The government has filed its brief in opposition to the plantiffs’ motion for a permanent injunction–and seeking dismissal of the case. The brief opens as follows:
Defendants Barack Obama,Leon Panetta, and the Department of Defense (collectively, the “government”) respectfully
This op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal is part of the Administration’s push for comprehensive cyber legislation. Here’s a taste of his views:
It doesn’t take much to imagine the consequences of a successful cyber attack. In a future conflict,
President Obama, today, on the possibility of leaks from the White House:
The notion that the White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive, it’s wrong, and people, I think, need to have a better sense
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
Jack has already noted today’s New York Times story attributing the Stuxnet virus to American and Israeli activity through the disclosure of a code word classified program known as Olympic Game. I’ll have more to say about the details of … Read more »
Yesterday, I linked to this article in the New York Times on the development of Obama’s counterterrorism policies. I did not know when I posted it that my old colleague, Dan Klaidman, had a book excerpt out the same day. … Read more »
Samuel Moyn’s review of Mary Dudziak’s book War Time, like the book it reviews, makes interesting points about “endless war.” Along the way Moyn says that my book Power and Constraint claims “that Barack Obama, after the trials of … Read more »
The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent poses an interesting question: If elected, does Mitt Romney intend to revoke President Obama’s January 22, 2009 executive order on interrogation?
The order largely restricts U.S. interrogators to the techniques authorized by the … Read more »
Peter Baker has a post on the NYT’s page that marks the similarities between the just-announced sole executive agreement negotiated with Afghanistan with the one the Bush administration negotiated in Iraq in 2008. I have not compared the two … Read more »
In an earlier post I commented on the politics of the cybersecurity debate. I wrote: “One final piece of the political calculus is what the Administration wants. Right now all public signs are that they want BOTH information sharing … Read more »
Yesterday, Jack posed the question of what ever happened to the periodic review process that President Obama had ordered for long-term detention review at Guantanamo Bay. “I have heard little about these reviews since last Spring, and the deadline for … Read more »
Marty Lederman has a post defending the Obama administration in connection with this NYT story, but I think he overreacts.
Marty claims that the story by Charlie Savage contributes to the “common but flawed ‘convergence’ narrative” that “President Obama has … Read more »
In March 2011, the Obama administration issued an Executive Order (13567) that created a process of Periodic Review of Individuals Detained at Guantánamo Bay Naval Station Pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force.” The “review and hearing” process … Read more »
Charlie Savage has a story today about how the Obama administration, stymied in Congress and seeking ways to accomplish policy goals, has “increasingly in recent months . . . been seeking ways to act without Congress.” This was a predictable… Read more »
Ken and Ben have recently commented on the national security speeches of Obama Administration officials, including most recently the remarks of CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston. As a former Bush Administration official who would like to encourage more bipartisanship on … Read more »
Just about every player in connection with the President’s remarks about the Supreme Court seem to me to be acting oddly or imprudently.
What a terrible idea for the President to charge the Supreme Court with an “unprecedented, extraordinary step” … Read more »
Comparing the role of the Supreme Court in the health care debate and the national security debate, Orin Kerr writes at Volokh Conspiracy:
If the Court does end up striking down the mandate, this will be the second consecutive
I don’t believe, as Steve suggested in his good response to my Slate essay on military commissions, that Obama’s continuation of military commissions is “a validation of . . . the policies of the (later part of the) Bush Administration.” … Read more »
I recently noted Peter Berkowitz’s short piece on the legality of a military action against Iran. Bruce Ackerman subsequently argued that such a strike “would be a violation of both international law and the U.S. Constitution.” Berkowitz has now responded… Read more »
President Obama, at his press conference yesterday, in response to republican candidates’ hawkish calls for a more aggressive posture toward Iran:
Now, what’s said on the campaign trail — those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities. They’re not Commander-in-Chief.
In an interview with Jeff Goldberg late last week, President Obama stated that a U.S. “military component” was on the table in response to Iran’s nuclear threat, and added that “as president of the United States, I don’t bluff.” Peter … Read more »
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 »
Nobody in Washington ever got rich making predictions about the political process. Nevertheless, I will go out on a limb and predict that at some point in the coming debate over the Senate cybersecurity bill, you will hear or read … 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 »
I have not had the time to study carefully the constitutional issues related to President Obama’s recent controversial recess appointments. I worked on a few recess appointments during my time in the Bush administration. Based on a superficial analysis I … Read more »
William Shawcross’s widely-noticed new book, Justice and the Enemy: Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, asks the following: how does a civilized society bring justice to mass murderers, al Qaeda and its adherents, when it has … Read more »
Last week Charlie Savage had an interesting follow-up to his well-known 2007 questions to the presidential candidates about their views on executive power. The most important line in Savage’s story is that Barack Obama’s “record in office shows how circumstances … Read more »
On October 14, President Obama notified Congress that he had sent “a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the … Read more »
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
William P. Barr (former Attorney General), Jamie S. Gorelick (former Deputy AG), and Kenneth L. Wainstein (former Assistant AG for National Security) have this Times op-ed on the AP subpoena controversy. They write:
While neither we nor the critics know the circumstances behind the prosecutors’ decision to issue this subpoena, we do know from the government’s public disclosures that the prosecutors were right to investigate this leak
