I suppose this was inevitable: A Twitter hashtag has developed devoted to the proposition that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is innocent: #Freejahar, for those curious to check it out. Spencer Ackerman describes it as follows:
Barely two days after cops
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 »
Speaking of Wired Danger Room, check this out: A robotic dog that tosses cinderblocks around with its head. Spencer Ackerman explains:
Flesh-and-blood dogs merely fetch. The robotic pooch that Darpa funded can throw.
Boston Dynamics’ BigDog started life
Ben Emmerson, the Special Rapportuer for Human Rights who is conducting an inquiry into the legality of (among other things) U.S. drone strikes, and who has suggested that the United States might have committed war crimes, has told Spencer … 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 »
(Note from the Review Editor: We’re pleased to welcome this film review by Lawfare’s own Alan Rozenshtein; the Book Review also handles occasional reviews of media other than books. Other Lawfare contributors will likely weigh in on different matters raised … Read more »
Here’s the story from Spencer Ackerman of Wired Danger Room.
Lots of news coverage this morning about this GAO report, released yesterday by Senator Dianne Feinstein, on housing Guantanamo detainees in the United States. Here’s Spencer Ackerman of Wired Danger Room. Here’s the Associated Press. Here’s the executive … Read more »
The Defense Science Board recently issued a new study on The Role of Autonomy in DoD Systems. Spencer Ackerman has a good story summarizing and explaining its conclusions:
The Pentagon’s science advisers want military robots to operate with far
The motions hearing that begins tomorrow in the 9/11 military commissions case is far too sprawling to preview motion by motion. Instead, we’ve broken it up thematically. Nearly all of the 25 motions on which Military Judge James Pohl will … Read more »
The other day, Wells drew my attention to what could be the single most excellently eccentric national security-oriented project currently ongoing on the web: It is called Clausewitz for Kids. I am apparently not the first to discover it. … Read more »
Over at Forbes.com, the estimable Gregory McNeal has this article about a new Army manual on preventing harm to civilians. The just-released manual, entitled “Civilian Casualty Mitigation,” was the subject of this article last year by Spencer Ackerman. McNeal … Read more »
A great many thanks to everyone–and there were a lot of you–who sent me thoughtful comments, criticisms, and praise concerning our military commission coverage in response to my request of yesterday. Here is what I have learned–and what I … Read more »
In general, I have received very positive reader response to Lawfare‘s neurotically-detailed military commissions coverage over the past few months. But yesterday, the estimable Spencer Ackerman suggested that Wells and I had gone to far at the 9/11 arraignment: … Read more »
The headline news from this Congressional Research Service report (which comes courtesy of Wired’s Danger Room, in a very handy article by Spencer Ackerman) is that, today, nearly one in three US warplanes is a drone:
Remember when the
The first thing to say about today’s long-belated New York Times editorial on the Al-Aulaqi killing–and the memo justifying it–is that it is not a ridiculous document, and I’m not going to ridicule it. It does not flamboyantly contradict … Read more »
“God bless Ben,” Spencer Ackerman writes, ”he’s really trying hard to think through what the rules ought to be for killing an American citizen accused of terrorist membership.” My effort in that regard, he says, is “commendable . … Read more »
Over at Attackerman, Spencer Ackerman has written two posts (here and here) posing challenging question about the legality of the Al Aulaqi strike; in the second post, he also critiques my earlier due process analysis of when a … Read more »
I promised yesterday that I would collect and post my thoughts in response to Spencer Ackerman’s and Marcy Wheeler’s comments on drones and debates. Rather than try to take on the many big themes they raise in a single marathon … Read more »
A few days ago, I posted this little comment concerning Eugene Robinson’s column on drones. The response to it has, I confess, surprised me, particularly as it has focused largely on an off-hand remark I made in the post. As … Read more »
An interesting debate has broken out among liberals about the possibility of President Obama’s issuing a signing statement on the Guantanamo restrictions. Adam Serwer writes,
There’s a pretty clear ethical dilemma here for liberals. One signing statement doesn’t turn
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 »
Ok, this exchange is funny–in a macabre, morbid sort of way. It’s also deadly serious. Foreign Policy magazine has published 14 suggestions for President Obama by 14 prominent people concerning how the President can get his mojo back. One of … Read more »
Spencer Ackerman makes a thoughtful point in response to Jack’s oped:
Goldsmith is totally, totally right that the GTMO-North alternative makes the closure of Guantanamo “symbolic.” I made a similar point to a colleague at the Khadr trial. And
Spencer Ackerman complains that my earlier post “doesn’t address the basic and disturbing fact that in Anwar Awlaki’s case, the Obama administration is targeting an American citizen for assassination without due process of law” and he suggest that it “deserves … Read more »
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Leading the news: President Obama speaks today at the National Defense University on counterterrorism policy. Many are previewing the speech, including John. According to the New York Times’s Charlie Savage and Peter Baker, Obama will announce more stringent targeting criteria for non-battlefield strikes. This approach will govern the use of force against both citizens and non-citizens.
Here are the Washington … Read more »
