Now that the United States has acknowledged – with a modest level of confidence – that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the rebels, many press articles are asking whether (or arguing that) the United States should consider … Read more »
Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation, which is the leading compiler of information about US drone strikes, made this interesting comment in his testimony yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee:
The drone program has increasingly evolved into a counterinsurgency
While ex-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was busy admitting on CNN that he approved at least some U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani territory during his time in office, the chief judge of Peshawar’s High Court was busy stating that drone strikes … Read more »
I wonder what Ben Emmerson was thinking when he watched CNN this evening. Emmerson, the UN Special Rapporteur on Counterterrorism and Human Rights who is conducting an investigation into the legality of the U.S. targeted killing program, concluded after a … Read more »
Further to Jack’s post yesterday on the politics of drones versus enhanced interrogation, and my post earlier in the week about Peter Baker’s article about the mounting criticism of the Obama Administration’s counter-terror policies, comes this article by Sara Sorcher … Read more »
Via this thoughtful essay by Pejman Yousefzadeh, I learned about this CNN interview (video below) with former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in which he notes his support for drone strikes but suggests ways to enhance accountability of Executive branch decisions to engage in targeted killing of an American citizen.
We don’t disagree with Jack that the filling in of details in the White Paper is important—and didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. But the importance Jack assigns to this aspect of the White Paper is decidedly not what has made … Read more »
CNN is reporting that TSA has announced the removal of all Rapiscan X-ray backscatter airport machines, to be accomplished no later than June 2013. The backscatter machines (the big boxy ones like the one in this post) were thought to … Read more »
This is the latest piece in the interview series I have done over the last few months with terrorism and regional experts about non-legal issues of pertinence to Lawfare readers. For this episode, I interviewed American University professor and nonresident … Read more »
The Republican presidential candidates debated national security and foreign policy issues last night in Washington. Ritika teed up the debate here with links to the Post’s preview of issues to watch and a synopsis of the candidates’ positions from … Read more »
The eight Republican candidates for president will gather tonight for their trillionth twelfth debate at 8 PM tonight, in an event that will focus on national security and foreign policy. The Post has an article on some of the things … Read more »
Here’s my question: Why has there been virtually no press coverage of the Latif decision? Other than this article on CNN’s web page, which actually ignores the aspect of the case that makes it jurisprudentially important, a search on Google … Read more »
Next week’s London Conference on Cyberspace will include a closed session on international security. Some maintain that the session “could be an early step to some kind of ‘ultimate cyber arms control.’” But on CNN’s Global Public Square blog, … Read more »
CNN is reporting that Haji Mali Khan, the senior commander of the Afghan Haqqani insurgent group, was captured in a joint Afghan-NATO operation on Tuesday (the announcement of his capture was delayed until today because of difficulties confirming his identity). … Read more »
Over at the Weekly Standard’s blog, Thomas Joscelyn has this piece critiquing a CNN report on Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari, whose habeas case we have covered here. I haven’t dissected the CNN piece about which Joscelyn links, but having … Read more »
CNN has posted the English text of the Al Qaeda statement on Osama Bin Laden’s death. It’s worth a read. The Arabic original is available here. The statement reads:
Al-Qaeda statement calls the day “a historic day of the
The other night, with CNN reporting very tentatively that the Bin Laden operation had likely been a drone strike, Bobby and I got a little ahead of ourselves. Bobby said that it will “be interesting indeed to see how [drone] … Read more »
Watching CNN last night, I was astounded to hear Peter Bergen assert that the death of UBL means the end of the war on terrorism (anyone have this on video?). That is an extraordinary overstatement, as Daniel Byman explains here… Read more »
CNN now seems more confident of Pakistani participation in the operation.… Read more »
CNN is reporting Bin Laden killed in a mansion near Islamabad, which would seem dramatically to reinforce perceptions that he has had some measure of protection or, at least, blind eye from Pakistani intelligence. On the other hand, CNN is … Read more »
This keeps getting more interesting. A moment ago I raised the question how critics would respond if this proved to be a drone strike. Now someone on CNN says it was a “human operation”. Same legal questions, however. [UPDATE: Perhaps … Read more »
[SECOND UPDATE: Not a drone strike, and probably not a test of the legal questions raised by drones...see here.]
The President has not yet spoken to the public, but early reports indicate that UBL was killed by missile strike … Read more »
…says CNN.… Read more »
CNN reporting. President to speak momentarily.… Read more »
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Carol Rosenberg wrote about yesterday’s arguments in the 9/11 hearings on defense counsel’s request for access to the Red Cross’s reports of its interviews with the five accused. That’s in the Miami Herald.
Yesterday’s House intelligence committee hearing with top intelligence agency and DOJ officials drew a big crowd and much news: Wired explains the DOJ’s efforts to conceal the NSA’s role… Read more »
