I have a long review in the New Republic of Mark Mazzetti’s excellent new book, The Way of the Knife. The first half of the review simply summarizes the book, the main point of which is to demonstrate how … Read more »
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 »
Yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham held a press conference, in which he unsurprisingly lamented the White House’s decision not to treat Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as an “enemy combatant.”
A transcript is below.
GRAHAM:
Thank you for coming.
I understand at 2:50, we’re
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
Following up on Wells’ post, I increasingly think that the shift in drone authorities from CIA to DOD first reported by Dan Klaidman might not amount to much in substance, and that any proposed changes face many hurdles in … Read more »
First, I objected to the large mischaracterizations in Senator Paul’s remarks, and think the ones about our targeting practices abroad were especially damaging. But there is no doubt that Senator Paul succeeded wildly in focusing public (and congressional) attention on … Read more »
From the Hedges files: attorneys for Senators McCain, Ayotte, and Graham yesterday submitted this reply brief in support of their motion to participate in oral argument before the Second Circuit. (The Hedges plaintiffs had opposed amici’s request to take part.)… Read more »
Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte—who jointly filed an amicus brief in the Hedges appeal—are asking for argument time in the coming Second Circuit oral argument. They argue:
Senate Amici played a leadership role in the drafting
Well, we know it’s long—more than 6,000 pages long. We know it’s critical. And we know it was approved on a 9-to-6 vote. Here’s the statement by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on … Read more »
Attorneys for Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte—all members of the Senate Committee on Armed Services—have filed an amicus brief in support of the government in Hedges v. Obama. (Background here.)
From the brief’s “Introduction and Summary … 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 »
Last week Paul outlined his case against regulation of cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure (CI). He promises more analysis to come, but I wanted to post a few responses now, for while I don’t love government regulation, and while I agree … Read more »
My friend, Jack Goldsmith, wonders whether my earlier post about the pending Congressional proposal to regulate cybersecurity was a reference to General Alexander’s failure to persuade Senator McCain of the merits of a regulatory program, or an expression of my … Read more »
When Paul says that General Alexander’s response to Senator McCain’s letter over pending cybersecurity legislation is “unpersuasive,” I cannot tell whether Paul found it unpersuasive or whether he is referring to Senator McCain, who clearly found it unpersuasive. What I … Read more »
Yesterday, as Raff reported, General Keith Alexander (Cyber Command and NSA) wrote a letter to Senator McCain explaining his views and, implicitly supporting the Obama Administration’s proposal for a regulatory approach to cyber security. Senator McCain isn’t persuaded, as this … Read more »
Susan Landau is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Computer Science Department, formerly a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems, and the author of Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies. She is also one of the … Read more »
Over the past several weeks, I’ve written a number of blogs about the substance of the cybersecurity bills pending before Congress. As the House moves to consider cyber legislation next week and as the Senate prepares to begin its debate, … Read more »
In earlier posts I’ve written generally about the information sharing provisions of the Lieberman-Collins cybersecurity bill and the McCain bill. Today I want to continue drilling down in comparing the two bills on a more detailed basis by examining … Read more »
For months everyone watching as cyber legislation moved on Capitol Hill has been sure of only one thing — that the main action was in the Senate where the basic outlines of any legislative deal would be forged. The House, … Read more »
Representatives Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have introduced a companion cybersecurity bill in the House of Representatives that is said to be identical to the McCain Senate proposal. While of some interest, the main locus of attention … Read more »
In earlier posts I’ve written generally about the information sharing provisions of the Lieberman-Collins cybersecurity bill and the McCain bill. Today I want to begin drilling down in comparing the two bills on a more detailed basis. I’ve chosen … Read more »
Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing on the relationship between the Freedom of Information Act, and the protection of critical infrastructure. One aspect of the hearing will be the proposal (contained in the Lieberman-Collins bill and … Read more »
In an earlier post, I summarized the information sharing provisions of the Lieberman-Collins cybersecurity bill. In this post, I want to take the same summary approach to the newly introduced McCain bill. I am planning a third post (time … Read more »
As predicted, a group of leading Senate Republicans (McCain, Hutchison, Grassley, Chambliss, Murkowski and Coats) have introduced an alternative cybersecurity bill that will be in direct competition with the Lieberman-Collins proposal. Styled as a complete substitute and alternative, the McCain … Read more »
When I was younger, I didn’t like to eat my peas. So I always put them off for last, but eventually, I’d realize that it was something I had to do and … just do it.
I feel a little … Read more »
Late last week, seven senior Republican Senators sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, complaining that the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 was being rushed through and that they had not been adequately consulted on the contents of the bill. … Read more »
In our final installment of NDAA transcripts, we bring you the Senate’s debate on December 15th on the conference report’s detention provisions.
Here are some highlights:
Senators Carl Levin and John McCain tout the strengths of the detention provisions starting … Read more »
You can read the edited transcript from the Senate’s debate yesterday on the detention provisions here. Previous coverage is available here and here. This includes debate on the Sessions amendment starting on page 4, the Feinstein amendments starting … Read more »
Having now returned from my undisclosed location, here’s a transcript of the Senate floor debate on the NDAA.
The Senate debated the bill on Thursday and Friday. This transcript, helpfully includes only those portions of the debate that … Read more »
Ben wrote last week about the Administration’s threat to veto the Defense Authorization Bill, in large part because of its detainee transfer and related provisions. As Josh Gerstein notes, “whether for political reasons or due to some complex internal … Read more »
May God bless their little souls. The poor dears really are trying. The New York Times editorial page has now corrected its correction.
This is getting meta, and this post will be incomprehensible to those have not read my … Read more »
I awoke this morning to a genuine marvel: An actual real-live correction to a New York Times editorial on a national security issue. It reads as follows:
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 22,
Senators Kerry and McCain, and eight other prominent Senators, introduced a Resolution on Libya today. The Resolution authorizes the President “to continue the limited use of the United States Armed Forces in Libya,” for one year. It also states … Read more »
I just got a look at a bootlegged copy of the Senate Armed Services Committee language on detainee matters. The following is a quick and dirty summary–which proceeds in the order the provisions appear in the bill.
My bottom line … Read more »
Further to this post on the President’s letter to Congress (and its significance in light of the War Powers Resolution, or “WPR”), here are two recent and quite post-worthy developments regarding military action in Libya. First up is a letter … Read more »
Josh Rogin reports a cryptic comment from Senators Kerry and McCain with respect to the looming expiration of the WPR’s 60-day clock. Here is Kerry:
“I’m not hearing from my colleagues that they feel the War Powers situation is currently
It is better to be lucky than to be good, and we might well find out here that President Obama has lucked into this one. But it’s worth pausing for a moment over the possibility that a significant strategic insight … Read more »
This is the final installment in my series of posts on the post-Executive Order spree of legislation emerging from Capitol Hill. It concerns the interrogation bill introduced by Sen. Saxby Chambliss as part of the Senate package of bills–the … Read more »
In fulfillment of my promise last week to provide analysis of the various pieces of new Senate legislation, here are some thoughts on the new version of Senator Lindsey Graham’s habeas reform bill. The bill is largely a reintroduction … Read more »
I promised Thursday night to write up comments on the new legislation that has emerged in the Senate. Let me start with the proposal by Senator John McCain on detention rules. This bill, introduced by Sens. McCain, Lindsey Graham, … Read more »
Several new bills were introduced in the Senate today by a shifting group of mostly-Republican senators. I have not had a chance to review any of these yet, but here’s the top-line:
In his speech yesterday, incoming House Armed Services chairman Buck McKeon promised that his committee would work in the coming Congress on a “legal framework” for detention. Here’s hoping he is more serious about it this coming year than … Read more »
As Jack already noted, at President Obama’s press conference today, the president stated that “we have succeeded on delivering a lot of campaign promises that we made. One where we’ve fallen short is closing Guantanamo. I wanted to … Read more »
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
In one of the strangest stories I’ve come across in a long time—and there have been many—news reports say an FBI agent shot and killed an Orlando man with ties to deceased Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Ibragim Todashev was not suspected of playing a role in the bombings, but, during questioning, confessed nevertheless to playing a role in a triple homicide in the Boston area. After his confession, Todashev allegedly… Read more »
