Georgetown Security Law Brief

Scholarship: The Guantanamo habeas cases as lawmaking

02/09/10: The Brookings Institution has published a report by Benjamin Wittes and Robert Chesney, senior fellows at Brookings, and Rabea Benhalmin, a legal fellow at Brookings, analyzing how the common law process of litigating Guantanamo habeas cases has emerged as the chief legislative mechanism for doing so. The authors argue that the significance of the Guantanamo habeas litigation will extend to detentions around the world, and that the litigation is a vehicle for an unprecedented wartime law-making exercise with broad implications for the future. HT to The Lift.

Defiant Iran accelerates nuclear program

02/09/10: The Washington Post reports that Iran said Tuesday that it had begun producing higher-grade enriched uranium, marking a new and potentially dangerous turn in Tehran's confrontation with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

Jordan terror plot trial in progress

02/09/10: The Lift reports that ten alleged Islamist extremists accused of plotting to carry out attacks against Jordan’s army and intelligence service last year pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial on Sunday.

Chinese-American sentenced to fifteen years following espionage conviction

02/09/10: Jurist reports that former Boeing engineer Dongfan "Greg" Chung was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison, following his July 2009 conviction under the 1996 Economic Espionage Act. Chung, a native of China, was convicted by the US District Court for the Central District of California in a non-jury trial of stealing corporate trade secrets related to the US Space Shuttle program and turning them over to China.

Jack Straw grilled on 'secret calls' to Colin Powell over Iraq

02/09/10: The Times (UK) reports that a series of 'secret' telephone calls between former British Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw and Colin Powell in the months before the war against of Iraq today became the focus of the official British inquiry into Britain’s decision to join the American invasion.

Opinion: Proposed bill casts all Iranians as terrorists

02/09/10: The San Francisco Chronicle has an opinion piece by Nealan Afsari arguing against passage of the Stop Terrorists Entry Program (STEP) Act of 2010, a proposed bill that intends to curb potential terrorist activity and strengthen national security but that also categorically prevents Iranians and other targeted groups from entering the US.

Iraq PM says election ban dispute to be resolved this week

02/09/10: Jurist reports that former Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh has been sentenced to six years in prison for his participation in protesting last year's contested Iranian presidential election, state-run Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported Monday.

First Scottish 'terrorist' has conviction quashed

02/09/10: The Times (UK) reports that a Scottish student dubbed a “wannabe suicide bomber” has been freed today after appeal court judges quashed his conviction. Mohammed Atif Siddique, from Alva, Clackmannanshire, was jailed for eight years in October 2007 after being convicted of a series of terror offences. He was the first person to be convicted of Islamist terror charges in Scotland.

NYC mayor wants federal promise to fund 9/11 trial

02/09/10: The Miami Herald reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is skeptical that the federal government would cover the cost of trying Sept. 11 suspects in Manhattan, a day after President Barack Obama said he had not ruled out holding the trial in New York.

Al-Qaeda offshoot calls for fresh US attacks

02/08/10: The Financial Times reports that the Yemen-based al-Qaeda group that claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas day attack on a passenger jet in the US has called for further attacks against American and Jewish interests in an audio tape released on Monday. In the tape, which was posted on the internet, Saeed al-Shehri, a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and a released Guantanamo Bay detainee, said US and “crusader” interests were everywhere.

Karzai wants Afghanistan security handover to begin this year

02/08/10: CNN reports that Afghanistan is prepared to begin taking over security from international forces in some parts of the war-torn nation by the end of the year, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday.

Third Circuit to hear crucial 4th Amendment cell phone privacy case

02/08/10: Law.com reports that in a case that could prove to be one of the most important privacy rights battles of the modern era, the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals will hear argument this week on the proper legal standard to apply when prosecutors demand cell phone location data. The case faces Justice Department lawyers square against a coalition of privacy and civil liberties lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology and the American Civil Liberties Union. HT to beSpacific.

Special Forces chief battles to stop book revealing details of operations in Iraq

02/08/10: The Times (UK) reports that the head of Britain’s special forces has been trying to stop the publication of a book by a senior BBC journalist which describes in “tactical detail” operations carried out by the SAS in Iraq from 2003 to 2009. The major-general, who cannot be identified for security reasons, is concerned about the impact of Task Force Black on the elite regiment’s operational effectiveness because of the contents.

Clinton sees Islamist terror as number one threat

02/08/10: The Washington Times reports that Obama administration figures took to Sunday's political talk shows to rebut charges of White House weakness on Islamist terrorism, with the nation's top diplomat saying such networks pose the greatest threat to national security.

Iraqi court given time to review candidates

02/08/10: The New York Times reports that on the day a monthlong election campaign was to have begun in Iraq, the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki indicated that it would accept the jurisdiction of the appeals court, whose ruling last week postponed the disqualifications of more than 500 candidates until after it votes on March 7.

Iran officials arrest seven alleged US operatives ahead of scheduled protests

02/08/10: Jurist reports that Iranian authorities have arrested seven for allegedly planning to provoke rioting on February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including several in the employ of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to a statement released Sunday by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

Obama challenges terrorism critics

02/08/10: The New York Times reports that the White House pushed back Sunday against Republican criticism of its approach to terrorism, calling it “not anchored in reality” as a national security debate that was largely muted in recent years roared back to center stage with an angry intensity.

Cantor, democrats spar on legal risks of 9/11 trial

02/07/10: Politico reports that a Democratic national security group is challenging a claim by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) that trying alleged 9/11 plotters in federal court in or near New York risks the charges against them being dismissed because waterboarding or other aggressive techniques were used during their interrogations.

FBI's high-level interrogation group is up and running

02/07/10: The Atlantic reports that the White House and the Justice Department confirmed reports that the Justice Department's new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group is functioning and actively participating in terrorism investigations.

Adviser says stop criticizing anti-terror effort

02/07/10: The Washington Times reports that John Brennan, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, said Sunday that he's tired of lawmakers and others criticizing the administration's actions concerning the Christmas airliner bomb plot.

US seeks to end Kiyemba case

02/07/10: SCOTUSblog reports that in a move that might head off another major Supreme Court ruling on detention policy, the Justice Department on Friday suggested that the Court consider dismissing the pending case of Kiyemba v. Obama as one that should never have been granted in the first place.

Defense secretary Robert M. Gates skeptical of Iran's claims about nuclear deal

02/07/10: The Washington Post reports that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Saturday played down assertions by Iran that it is ready to reach a deal on its nuclear program, saying Tehran's overall response to overtures from the Obama administration has been "quite disappointing."

Opinion: Are President Obama’s assassinations of US citizens constitutional?

02/07/10: The Atlantic has an opinion post by Max Fisher arguing that the White House's killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen living in Yemen, is a reminder that, without congressional oversight or court approval, the White House is free to rewrite the criteria for targeted and unreviewed killing at any time it chooses and to reinterpret them in any way it sees fit.

02/07/10: Opinio Juris has an opinion post by Julian Ku arguing that if the US is going to continue to pursue a legal assassination policy, it should openly defend its legality, preferably through Harold Koh at the State Department.

Military high court upholds Abu Ghraib convictions

02/05/10: The Washington Post reports that the US military's highest court has upheld the convictions of two soldiers for abusing Abu Ghraib prison detainees in Iraq: former Army Spc. Sabrina Harman, who helped place a hooded detainee atop a box with wires in his hands and told him he would be electrocuted if he fell off, and former Sgt. Michael Smith, an Army dog handler.

Judge awards $22 million damages in Liberia torture case

02/05/10: The Miami Herald reports that the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who commanded a brutal paramilitary unit in his father's government, was ordered Friday by a federal judge to pay $22.4 million in damages to five Liberians who were tortured and abused during the West African nation's bloody civil war. The Liberians sued Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known as Charles "Chuckie" Taylor Jr., shortly after Emmanuel was sentenced to 97 years in prison for a criminal conviction under a US anti-torture law.

Defense Department turns down FOIA request for Mohamed Al Hanashi's autopsy report

02/05/10: The Huffington Post has a post by journalist Naomi Wolf describing her denial of a FOIA request for the autopsy of Mohamed al Hanashi, a representative of Guantanamo detainees who was found dead in his cell while Wolf visited Guantanamo in 2009 - "an aparent suicide" according to the Gitmo press office.

Even where Pakistani law exists, Taliban find a porous border

02/05/10: The New York Times reports that the way the Taliban use Pakistan’s tribal areas to launch cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan is perhaps the most contentious issue between Pakistan and the United States, and gaping holes in security checks along the border also remain at heavily trafficked crossings where, American officials say, the Taliban’s leaders have taken refuge, out of reach of American and NATO forces.

Opinion: The courts' shifting rules on Guantanamo detainees

02/05/10: The Washington Post has an opinion piece by Benjamin Wittes, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law, and Robert Chesney, non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and professor at the University of Texas School of Law, arguing that the judges hearing habeas cases from the nearly 200 detainees remaining at Guantanamo do not agree on what the rules should be, and until Congress or the appellate courts -- and, ultimately, the Supreme Court -- harmonize these wildly different approaches, a detainee's likelihood of prevailing in his habeas suit will be largely a function of which judge hears his case.

EPIC files lawsuit against NSA on agency's cybersecurity authority

02/05/10: The FOIA Blog reports that the Electronic Privacy Information Center ("EPIC") has filed a FOIA lawsuit against the National Security Agency in US District Court for the District of Columbia.  The lawsuit concerns a request made to NSA by EPIC for details on the authority NSA was granted on domestic cybersecurity matters under National Security Presidential Directive 54, which was promulgated during the Bush administration.

Eric Holder and the battle over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

02/05/10: The New Yorker has an investigative piece detailing the political opposition to Eric Holder's decisions on how to treat accused terrorists, including his plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Manhattan, as well as Holder's responses to criticism. HT to Under the Radar.

Top Iraqi court to weigh ruling on barred national candidates

02/05/10: The Washington Post reports that Iraq's electoral commission asked the country's highest judicial power Thursday to decide whether a ruling to allow barred candidates to run in national elections March 7 is binding.

Opinion: Prime Minister drops ball in Khadr case

02/05/10: The Toronto Star has an editorial arguing that Omar Khadr's long imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay in what the Canadian Supreme Court has called an "illegal process" is not some obscure lawyerly technicality; it offends core Canadian values, discredits American justice and is an international disgrace.

Proposed spending on counterterrorism soars

02/05/10: The Washington Times reports that the Obama administration is seeking billions in budget increases to target terrorism threats from abroad, especially Pakistan and Yemen, with boosts for surveillance and attack drones, special-operations forces and a new military cybercommand.

Federal jury convicts Pakistani woman of attempted murder of US personnel

02/04/10: Jurist reports that A jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York  on Wednesday convicted Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman with alleged ties to al Qaeda, on charges of attempting to murder US personnel at the Afghan facility where she was being held.

China says Swiss asylum for Uighurs will harm ties

02/04/10: The Miami Herald reports that China said Thursday that a Swiss government decision to approve the resettlement of two Chinese inmates at the Guantánamo Bay detention center would harm relations between the countries.

The Pentagon dodges the bullet

02/04/10: The Economist reports that even Robert Gates, the American defense secretary, admits that the $708 billion requested by Barack Obama for defense spending next year is “a massive number,” and America will spend more money on defense than it did during the Korean or Vietnam wars, though as a share of national wealth defense spending is still relatively low in historical terms.

Opinion: Terrorism derangement syndrome

02/04/10: Slate has an opinion by Dahlia Lithwick arguing that as people follow GOP cues about how hopelessly unsafe America is, they yet again convince themselves that we are mere seconds away from an attack. She argues that because of this continually heightened fear policies and practices that were perfectly acceptable just after 9/11, or when deployed by the Bush administration, are now decried as dangerous and reckless.

Pakistan arrests 35 in US soldiers’ deaths

02/04/10: The New York Times reports that Pakistani officials said Thursday they have arrested 35 suspects as part of their investigation into a bombing that killed three American soldiers and four Pakistanis on Wednesday in northwest Pakistan.

Criticism of Obama on national security likely to remain big issue

02/04/10: The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is aggressively pushing back against Republican criticism of its handling of terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, sharpening a partisan debate about national security policy, which is likely to be a major issue throughout the midterm election year.

ICC orders trial chamber to reconsider al-Bashir genocide charges

02/04/10: Jurist reports that the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday reversed a Pre-Trial Chamber decision that denied the application for an arrest warrant on genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Colin Powell now says gays should be able to serve openly in military

02/04/10: The Washington Post reports that Retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, whose opposition to allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military helped lead to adoption of the "don't ask, don't tell" legislation 17 years ago, said Wednesday that he now thinks the restrictive law should be repealed.

Holder defends arrest of alleged airline bomb plotter

02/04/10: The LA Times reports that in his first public defense of the arrest of a Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb an airplane on Christmas Day, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that he personally made the decision to prosecute Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and that no one in the Washington intelligence community objected that the alleged Al Qaeda operative should instead be turned over to military interrogators as a prisoner of war.

US keeps North Korea off terror list

02/04/10: The New York Times reports that President Obama announced Wednesday that he would not put North Korea back on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, after a classified study determined that the country “does not meet the statutory criteria” for that designation.

Intelligence chief acknowledges US may target Americans involved in terrorism

02/04/10: The Washington Post reports that Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged Wednesday that government agencies may kill US citizens abroad who are involved in terrorist activities if they are "taking action that threatens Americans."

DHS asked to investigate Air Marshal allegations

02/03/10: ProPublica reports that the chairman of the House oversight committee has asked the Department of Homeland Security for an independent investigation into allegations of discrimination and retaliation in the Federal Air Marshal Service.

Town of George Washington's headquarters could be 9/11 trial site

02/03/10: CNN reports that if Mayor Nick Valentine gets his way, Newburgh, New York, a town of 30,000, will host the terror trial of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices. Newburgh was a main military headquarters for George Washington during the American Revolution and more recently, authorities say, it was the birthplace of a foiled terrorist plot.

Man can't sue prosecutor over terror case

02/03/10: The Seattle Times reports that Karim Koubriti, a man whose conviction on terrorism charges in Detroit was thrown out, cannot sue the prosecutor for misconduct. Koubriti was seeking millions of dollars from Richard Convertino, claiming his constitutional rights were violated.

Iraq appeals court lifts candidate ban

02/03/10: The Washington Post reports that an Iraqi appeals court on Wednesday overturned an effort to bar hundreds of candidates from Iraq's upcoming national elections -- opening the door for alleged loyalists of Saddam Hussein to run for office, but at the same time reducing the risk of a Sunni boycott that would lessen the validity of the results.

Swiss rebuke Chinese, grant asylum for Uighurs now at Guantánamo Bay

02/03/10: The Miami Herald reports that the Swiss government has given final approval for two Chinese Guantánamo inmates to be resettled in northwestern Switzerland.

Inquiry into FBI raid that killed cleric

02/03/10: The New York Times reports that the Justice Department has opened an investigation into an FBI raid near Detroit last fall that left a Muslim prayer leader dead with 21 gunshot wounds, officials said Tuesday. The prayer leader, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, had been described in court papers as a separatist Muslim intent on overthrowing the United States government, and as someone whom counterterrorism agents had been following for years.