Latest in GTMO
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation v. Mattis is a would-be habeas corpus petition brought by the ACLU Foundation on behalf of an unnamed American citizen whom the U.S. government has been holding in military detention in Iraq since September.
I wanted to draw attention to a special episode of the National Security Law Podcast, which Steve Vladeck and I just recorded in response to President Trump's statement that it might be best to send Saipov (the terrorist who killed in NYC yesterday) to Guantanamo, his criticism of civilian criminal prosecution, and Senator Graham's suggestion that Saipov should be interrogated without counsel.
DOD has confirmed that an (as-yet-unidentified) American citizen is being held in U.S. military custody in Syria or Iraq as an enemy combatant. More specifically, the available information asserts that he was a fighter for the Islamic State who was captured in Syria by U.S.-friendly forces (or at least surrendered to those forces), and was then turned over to the U.S.
How significant is this development from a legal perspective?
Yesterday, Eric Schmitt had a story in the New York Times providing a rare glimpse into the ongoing activities of the “Expeditionary Targeting Force” (“ETF”).
The indispensable Charlie Savage has just posted the latest iteration of the Trump Administration’s planned Executive Order on detention issues, along with an article placing that draft in context (including helpful insights from Jack Goldsmith and Ryan Goodman).
[The post below is the latest installment of the joint blog series arising from the 2016 Transatlantic Dialogue on International Law and Armed Conflict.
Attention to the "close GTMO" issue is spiking today, with President Obama taking to the podium to reiterate his position and the Defense Department releasing a new document describing the current roadmap to closure.