U.S. targeted killing practices. It calls on the Obama administration to “publicly disclose key targeted killing standards and criteria; ensure that U.S. lethal force … Read more »
Ken Anderson and I have just published a new policy paper through the Hoover Institution: Law and Ethics for Autonomous Weapon Systems: Why a Ban Won’t Work and How the Laws of War Can.
Our paper begins:
Public debate
Lawfare‘s Trevor Morrison has been appointed the next dean of NYU Law School. NYU is gaining in Trevor one of the very best scholars, teachers, colleagues, and leaders I know. Congratulations, Trevor!
As Jack mentioned, Dan Klaidman of the Daily Beast reported today that “the White House is poised to sign off on a plan to shift the CIA’s lethal targeting program to the Defense Department.”
Over at ForeignPolicy.com, I just … Read more »
Our colleague Ashley Deeks has just published “The Geography of Cyber Conflict: Through a Glass Darkly,” as part of the Naval War College’s volume of International Law Studies on the geography of war.
The U.S. government has said … Read more »
In a recent Foreignpolicy.com essay, Rosa Brooks warns against some recent stirrings for a new or expanded Authorization for the Use of Military Force to deal with post-al Qaida threats. Brooks cites in that category the recent Hoover Institution … Read more »
The Washington Post editorial page has recently been promoting development of a U.S. cyber-strategy through robust public debate. Today’s editorial continues that argument: It begins by saying that “A recent report by a task force of the Defense Science Board … Read more »
Controversy surrounding the DoJ White Paper on targeting Americans abroad has generated interest and debate about the meaning of “imminence” in the terrorism context, for purposes of self-defense and other legal doctrines. Similar debates have abounded in the context of … Read more »
The New York Times reports today that “U.S. Again Delays Transfer of Bagram Prison to Afghan Forces.” (Bobby discussed some of these issues, including the “Daqduq problem” issues, a couple of days ago). The article quotes U.S. and … Read more »
Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung have this important story in the Washington Post: “Administration Debates Stretching 9/11 Law To Go After New al-Qaeda Offshoots.” It cites unnamed Administration officials as concerned that “[a] new generation of al-Qaeda offshoots … Read more »
In its latest transparency report published this week, Google began sharing very general data about the number of National Security Letters (NSLs) it receives from the FBI or other government agencies seeking non-content transactional data in relation to national security … Read more »
Several years ago, in a prescient op-ed in the Washington Post, our colleague John Bellinger argued that the September 2001 AUMF was an increasingly poor fit for the evolving threats facing the United States. It is a theme to which … Read more »
The recent controversy about the Justice Department White Paper and the closely related Senate confirmation hearings for CIA director-nominee John Brennan have raised the profile of congressional intelligence oversight. A brief summary of some of these issues is this Politico … Read more »
I’d like to briefly address two articles in the news today on U.S. cyber-attack strategy, one the New York Times piece that Jack already commented on and the other a Washington Post editorial. The Times reports on a “secret … Read more »
The New York Times has this story by Charlie Savage, amusingly titled “State Dept. Closes Office Working on Shutting Guantánamo Prison.” My colleagues and I will likely have something to say on what this means (Savage writes that it “appeared … Read more »
Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations has just published this important report on U.S. drones policy. I disagree with Zenko on some aspects of it, but for now I want to summarize several of his main points and … Read more »
Steve has already noted (and critiqued) this Washington Post story about continued “renditions” by the United States government. The term “renditions” is used in so many ways (often, as Steve suggests, with connotations of harsh interrogation), and this article defines … Read more »
Those interested in the international dimensions of cybersecurity strategy and law should read Adam Segal’s (Council on Foreign Relations) essay on “Five Trends to Watch for in Chinese Cybersecurity in 2013.” Pay attention, Segal says, to movement in … Read more »
The Wall Street Journal has an article today, titled “U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens.” It reports:
The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for
Steve and Marty make what seem to me very valid legal arguments in response to Jonathan Hafetz’s post on Opinio Juris, in which Jonathan argues that the Feinstein Amendment’s principal effect would be to embed citizenship-based distinctions (in this … Read more »
Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch has responded to our critique of their recent report on autonomous lethal systems. We will post some more detailed thoughts on this later, but in the meantime we’d like to share Tom’s response, which … Read more »
Most discussion of the NDAA on this blog focuses on detainee-related provisions, and a familiar argument is that some of these provisions inappropriately tie the President’s hands, stripping the executive branch of needed flexibility. A somewhat similar debate is playing … Read more »
The Obama administration has threatened to veto the NDAA if it contains provisions that continue to restrict transfer or Guantanamo detainees into the United States or to other countries, and NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor — reiterating the President’s recent statements … Read more »
Last week, Human Rights Watch (along with the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic) published a report titled “Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots.” It argues for a preemptive prohibition by multilateral treaty on the development and use … Read more »
Scott Shane of the New York Times has an interesting story in tomorrow’s paper:
Facing the possibility that President Obama might not win a second term, his administration accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post wrote over the weekend about “when is a cyberattack an act of war.” Focusing on Secretary of Defense Panetta’s recent speech warning of cyber-Pearl Harbors and on Shamoon, the nickname for a recent malware … Read more »
A few weeks ago, John wrote about the dearth of public discussion of legal issues related to a possible Israeli or U.S. strike against Iranian nuclear program facilities. Following up on that, I’ve published a short essay on lessons from … Read more »
Anyone following these issues closely or interested in Harold Koh’s address last month on international law and cyberattacks should read Adam Segal’s commentary on China’s view of the issues. Adam discusses how China’s concern about information flows and their politically … Read more »
Scott Shane raises important questions in his article today about transparency and offensive U.S. cyber capabilities and operations. There are lessons to be learned from the U.S. experience with respect to drone operations and the costs of secrecy — especially … Read more »
The Constitution Project today released a new report titled Recommendations for Fusion Centers: Preserving Privacy & Civil Liberties While Protecting Against Crime & Terrorism. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the federal government worked with states and some … Read more »
The New York Times has this piece about continuing U.S. government efforts to transfer detention operations in Afghanistan to Afghan government control. The piece does a good job of outlining the many obstacles — political, operational, legal, diplomatic, technical, and … Read more »
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Governing Body this week approved Recommended Guidelines for the Use of Unmanned Aircraft (downloadable here) by American law enforcement agencies. Among other things, they call for engagement with the community and … Read more »
For readers following closely the issue of possible military strikes (Israeli or U.S.) against Iran’s nuclear facilities, I recommend reading Jeffrey Lewis’s analysis at foreignpolicy.com of the U.S. intelligence assessments. Besides parsing the various National Intelligence Estimates on the Iranian … Read more »
Yesterday the NYPD unveiled its Domain Awareness System, which aggregates and analyzes existing public safety data streams (including license plate readers and video surveillance camera systems) in real time. Over at the Council on Foreign Relations, I wrote a short … Read more »
Let me add to the comments so far on David Sanger’s extensive report in today’s NYT about U.S.-Israeli cyber-attacks against Iran’s nuclear program. One of the most provocative paragraphs is this one (with my italics):
Mr. Obama, according to participants
In all the last two days’ coverage of the Obama administration’s targeting program — including this lengthy NYT piece, Dan Klaidman’s book excerpt, and today’s NYT editorial — there’s a remarkable lack of discussion of Congress. (As far … Read more »
As I’ve argued previously here (at length) and here (briefly), if you are interested in government counterterrorism intelligence activities and privacy, don’t just pay attention at the federal level – there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on at … Read more »
As Raffaela noted in today’s news summary, it is being reported today that EU naval forces attacked pirate bases on the Somali mainland. Several people have asked: “The EU has a navy?”
The background here is legally, operationally, and diplomatically … Read more »
I’m very excited to join the Lawfare team. As a first post, I’d draw readers’ attention to Jack’s Washington Post op-ed, in which he discusses how candidate Romney might to try to differentiate himself from President Obama on counterterrorism … Read more »
We’re pleased to note that our new essay, Law and Ethics for Robot Soldiers, has been posted to SSRN. The essay’s fundamental point is that lethal autonomous weapons systems – the “robot soldiers” of our title – are going … Read more »
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 »
