Category Archives: Detention
By
Wells Bennett
Friday, May 17, 2013 at 2:00 PM
Peter Margulies, of Roger Williams School of Law, writes in with these comments on law, ethics, and the hunger strike ongoing at Guantanamo:
The hunger strike at Guantanamo has put bioethics on the frontlines of lawfare. The government’s critics, including
… Read more »
By
Steve Vladeck
Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Ben quotes from this morning’s Washington Post editorial on AUMF reform, the last two sentences of which assert that “Countering the jihadists with intelligence and law enforcement tools manifestly failed before Sept. 11, 2001. Congress would be wise to … Read more »
By
Steve Vladeck
Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 1:45 AM
For those who’d prefer the shorter version of Jen Daskal and my draft paper on life “After the AUMF,” we’ve got a short op-ed out in today’s New York Times with a far less alliterative title: “Don’t … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 4:24 PM
Lawyers for Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, a Yemeni detained at Guantanamo, yesterday petitioned the D.C. Circuit for a writ of mandamus. The gist: Abdullah wants the circuit court to force the district court decide a long-pending motion of his.… Read more »
By
Steve Vladeck
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 6:15 AM
By
Steve Vladeck
Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 2:33 AM
As Andrew Rosenthal noted in yesterday’s New York Times, things seem to be heating up in Congress with respect to whether–and to what extent–the September 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) needs to be updated, repealed, and/or … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 9:09 PM
Earlier today, former State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh gave a talk at the Oxford Union, entitled “How to End the Forever War?” His remarks begin as follows:
Thank you, Mr. President and Members of the Union, for inviting me
… Read more »
By
Steve Vladeck
Monday, May 6, 2013 at 9:05 PM
We’ve written a fair amount already about Chief Judge Lamberth’s September 2012 decision regarding the Guantánamo detainees’ continuing right of access to counsel (not to mention his March 2013 decision criticizing the government for its foot-dragging in declassifying various filings … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Friday, May 3, 2013 at 3:30 PM
In March, Obaydullah, a Guantanamo detainee, signed this declaration. It evidently was intended for filing in federal court—in connection with the Al-Madhwani emergency motion—but ultimately wasn’t filed, for timing reasons.
The document was made available this week, and … Read more »
By
Robert Chesney
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 6:00 PM
What is happening in Mali to people who are captured rather than killed by French, Chadian, or Malian forces? I asked this in February, but so far as I know the question remains unanswered in the public record.
Part of … Read more »
By
Jack Goldsmith
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 3:00 PM
Speaking of a strange meeting of the minds over the President’s press conference remarks, Dana Milbank and Maureen Dowd had basically the same reaction to President Obama’s tetchy press conference yesterday: stop whining about Congress, stop complaining about how hard … Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 10:35 PM
I had an odd meeting of the minds today—with Glenn Greenwald.
After I posted my bewildered comments on President Obama’s Guantanamo remarks this afternoon, I received the following email from Greenwald:
So glad you wrote this—it’s been driving
… Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 2:48 PM
I confess myself mystified by President Obama’s comments about Guantanamo this morning. Here is what the President said—with the parts I find confusing bolded:
QUESTION: Mr. President, as you’re probably aware, there’s a growing hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay
… Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 11:53 AM
Earlier this morning, President Obama conducted a news conference. The questions touched on, among other things, the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and the detainees’ ongoing hunger strike there.
The President strongly reiterated his desire to shutter … Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Sunday, April 28, 2013 at 12:00 PM
I was away when the New York Times ran its latest editorial related to national security legal issues, so I’m afraid I did not fly-speck “The Guantanamo Stain” for factual errors. No matter. It doesn’t really contain many … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 11:12 AM
So we learn from this order, handed down yesterday, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
In a letter filed after the Hedges oral argument, attorneys for the government had cited the Supreme Court’s Clapper … Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Sunday, April 21, 2013 at 12:00 PM
Ben Fox of the Associated Press has a particularly good account of the situation at Guantanamo. Because it was posted on Friday, amid the late unpleasantness in Boston, most people undoubtedly missed it—so I thought I would flag it … Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 9:47 AM
Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain were quick out of the box last night in declaring that the Obama administration should hold Dzhokar Tsarnaev in military detention:
Now that the suspect is in custody, the last thing we should want
… Read more »
By
Ritika Singh
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 1:15 PM
The Constitution Project has released the results of its Task Force on Detainee Treatment in the form of this 577-page report—which concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that “the … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Monday, April 15, 2013 at 7:26 PM
That’s the gist of this report, filed earlier today by Politico’s Josh Gerstein:
A federal judge declined Monday to take action on behalf of a hunger-striking prisoner at Guantanamo Bay whose attorneys say his life is in danger
… Read more »
By
Alan Rozenshtein
Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 11:55 AM
Detainees and guards clashed violently early yesterday morning at Guantánamo Bay. See reports from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and NBC. In response to the hunger strikes the detainees have engaged in for the past … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:00 AM
Yesterday, pursuant to Judge Thomas Hogan’s recent order, lawyers for habeas petitioner Musa’ab Omar al-Madhwani filed a brief addressing the district court’s jurisdiction to hear al-Madhwani’s emergency challenge to the conditions of his confinement at Guantanamo.
The detainee—who is … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Monday, April 8, 2013 at 8:53 PM
Earlier today, in Anam et. al. v. Obama, the district court sought further briefing on its power to hear a GTMO detainee’s complaints of mistreatment by detention personnel.
Background: an April 15 hearing had been set on hunger striker … Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 9:14 AM
There are no major factual blunders in yesterday’s New York Times editorial on the Guantanamo Bay hunger strikes, and there’s actually a fair bit in the editorial with which I agree. But I’d be negligent in my duties as … Read more »
By
Alan Rozenshtein
Saturday, April 6, 2013 at 1:35 PM
Peter Margulies recently discussed the effect of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International USA denying standing to plaintiffs challenging the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program on the ongoing litigation in Hedges v. Obama. (Steve made a … Read more »
By
Steve Vladeck
Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 2:48 PM
See this letter from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Lietzau, on behalf of Secretary Hagel…
At bottom, it seems increasingly clear that there are two very different accounts out there about what’s happening on the ground at Guantánamo–that provided by … Read more »
By
Steve Vladeck
Monday, April 1, 2013 at 6:32 PM
Last Monday, I flagged Chief Judge Lamberth’s important new decision in a Guantánamo habeas case–Barre v. Obama–in which, among other things, he excoriated the government for how long it has taken them to release declassified (and therefore public) … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 12:13 PM
In case you missed it: on March 15, attorneys for the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg filed this FOIA action against the Department of Defense (h/t Legal Times). Rosenberg’s complaint begins as follows:
1. This is an action under the
… Read more »
By
Robert Chesney
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 12:52 AM
Philip Carter and Deborah Pearlstein have posted a thoughtful essay at Foreign Policy that emphasizes the utility of civilian criminal prosecution as a counterterrorism option. I very much agree with their positive take on DOJ’s track record, and I agree … Read more »
By
Robert Chesney
Monday, March 25, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Ben has already noted that the United States and Afghahnistan struck a deal to resume the process of handing over the remnants of U.S. detention operations in Afghanistan–a process that hit a rough patch recently when it began to appear … Read more »
By
Steve Vladeck
Monday, March 25, 2013 at 9:24 AM
Even for those keeping up with the Guantánamo litigation, this decision by Chief Judge Lamberth, a declassified version of which was released on Friday, may have slipped under the radar. The specific issue in Barre v. Obama is yet another … Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 8:40 AM
Both the New York Times and Washington Post are reporting that U.S. and Afghan officials have resolved the dispute over the transfer of authority over the Detention Facility at Parwan to Afghanistan. The Times reports:
On Saturday, a Pentagon spokesman
… Read more »
By
Jennifer Daskal and Steve Vladeck
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 11:56 AM
While we appreciate Ben’s answer to our question (and share his view that we’re reaching the point of the conversation where everything has been said and everyone has said it), we still fail to understand how the Libya example illuminates … Read more »
By
Jennifer Daskal and Steve Vladeck
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 10:18 AM
Ben writes that it is the “political reality” that “any president is going to feel obliged to maintain counterterrorism on offense,” i.e., counterterrorism through military means, “and Congress—whining, carping, complaining all the way both that the president is being … Read more »
By
Jennifer Daskal and Steve Vladeck
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 12:28 AM
It’s quickly becoming apparent that we and Jack appear to be talking past each other on the merits of the Chesney/Goldsmith/Waxman/Wittes (CGWW) proposal for a new framework statute for “extra-AUMF threats.” In Jack’s final response, for example, he frames … Read more »
By
Jennifer Daskal and Steve Vladeck
Monday, March 18, 2013 at 7:16 PM
We appreciate Jack’s quick and comprehensive clarification of his views—and of what the CGWW proposal we critiqued last night seeks to achieve. Like Jack, we want to start by emphasizing the many areas of agreement between us and CGWW … Read more »
By
Jack Goldsmith
Monday, March 18, 2013 at 9:06 AM
Jennifer and Steve describe the statutory proposal for next-generation terrorist threats by Bobby, Matt, Ben, and me as a “sweeping and preemptive militarization of counterterrorism” which is “not just unnecessary on current facts, but also deeply misguided—and likely counterproductive—as a … Read more »
By
Jennifer Daskal and Steve Vladeck
Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 10:31 PM
In the very first days after the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush Administration asked Congress for broad statutory authorization to use military force to “deter and pre-empt any future acts of terrorism or aggression against the United … Read more »
By
Raffaela Wakeman
Friday, March 15, 2013 at 2:36 PM
Wednesday on the Senate floor, three senators spoke about the Obama administration’s decision to prosecute, in a federal court, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and Al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. Republican Senators Kelly Ayotte and Lindsey Graham unsurprisingly opposed this … Read more »
By
Ritika Singh
Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 4:43 PM
Don’t look now, but a populous Muslim country in the Indian subcontinent is simmering with tension between its Islamist parties and its ruling civilian government. No, I’m not talking about Pakistan. I’m talking about Bangladesh, which has carried out a
… Read more »
By
Steve Vladeck
Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 4:28 PM
The more I reflect on last week’s drone contretemps–and what effect the efforts of Senator Paul and his followers has had / may still have on U.S. policy–the more I have a profound and distressing sense of déjà vu. After … Read more »
By
Raffaela Wakeman
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 2:41 PM
The DNI has released the latest report, accurate as of January 2013, but only released this month, on the reengagement of former Guantanamo detainees. The DNI is required to release the report under the 2012 Intelligence Authorization Act. Here’s … Read more »
By
Matthew Waxman
Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 8:10 PM
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 »
By
Robert Chesney
Saturday, March 9, 2013 at 11:27 AM
I’ve posted many times on the gradual but inexorable process through which the United States is closing out its detention operations in Afghanistan, including this recent update. It has been a bumpy road, and after President Karzai recently suggested that … Read more »
By
Wells Bennett
Friday, March 8, 2013 at 10:54 AM
Further to Ben’s points on Senators Ayotte and Graham, note that the latter suggests that the Administration did something improper, in its handling of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith:
“To bring this person to New York City, if that’s what happened,
… Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Friday, March 8, 2013 at 8:19 AM
Over at Politico, Ginger Gibson is reporting that:
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) criticized the Obama administration on Thursday over reports that an al-Qaeda leader had been brought to New York.
According to The New
… Read more »
By
Robert Chesney
Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 5:19 PM
Further to my last post on the capture and prosecution of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, I now want to share a few thoughts on the prosecution side of things.
The indictment has been unsealed, and is now available here. It … Read more »
By
Robert Chesney
Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 4:14 PM
As Ritika notes below, the United States has captured a senior al Qaeda figure (Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who was the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden), and will be bringing him to the United States for prosecution in civilian court. One … Read more »
By
Ritika Singh
Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 11:53 AM
So reports the Wall Street Journal:
A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden and longtime suspected member of al Qaeda has been captured by U.S. officials, who are preparing to bring him to the U.S. to face charges, according to three
… Read more »
By
Benjamin Wittes
Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 8:16 AM
I don’t normally—or ever, really—write posts based on law firm press releases. But I’m going to make an exception this time for this announcement by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe about Robert Loeb:
Washington, D.C., – Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
… Read more »