The Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC hosted an excellent discussion yesterday on targeted killing in which “[p]anelists evaluated issues like the current frameworks regarding the use of drones, the ramifications of a ‘drone court,’ the targeting of U.S. citizens … Read more »
I was away when the New York Times ran its latest editorial related to national security legal issues, so I’m afraid I did not fly-speck “The Guantanamo Stain” for factual errors. No matter. It doesn’t really contain many … 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
A very interesting post on the New York Times‘s FiveThirtyEight blog argues that, while Americans think future terrorist attacks are likely, they’re also increasingly “skeptical about sacrificing personal freedoms for security.” A Fox News poll right after 9/11 found … Read more »
It has been widely reported that the two prime suspects in the Boston marathon bombings—one who was killed in a shootout early this morning—are ethnic Chechens. The brothers allegedly lived in Kyrgyzstan with their family before moving to the United … Read more »
The Constitution Project has released the results of its Task Force on Detainee Treatment in the form of this 577-page report—which concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that “the … Read more »
Last week a group of major human rights NGOs sent this letter to the President on U.S. targeted killing practices. It calls on the Obama administration to “publicly disclose key targeted killing standards and criteria; ensure that U.S. lethal force … 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 »
Peter Margulies writes in with the following summary of recent NIST efforts to build a framework for best practices in cybersecurity:
The premise of President Obama’s Cybersecurity Executive Order (EO) is two-fold: first, that cybersecurity is a vital national objective,
There are no major factual blunders in yesterday’s New York Times editorial on the Guantanamo Bay hunger strikes, and there’s actually a fair bit in the editorial with which I agree. But I’d be negligent in my duties as … Read more »
The New York Times has posted a lengthy and very interesting article by reporter Mark Mazzetti entitled “Rise of the Predators: A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood,” which will appear on tomorrow’s front page. The piece is an … Read more »
This is old news by now, but Judge Pierre Leval of the Second Circuit has a thoughtful article in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs (behind a paywall, unfortunately) entitled “The Long Arm of International Law: Giving Victims of … Read more »
Both the New York Times and Washington Post are reporting that U.S. and Afghan officials have resolved the dispute over the transfer of authority over the Detention Facility at Parwan to Afghanistan. The Times reports:
On Saturday, a Pentagon spokesman
As Ben and Gregory McNeal posted earlier, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Counterterrorism and Human Rights, Ben Emmerson, issued this statement on March 14 after a three-day visit to Pakistan, in which he concluded that U.S. drone strikes are, … 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 »
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 »
Lawfarers are by now steeped in this news: the White House apparently intends to diminish the CIA’s responsibility for drone strikes, and to transfer that responsibility, over time, to the Department of Defense. That’s gist of Dan Klaidman’s recent reporting… Read more »
Charlie Savage of the New York Times has this story this morning on the hunger strikes at Guantanamo. It includes this lengthy statement from Captain Robert Durand, Director of Public Affairs, JTF-Gutananamo:
The mission of Joint Task Force Guantanamo is
Today, President Obama’s National Security Advisor, Thomas E. Donilon, spoke at the Asia Society about U.S. policy in the Asia-Pacific region. Interestingly, he specifically addressed the cyber threat from China—and thus broke with recent practice. According to the New York … Read more »
The New York Times reports today that “U.S. Again Delays Transfer of Bagram Prison to Afghan Forces.” (Bobby discussed some of these issues, including the “Daqduq problem” issues, a couple of days ago). The article quotes U.S. and … Read more »
Without wanting to shoehorn my way into Ben’s invaluable service in keeping the country safe from errors in New York Times editorials, I too wanted to raise something about today’s editorial, “Repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force.” Midway … Read more »
The New York Times editorial page has still not corrected its error of the other day, when it promoted John Brennan to National Security Adviser. But that hasn’t stopped our friends over there from making some new doozies in … Read more »
[UPDATED 4:53]
Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti, and Charlie Savage of The New York Times have this lengthy article on the hunt for Anwar Al-Aulaqi. Their piece describes, among other things, the legal analyses that approved of Al-Aulaqi’s killing.
Interestingly, the … Read more »
Over at Politico, Ginger Gibson is reporting that:
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) criticized the Obama administration on Thursday over reports that an al-Qaeda leader had been brought to New York.
According to The New
This morning’s New York Times editorial contains the following interesting sentence: “He was President Obama’s national security adviser in his first term and an architect of the Obama administration’s targeted killings policy.” Hmmm. Wonder what Tom Donilon and James Jones … Read more »
In writing my testimony for today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on drones and targeted killing of U.S. citizens overseas, I found myself writing a more complete explication of the essential legal rationale underlying the administration’s position on the subject than … 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 »
As the co-creator of the Lawfare Drone Smackdown and the publisher (though not the baker) of this drone strike cake, I should perhaps check myself before cringing at other people’s drone humor. But I can’t help but ask at … Read more »
Apropos of our discussion last week about “Taming the Cyber Dragon” today’s New York Times has an extensive report on how China’s army is directly linked to hacking inside the United States. For those who want the unvarnished underlying … Read more »
I’m not sure if this is by accident or on purpose, but the New York Times yesterday proposed advanced judicial review of a huge swath of targeting in warfare against terrorist groups.
Consider the first paragraph of yesterday’s Times editorial, … Read more »
Peter Baker, who is finishing a book on the Bush Presidency, has a long front-page article in the New York Times today entitled “Obama’s Turn in Bush’s Bind” discussing how the mounting domestic and international criticism of 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 »
I’d like to briefly address two articles in the news today on U.S. cyber-attack strategy, one the New York Times piece that Jack already commented on and the other a Washington Post editorial. The Times reports on a “secret … Read more »
I am puzzled by two news reports on USG cyber policy in the last few days. This AP story from Friday surprised me for what it revealed about the lethargic U.S. reaction to the now-many-years-old problem of Chinese cyber exploitations … Read more »
The New York Times has this long article about the Noor Khan lawsuit in Britain, in which the son of a man killed in a drone strike in Pakistan has sued the British Foreign Secretary for information about British intellligence … Read more »
Just on the heels of the Anonymous takeover of the US Sentencing Commission website, the New York Times is reporting that its network has been subject to persistent hacking over the last four months at the hands of Chinese attackers. … Read more »
On All Things Considered this evening, NPR’s Ari Shapiro ran this story on the closing of Amb. Daniel Fried’s Guantanamo resettlement office at State:
The story follows this Charlie Savage piece in the New York Times, which Matt flagged … Read more »
The New York Times has this story by Charlie Savage, amusingly titled “State Dept. Closes Office Working on Shutting Guantánamo Prison.” My colleagues and I will likely have something to say on what this means (Savage writes that it “appeared … Read more »
Jack and Ben have already flagged their entries in a Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law series on national security challenges for the second Obama term (Hoover is adding one essay per day, all very short opinion … 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 »
To considerable fanfare, departing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey announced this week the decision to lift the ban on woman serving in combat units. Panetta stated: “General Dempsey and I are pleased to announce … Read more »
The New York Times has the story on that, and other Administration staff changes…
The Sunday NYT story on the French intervention in Mali noted that the United States had long trained Mali forces but had also long believed that “a Western assault on the Islamist stronghold could rally jihadists around the world and … Read more »
John Brennan, nominated by President Obama to become the next CIA director, will apparently face some tough questioning from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) at his Senate confirmation hearings (reportedly set for Thursday, February 7, 2:30 pm). Sen. Wyden has sent … Read more »
My excitement over Shane Harris’s new blog, Dead Drop, provides a catalyst for an action I have been meaning to take for some time: creating an automated page on Lawfare for outside news feeds of particular value for Lawfare … Read more »
Current events in Africa illustrate the unintended and sometimes-self-defeating effects of humanitarian efforts on that continent.
First, France’s military action against Islamist insurgents in Mali raises the question why Islamists are on the rise in Mali and elsewhere in North … Read more »
Further to Ben’s post on Jennifer Daskal’s NYT Guantanamo op-ed today, over at Opinio Juris I comment on a different part of the op-ed. Ben refers in part to reasons Jen offers why a transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the … Read more »
Jennifer Daskal—who is a fellow at Georgetown law these days, after serving as NSD and working for Human Rights Watch—has a genuinely brave oped in the New York Times this morning entitled “Don’t Close Guantanamo.” It argues, against … 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 »
