Ben and Steve  are speaking on a panel at the CATO Institute entitled “Drones and the New Way of War” along with Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law and Benjamin Friedman of CATO. The event will be moderated by … Read more »

David S. Kris and J. Douglas Wilson’s second edition of National Security Investigations & Prosecutions is a necessary read, or at least necessary to have in your library, for just about anyone who practices, teaches, or writes about national security … Read more »

Last week I noted that the House Judiciary Committee was  circulating a proposal to reform the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that was mostly a wish list for the Department of Justice.  Yesterday a diverse group of organizations and individuals … Read more »

Today, a National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) task force released a report mandated by Congress on the risks posed by Section 11 of the STOCK Act, which would require Internet publication of the financial disclosure forms of 28,000 senior … Read more »

Stewart Baker points to a provision in Congress’s continuing resolution that is the first serious attempt I have seen to punish (as opposed to rail against) China for its cybersecurity practices.    Section 516 of what Stewart describes as “the continuing … Read more »

Mary Dudziak has a truly bizarre oped in the New York Times today taking on the Obama administration’s drone wars on, let’s just say, a new basis: that President Nixon once secretly bombed Cambodia.

I’m not exaggerating. Here’s how it … Read more »

Earlier this week—at the Week, naturally enough—Marc Ambinder posted this piece, ”Five Truths about the Drone War.”  Of the five, the second of Ambinder’s verities struck me as most noteworthy.  I’ve supplied the emphasis to Ambinder’s words:

2.

… Read more »

Mark your calendars.

Here’s the agenda for the next hearing in the 9/11 case, which is set to begin on April 22 and to conclude on April 26.   From that document:

3. The Commission will hear argument on the following

… 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 »

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 »

In the latest twist in the long-running ATS and TVPA suit against him, former Somali Defense Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar filed on Monday for certiorari after the Fourth Circuit’s surprising decision last October denying him immunity on the basis that … Read more »

The historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI last week causes me to recall the involvement of the Office of the Legal Adviser in a lawsuit against the Pope. 

Pope Benedict XVI was sued in the Southern District of Texas for … Read more »

Over at at the Emptywheel blog, Ms. Wheel colorfully asks of yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing: “Boy, what fucking idiots run DOJ (and, presumably, the Obama Administration generally)”? She goes on, marveling at the administration’s stupidity for refusing to … Read more »

The thing kind of speaks for itself:

Rep. Louie Gohmert: Thank you Mr. Chairman, and this is an exceedingly important topic. We do appreciate your being here today. Obviously the Justice Department folks are busy doing something more important

… Read more »

Over at Rolling Stone, John Knefel pans the House Judiciary Committee hearing today for being too Lawfare-heavy:

The House Judiciary Committee held a full member hearing today on when it is acceptable for the government to designate a

… Read more »

Former Obama administration Acting and Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal has an interesting op-ed today in the NYT that criticizes the idea of an Article III “drone court” and proposes instead a “National Security Court” inside Article II in which … Read more »

Tuesday, Ben bemoaned the state of drone-themed humor in the New York Times, and followed it up yesterday morning with a tale of national security parody gone awry. Lawfare is not above the occasionally-off-color sense of humor in … 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 »

Here’s a counter-intuitive view of the White Paper–from the always-interesting Andrew Kent:

Although many critics with a strong civil liberties and human rights bent deplore the DOJ White Paper for various reasons, there is actually something in there they should

… Read more »

The problems that Rick recently identified with how both the DOJ White Paper and its critics treat the concept of “imminence”  — specifically, that they are borrowing a concept generated in a domestic law context that depends on a set … Read more »

Amid the flurry of writing about the White Paper’s approach to “imminence” – an important conversation, to be sure – little attention has been paid to a paragraph in the White Paper that seems to establish new parameters for the … Read more »

So reports Politico’s Jennifer Epstein and Josh Gerstein:

President Obama has reversed course and agreed to provide the congressional intelligence committees with classified Justice Department legal advice authorizing the use of drones to kill U.S. citizens abroad, two administration

… Read more »

All of us have been so fixated on the DoJ White Paper and the drone controversy at home that we overlooked an important and eponymous development for this blog: lawfare in the Hague.

On January 30, a court in the … Read more »

Eric Posner and Jeff Rosen have sharply different takes on the White paper. 

Jeff is outraged:

The Justice Department white paper released on Monday by NBC News is the public’s first direct glimpse at the legal reasoning that the

… Read more »

I agree with Ben and Susan that there is little new of substance (but more detail) on imminence and other issues in the DOJ White Paper on targeted killing, and I said as much in my reaction to the White … Read more »

Okay, everyone, take a deep breath. Chill out. The DOJ’s “White Paper” on targeted killing is no big deal. Really.

You wouldn’t know this from reading the somewhat breathless press coverage of the document, much of which offers a reasonable … Read more »

Want to litigate habeas appeals for the government? Want to end the war so the government has to release habeas petitioners? Great new job postings on the Lawfare Job Board from the civil appellate staff and DOJ and from Human … Read more »

You’ll find a copy here.

The Chief Prosecutor’s statement naturally overviews the week’s proceedings; one portion, however, addresses an issue not formally included on the docket but likely of interest to Lawfare readers:

Conspiracy as a Separate, Stand-Alone Offense 

… Read more »

Ben’s analysis of Charlie Savage’s article on the Chief Prosector prompts this reminder: tomorrow at 9 a.m., Lawfare returns to Smallwood Hall for closed-circuit, piped-in-from-GTMO hearings in the 9/11 case.   There are twenty-five items set for oral argument during this … Read more »

The New York Times has a news analysis piece by this morning the excellent Charlie Savage, which requires a moment’s reflection. Charlie is about as good a reporter as there is out there on Lawfare-related matters, and he has … Read more »

I’m pleased to report that a group of former Obama Administration lawyers (including yours truly) has just submitted to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence a letter expressing our strong support for John Brennan’s nomination to be Director of the … Read more »

Fresh from a security scrub are these two items in United States v. Mohammed et. al.: first, an Amended Docketing order, wherein Judge James Pohl excises two previously scheduled defense motions to compel discovery from the agenda for … Read more »

We end the evening with this procedural nugget from Jess Bravin of the Wall Street Journal: in Hamdan II, the deadline for the United States to seek en banc review from the D.C. Circuit, or a writ of … Read more »

Whoa.

Remember the Chief Prosecutor’s tactical recommendation to pull standalone conspiracy charges in the 9/11 case—in light of the D.C. Circuit’s analysis in Hamdan II, and the strong likelihood that the same court (or the Supreme Court) would follow … Read more »

Reported on Friday by the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg: defense attorneys in United States v. Al-Nashiri filed a renewed motion to dismiss the conspiracy charge against their client.  At the same time, the lawyers reactivated an earlier request to throw … Read more »

Fresh from the Guantanamo security scrub: an amended docketing order for the upcoming hearing, late this month, in United States v. Mohammed et. al. 

Judge James Pohl has set forth 23 motions for argument:

a. AE 018: Government Motion for

… Read more »

In this special episode of the Lawfare Podcast, Military Commission Chief Prosecutor Brigadier General Mark Martins discusses his decision to recommend dropping conspiracy charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other 9/11 defendants. Martins announced yesterday that in light … Read more »

The verdict of history depends on who writes it, and the lessons of history depend on who reads it. Contemporary readers will look for the lessons of a 19th century international human rights initiative that involved treaties, international courts, and … Read more »

Lots of news coverage this morning about this GAO report, released yesterday by Senator Dianne Feinstein, on housing Guantanamo detainees in the United States. Here’s Spencer Ackerman of Wired Danger Room. Here’s the Associated Press. Here’s the executive … Read more »

Today the DOJ and SEC released a joint Resource Guide to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.  One difficulty with complying with the sometimes-maddeningly-indeterminate FCPA is that there are very few judicial decisions interpreting it.  (And there are few decisions … Read more »

I agree with much of what Jack says in his recent post about the counterterrorism issues likely to face President Obama in his second term.  But there’s one aspect of how Jack frames the discussion that I disagree with somewhat.  … Read more »

Writing at the New York Times web site, Eric Lewis of Lewis Baach, describes a human rights agenda for the Obama administration’s second term:

First, he must release certain Guantánamo detainees, who have never been charged or tried. Of

… Read more »

Carrie Cordero, Georgetown’s Director of National Security Studies and a former Justice Department official, writes in with the following thoughts on fusion centers:

As Matt Waxman noted last month, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations recently published a

… Read more »

[Update (11:41 a.m. EDT)]: The always reliable Josh Gerstein already had a story up on this late last night over @ Politico, which reports that an “administration official” suggested that “Friday’s filings were made in order to keep open … 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 »

David Remes, an attorney for Guantanamo habeas petitioners Uthman and Esmail, has sent in this overview of the ongoing Guantanamo counsel access dispute.

In brief: Remes and others recently objected to the Department of Justice’s proposed “Memorandum of Understanding,” or … Read more »

This just in: the last words (for a few days, anyway) in the Guantanamo attorney-client access dispute now pending before Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Guantanamo detainees Uthman and Esmail, … Read more »

The Justice Department today filed its response to a motion, in which certain Guantanamo detainees had challenged the Department’s attempt to regulate the detainees’ access to their attorneys.  The question was what that access would look like, once the … Read more »

I’m just going to link to it. There’s some rhetoric I wouldn’t use in here, but–as I said before and as Steve explained here–this is a provocative step the government has taken, and it shouldn’t do things like … Read more »

I received the following email from human rights lawyer David Remes about a filing he and his colleagues just made on Monday on behalf of his Guantanamo client Yasein Khasem Mohammad Esmail. Esmail lost his habeas case, and according to … Read more »