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 »
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 »
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 »
[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 »
There’s been a fair amount of buzz over the past few days centered around the idea of a statutory “drone court”–a tribunal modeled after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) that would (presumably) provide at least some modicum of due … Read more »
The most interesting element in Scott Shane’s interesting story on the growing pressure for a Court to vet drone strikes (which quotes Bobby several times) is that the ACLU opposes it. Shane says that Hina Shamsi of the ACLU (these … 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 »
This is a very weird column by New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan. Sullivan, acknowledging that the Times has broken important stories about the CIA’s drones program and has sought more information using FOIA on the drones program, nonetheless … Read more »
An important news analysis piece from Scott Shane of the New York Times. I’m glad Shane took the time to lay this out. Though the point seems very obvious to me, it is decidedly non-obvious to many people I … Read more »
President Obama, today, on the possibility of leaks from the White House:
The notion that the White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive, it’s wrong, and people, I think, need to have a better sense
Excellent discussion of drone strikes on today’s Diane Rehm Show–which, unfortunately, is not embeddable. (Memo to the Diane Rehm Show: Make your episodes embedable!)
Guests include:
Scott ShaneReporter, The New York TimesJohn BellingerPartner, Arnold &
Both the NYT Becker-Shane “Kill List” story and the Klaidman book excerpt have implications for the pending ACLU FOIA suit in CADC, which seeks CIA records on CIA drone strikes. (It also has implications for the broader ACLU FOIA case … Read more »
Yesterday, I linked to this article in the New York Times on the development of Obama’s counterterrorism policies. I did not know when I posted it that my old colleague, Dan Klaidman, had a book excerpt out the same day. … Read more »
The New York Times this morning has a lengthy, rich, and detailed feature story on President Obama’s counterterrorism record. Reporters Jo Becker and Scott Shane have done a really terrific job of bringing together lots of strands of Obama’s development … Read more »
The New York Times and columnists Charlie Savage and Scott Shane have filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act against the Department of Justice for access to the OLC memo authorizing the targeted killing of Anwar Al-Aulaqi.
Read the … Read more »
The New York Times’s Scott Shane this morning has a very beautifully reported feature story about domestic prisons, law enforcement, and terrorism cases. It is a rich read, including some fascinating correspondence and interviews with current and former prisoners at … Read more »
Scott Shane has an important story in the New York Times on the controversy over the number of civilian deaths caused by the CIA’s drones program outside of Afghanistan. Shane reports that,
The civilian toll of the C.I.A.’s drone campaign,
As Scott Shane reported in today’s New York Times, the panel of independent psychiatric experts who reviewed the behavioral health history of Dr. Bruce E. Ivins–the person believed to be responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks–just released a redacted, public … Read more »
I assume that TSA’s intrusive patdowns are not cost-effective, that some TSA employees will abuse the new body scanners, and that the TSA on the whole focuses too much on “security theater” and not enough on targeted interrogation. But I … 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 »
