A few months ago, I was asked to give a talk at the Pentagon on the concept of lawfare. I opened it with a story about how some months earlier I had tried had tried to edit the Wikipedia page … Read more »

As Wells noted on Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit granted the government’s petition for rehearing en banc in Al-Bahlul v. United States. This is a very important development, as the full appeals court will now determine whether military commissions may … Read more »

Duke Law School held its annual LENS conference over the weekend. Its theme this year was “Battlefields, Boardrooms, and Backyards: The New Face of National Security Law.” Here is the conference program, and below are the videos of the various … Read more »

Congratulations to Duke Law School’s Charlie Dunlap, who as executive director of the Center has organized another outstanding LENS conference.  You can follow it live streaming from the link at the webpage.  At this very moment, Mark Martins, Chief … Read more »

You can find a copy here.  An excerpt from the statement by Chief Prosecutor Brig. Gen. Mark Martins:

Alleged Intrusion Into Attorney-Client Discussions in the Courtroom and Elsewhere 

On the 28th of January, the audio and visual transmission from

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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 »

The Guantánamo military commissions yesterday released—after a security review—a pair of important filings by the Office of the Chief Prosecutor (OCP), regarding the ongoing controversy over the conspiracy charges against the five 9/11 defendants. (For background, see our prior coverage … 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 »

As Wells noted, the Guantánamo Military Commission Convening Authority has declined to adopt Chief Prosecutor Brig. Gen. Mark Martins’s recommendation to withdraw the conspiracy charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other 9/11 defendants. Withdrawal, which can be done … 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 »

We refrained last week from expressing much opinion on the decisions by both Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins and by the Justice Department in the Al Bahlul case concerning how to handle stand-alone inchoate conspiracy charges after Hamdan II… 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 »

At this hour, Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson is giving the following speech at the Oxford Union in England:

“The Conflict Against Al Qaeda and its Affiliates: How Will It End?”

Jeh Charles Johnson

General Counsel of the U.S. Department

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Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor, Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, is giving at this hour the following address at Chatham House in London:

Remarks of Brigadier General Mark Martins

Chief Prosecutor of United States Military Commissions

 Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham

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Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor Brig. Gen. Mark Martins has issued the following statement to the media:

Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins

Remarks at Guantanamo Bay

22 August 2012

Good morning. The military commission convened to try the charges referred to it

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Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins gave the following brief remarks over the weekend in Chicago. If others who participated in this panel have prepared remarks, I would be happy to post those as well.

Remarks of Brigadier General Mark

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The Chief Prosecutor’s full statement follows below:

CHIEF PROSECUTOR MARK MARTINS
REMARKS AT GUANTANAMO BAY
19 JULY 2012

Good afternoon.  Today, the Military Commission convened to try the charges against Abd Al-Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al Nashiri held its sixth day

… Read more »

Defense attorney Lt. Cdr. Stephen Reyes is up first for AE86—the motion to withdraw the charges because of an improper referral by the Convening Authority.  The issue is this, he says: ordinarily, the Convening Authority orders the commission to go … Read more »

Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins released a statement following the completion of yesterday’s hearing in United States v. Al-Nashiri.  Among other things, Martins summarized Judge Pohl’s resolution of several motions, and commented on transparency and other matters:

Public confidence

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At this hour, the military commissions chief prosecutor, Brigadier General Mark Martins, is giving the following address at Knox College:

Brigadier General Mark Martins

Commencement Address

Knox College, June 2, 2012

 

President Amott, members of the Board of Trustees,

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A gentle reminder – not that you really needed one, being a devoted Lawfare reader and all  - Ben and I will be live-blogging tomorrow’s much-anticipated arraignment in United States v. KSM et al.  According to the military commissions’ … Read more »

Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins is, at this hour, giving a speech for Law Day at the National Security Agency. Here’s the prepared text, which includes a reference to a paper of mine–to which I have taken the liberty … Read more »

Notwithstanding the Lawfare love-in, I’m a bit troubled by one of the threads that appeared to emerge from the argument in Nashiri over whether conspiracy is a recognized violation of the laws of war.  Based on Ben’s summary, it … Read more »

I could pick factual nits with today’s New York Times editorial on the referral of charges in the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed case. If I were in that sort of mood, I’d start with the first sentence, which reads: “The … Read more »

The chief prosecutor for military commission, Brig. General Mark Martins, is at this hour delivering the following address at the Harvard Law School–the latest in a series of speeches he has given on the institution of military commissions:

Remarks of

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CHIEF PROSECUTOR MARK MARTINS
REMARKS AT GUANTANAMO BAY
18 JANUARY 2012

Good afternoon. Today, the military commission continued its consideration of a series of motions raised by the defense and the prosecution. To recap:

• First, in the morning, proceedings continued

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Chief Prosecutor for Military Commissions Mark Martins spoke after the Al-Nashiri hearing yesterday. His remarks are below. We do not have any statement from the defense, as Ben and Ritika did not stay at Ft. Meade to watch the press … Read more »

Never fear, Ben!  While the Times may have disappointed you today, NPR has stepped into the breach this morning with its Guantanamo anniversary story.

To be frank, I’m more than a little surprised by this, as NPR’s coverage is … Read more »

Brigadier General Mark Martins is, at this hour, giving the following address to the New York City Bar Association:

Remarks of Brigadier General Mark Martins

Chief Prosecutor, Military Commissions

To the New York City Bar Association

Tuesday, January 10,

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Alas, Brigadier General Mark Martins, now the chief prosecutor of the military commissions, can’t blog for Lawfare any more, as he did when he was in the field in Afghanistan. He does, however, still have very interesting things to say. … Read more »

Shaking things up a bit, I’m going to begin Lawfare’s in-depth coverage of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri’s military commission proceeding yesterday from the end—the roughly one-hour-long afternoon press conference that followed the morning hearing.

As noted in my post yesterday, the … Read more »

Lawfare was on hand earlier today at Ft. Meade, Maryland, to witness the first live (well, 40 second-delayed) transmission of military commission proceedings in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to a location here in the continental United States.  The day’s events included … Read more »

Raffaela linked earlier today to the Weekly Standard article in which the new military commissions chief prosecutor, Brig. General Mark Martins, announced some important new steps towards transparency in commission trials. The point appears in passing in what is really … Read more »

On September 14, General John R. Allen, who succeeded David Petraeus as the commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, presided over the change of the command of Rule of Law Field Force – Afghanistan from Brigadier General Mark Martins (whom Lawfare … Read more »

In the Fall of 2002, a month or so after I started work in the Defense Department General Counsel’s office, I had a chat with Rear Admiral Michael Lohr, who at the time was the Judge Advocate General of the … Read more »

Michael Yon, whose dispatches from the field are always interesting (and typically include copious photography to give you a feel for what he has seen), recently traveled with General Martins in connection with the stand-up of the NATO Rule of … Read more »

The appointment of Brig. General Mark Martins as chief prosecutor of the military commissions, as Jack and I discussed here and here, is a step of enormous importance in establishing legitimacy for a commissions process that has floundered almost … Read more »

For the benefit of reporters writing on the appointment of Brig. Gen. Mark Martins as chief prosecutor of the military commissions–and all others interested in the subject–here are links to the extraordinary series of posts Martins wrote on this blog … Read more »

The Defense Department announced today that Brigadier General Mark Martins, the commander of the Rule of Law Field Force-Afghanistan, will be the Chief Prosecutor in the Office of Military Commissions, beginning around October 1.  This presumably means that Martins will … Read more »

Defense Ministers from the 48 nations of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) today endorsed the NATO Rule of Law Field Support Mission (NROLFSM).  The press release describes the mission as follows:

Governance and service delivery in Afghanistan remain key

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Last Monday Harvard Law School conferred its medal of freedom on one of its graduates, General Mark Martins, Commander of the Rule of Law Field Force -Afghanistan.  The Harvard National Security Journal has just posted the speech, with slides… Read more »

Earlier today, General Mark Martins participated (by teleconference) in a press conference in order to bring folks up to speed on the Rule of Law-Field Force’s (ROLFF) latest activities in Afghanistan (for prior discussions of this topic by General Martins … Read more »

[This is the second of two posts from Tom Nachbar of the University of Virginia on the topic of lawfare.  In addition to his role as a law professor at UVA, Tom has the distinction of serving as an Army … Read more »

[I am very pleased to introduce the first of two posts from Tom Nachbar of the University of Virginia.  In addition to his role as a law professor at UVA, Tom has the distinction of serving as an Army JAG … Read more »

Jacob Bronsther, a third-year student at NYU Law School, who spent time as a Fulbright Scholar studying the the Muslim community in Mauritius, sent Brig. Gen. Mark Martins comments on his guest posts, which Gen. Martins encouraged him to submit … Read more »

We are very pleased to present this guest post by Professor Tom Nachbar, who teaches antitrust, communications law, and constitutional law at the University of Virginia. Tom is also an Army Reserve judge advocate, and has worked on both … Read more »

The other day I posted some data on the recidivism rate among detainees in Afghanistan, culled from a report DOD recently submitted to Congress.  That same day, it turns out, Vice Adm. Robert Harward, commander of CJIATF-435, participated in a … Read more »

I’m surprised this statistic does not get more attention.  The Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on “Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan” ( required by § 1230 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY08), states:

The

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I’m going to take a break from blogging for the next twenty-four hours, but before I go dark, I want to wish Lawfare readers all over the world a wonderful holiday. In particular, in light of Brig. General Mark Martins’ … Read more »