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 »
Scott Shane of the New York Times has an interesting story in tomorrow’s paper:
Facing the possibility that President Obama might not win a second term, his administration accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules
I spent a flight out to Minnesota yesterday reflecting on Jack’s and Trevor’s discussion over the weekend of Obama’s first term, his coming second term, the Bush administration, and the now-will-never-be Romney administration. I agree with nearly everything both Trevor … Read more »
While I am sure we differ in emphasis and details, I agree with the thrust of Trevor’s latest post. As I argued in my last two books, the early Bush administration approach to presidential power was, in reality and … Read more »
I appreciate Jack’s follow-up post on the larger picture of the Obama administration’s counterterrorism policies and their points of continuity with the Bush administration (though only the late Bush, as he properly underscores). Jack and I agree on much more … Read more »
When I wrote on Friday about the “basic counterterrorism policies that Obama continued, with tweaks, from the late Bush administration,” I meant to refer only to policies that “Obama continued” from the Bush era, and not to make a claim … 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 »
One important consequence of President Obama’s re-election will be the further entrenchment, and legitimation, of the basic counterterrorism policies that Obama continued, with tweaks, from the late Bush administration. We will have four more years of a Democratic president presiding … Read more »
I’ve been around this town long enough to know that Lawfare will not be the site that everyone is checking obsessively today. We’re not going to have exit polls here, and this may well be the only time you see … Read more »
A year ago, I wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled “Will Drone Strikes Become Obama’s Guantanamo?” in which I argued that unless the Obama Administration did a better job explaining the legal and policy basis for … Read more »
There were basically none. No discussion of Guantanamo, of habeas, of the NDAA, of interrogation, of military commissions, of targeted killing—and only the most cursory mention of drone strikes. This is quite a change from four years ago, when themes … Read more »
Earlier today I argued that a Romney administration would not pursue significantly different counterterrorism policies than a second Obama administration. Below I note three caveats to this claim, and I describe what I think is most at stake in the … Read more »
Last week Ben argued that, despite the Romney Team memo on interrogation and Romney’s promise to use “enhanced” interrogation techniques, a President Romney would not change the Obama interrogation policy, “at least not in the short term,” because (I summarize) … Read more »
Jack linked yesterday to this Charlie Savage story about this internal Romney campaign draft memo urging a full-throated embrace of “enhanced interrogation”—written a year ago by Romney’s “national security law subcommittee.” The memo recommends that:
Governor Romney could pledge that
Charlie Savage of the NYT has an interesting piece on a memorandum entitled “Interrogation Techniques” that Savage reports was circulated last year among the Romney campaign’s “National Security Law Subcommittee” – a subcommittee that, Savage says, “consists of a brain … Read more »
Ben and I wrote this article for Commonweal magazine, entitled “Two Parties, One Policy: Washington’s New Consensus on Terrorism.” It begins:
Political parties in the United States, like a spatting couple in a bad marriage, have been fighting
My old friend Naunihal Singh, a political science professor at Notre Dame University, has this very moving piece on The New Yorker‘s web page on the killings at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin:
The media has treated
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 »
I’m very excited to join the Lawfare team. As a first post, I’d draw readers’ attention to Jack’s Washington Post op-ed, in which he discusses how candidate Romney might to try to differentiate himself from President Obama on counterterrorism … 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 »
Today the Romney campaign issued a White Paper on Foreign Policy and National Defense. I have only had time to skim it, but this passage stood out as of particular interest to Lawfare readers:
Update the AUMF: The chief
I often disagree with Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, but this column strikes me as right on. Thiessen bewails the lack of serious debate in the Republican primaries on national security issues, and he suggests a series of questions the … Read more »
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General released an interim report on the Department’s handling of “known or suspected” terrorists who have entered the government’s witness protection program. The report found, among other things, that information on some program participants had not been turned over to no-fly list authorities; and, that two such people could not be located—though one… Read more »
