Georgetown Security Law Brief

Detention challenges are far off for many

07/31/09: The Washington Post reports that in the 13 months since the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision granting detainees at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the right to challenge their confinements before federal judges, most prisoners still have not had their day in court. In addition, prisoners who have successfully contested their detentions are having difficulty getting released. Nineteen of 28 detainees ordered freed remain at Guantanamo Bay, ensnared in a diplomatic and legal limbo that has frustrated federal judges, the government and attorneys for detainees.

Germany high court rules intelligence may not be withheld from parliament

07/31/09: Jurist reports that Germany's Federal Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) may not withhold information from parliament without good cause. The case began in 2006 when the BND refused to tell Germany's Green Party whether it was spying on members of parliament.

US criticized for extraditing minor Colombian drug suspects

07/31/09: The Washington Post reports that a range of critics -- defense lawyers, analysts and even a former American ambassador who once strongly advocated extradition from Columbia -- are questioning a policy that they say has gone beyond targeting drug kingpins to scooping up players on the periphery of the narcotics trade. They say the extradition is not only expensive for the US government but also indirectly suggests that Colombia's justice system, despite improvements, cannot handle prosecuting complex drug-trafficking cases.

Britain jails “Lone Wolf” terrorist Isa Ibrahim

07/31/09: The Jamestown Foundation reports that a jury at Winchester Crown Court in the U.K. returned a guilty verdict on July 17 in the case against “lone wolf” terrorist Andrew “Isa” Ibrahim, a 20 year-old British citizen accused of plotting a suicide bombing at a mall in Bristol, a large city west of London.

US Diplomat urges revised Sudan policy

07/31/09: The Washington Post reports that Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, President Obama's top Sudan envoy, said Thursday that there was no basis for keeping Sudan on the US list of states that sponsor terrorism and that it was only a matter of time before the United States would have to "unwind" economic sanctions against the Khartoum government.

Taliban not abiding by own rulebook

07/31/09: The American Forces Press Service reports that Canadian Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay told reporters in Afghanistan the Taliban are falling far short of the goals prescribed in their new “Taliban 2009 Rules and Regulations Booklet.” Believed to be the first of its kind, the booklet preaches a style of warfare based on Islamic law and aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Among its guidelines, it advises Taliban fighters to avoid civilian casualties, limit suicide attacks to high-value targets and establish good relationships with the local people.

07/31/09: Wired reports that the Taliban rulebook is in fact based on a "30 point plan" approved by the Taliban's Shura Council and distributed in 2006.

US sailor sentenced in Japanese taxi driver’s death

07/30/09: The New York Times reports that a US sailor was sentenced to life in prison in the stabbing death of a Japanese taxi driver, a crime that led to calls for tougher punishment for American service members who break the law. Olatunbosun Ugbogu, a 23-year-old Nigerian citizen serving in the US Navy was found guilty of stabbing a 61-year-old to death near a US naval base south of Tokyo in March 2008. Ugbogu was initially apprehended by U.S. Navy authorities in Tokyo on a desertion charge, but was handed over to Japanese authorities because a credit card in his name was found in the victim's car. The presiding judge ruled that Ugbogu, who testified that he heard ''voices'' ordering him to kill Takahashi, was mentally competent to stand trial.

Congress told that file sharing leaks sensitive federal data

07/30/09: The Washington Post reports that the indiscriminate use of a popular online data-sharing technology has led to the disclosure of sensitive government and personal information -- including FBI surveillance photos of a Mafia hit man, lists of people with HIV, and motorcade routes and safe-house locations for then-first lady Laura Bush, a congressional panel was told on Wednesday. The information is often exposed inadvertently by people who download the technology to share music or other files, not realizing that the "peer-to-peer" software also makes the contents of their computers available to other users, experts said.

Napolitano urges 'Collective Fight' against terrorism

07/30/09: The Washington Post reports that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano urged Americans to join a "collective fight against terrorism" that combines the efforts of individuals, companies and local, state and foreign governments. Answering critics who have accused the Obama administration of downplaying the risk of terrorist attacks, Napolitano said the threat has not abated and outlined an approach that emphasizes burden-sharing as federal spending and political support for post-9/11 security measures wane.

Ex-detainees launch Gitmo inmates' rights group

07/29/09: The Miami Herald reports that former Guantánamo Bay detainees have launched the Guantánamo Justice Center to help released inmates return to normal life and to lobby for the release or trial of those still held at the US military prison.

Scholarship: Confrontation or collaboration? Congress and the intelligence community

07/29/09: The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has posted a memo entitled "Confrontation or Collaboration? Congress and the Intelligence Community." Eric Rosenbach, a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer, and Aki Peritz sum up the history of major issues like intel reform, congressional oversight, as well as specific programss like electronic surveillance, interrogations and cyber-security. HT to Nukes & Spooks.

Franklin, defense analyst in spy case, was FBI double agent

07/29/09: The Washington Times reports that Larry Franklin, the former Pentagon analyst convicted of revealing classified information, says he worked undercover as an FBI double agent to gather information on the pro-Israel lobby in the United States before the bureau turned on him and pressured him to plead guilty to spying for Israel.

Scholarship: Journal of international criminal justice

07/29/09: The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice is out. Contents include:

• Tzvetan Todorov, Memory as Remedy for Evil
• Janine Natalya Clark, The Limits of Retributive Justice: Findings of an Empirical Study in Bosnia and Hercegovina
• Sandesh Sivakumaran, Courts of Armed Opposition Groups: Fair Trials or Summary Justice?
• Symposium: Self-defence: Looking at International Law through the Prism of Domestic Criminal Law
• National Prosecution of International Crimes: Cases and Legislation

HT to International Law Reporter.

Constitutional Consequence Management Response Force

07/29/09: Homeland Security Watch reports that yesterday the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities heard testimony on chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives(CBRNE)  consequence management. The hearing centered on the "CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force” (CCMRF), a joint military command intended to respond to CBRNE events in the US, and the issues of command an control of a military operation on US soil.

Former Islamic fighter escapes Bosnian jail

07/29/09: BalkanInsight reports that Karay Kamel bin Ali, also known as Abu Hamza, a former Islamic fighter, suspected of having terrorist links, has escaped from prison in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, prison officials confirmed on Wednesday.

‘Cowboys of Kabul’ allegedly defrauded Uncle Sam of millions

07/29/09: Wired reports that Del and Barbara Spier, a heavily indebted Houston couple, used their company, US Protections and Investigation, to defraud the US government of $17 million for security contracting in Afghanistan. If convicted on all the charges, they face more than 30 years in prison.

Rights group suing UK over rendition of suspected terrorist

07/28/09: Jurist reports that Human rights group Reprieve announced Tuesday that it is suing the British government over the rendition of Mohammed Saad Iqbal Madni from Indonesia to Egypt, where it says he was tortured. The group alleges that the UK allowed the US rendition flight of Madni to stop on the British island territory of Diego Garcia, despite government claims that the island was not part of the US's rendition program.

DC Circuit tells judge to evaluate French law in terror suit

07/28/09: The BLT reports that Amir Reza Oveissi, grandson of murdered Iranian general Gholam Ali Oveissi won a reprieve today in a Washington appeals court, which found his suit against Iran is entitled to additional hearings. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit overturned the dismissal of the suit and told the lower court to take a look at French law.

Minnesota Somali to plead guilty to terrorism charge

07/28/09: The Miami Herald reports that Salah Osman Ahmed, a Minnesota man accused of traveling to Somalia to fight with Islamic militants plans to plead guilty will plead guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorists. As part of a plea agreement, one count of conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim and injure and two counts of lying to the FBI will be dropped when Ahmed is sentenced.

Iraqi insurgents turn to robbery for financing

07/28/09: Le Monde (France, in French) reports that the night of July 27-28, Iraqi insurgents stole approximately $3.8 million in local currency from a Baghdad bank. The theft of local police payroll funds was only the latest robbery as insurgents try to make up for the decline in foreign cash caused by better policing of terrorist financing.

Congressional Committees raise concerns over Pentagon's strategic communications

07/28/09: The Washington Post reports that lawmakers are voicing concerns about the Pentagon's strategic communications programs, through which the military aims to win over civilians and erode support for adversaries in countries around the world. The programs have grown too fast and are spread through the Defense Department budget in a way that hampers oversight, complain the House and Senate Armed Services committees and the House Appropriations Committee.

Opinion: Iran, Islam and the rule of law

07/28/09: The Wall Street Journal has an opinion piece by Francis Fukuyama of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, describing the nature of the Iranian theocratic regime and arguing that "the clerical-military clique currently exercising power is likely to drag Iran into conflict with other countries in the region. This could easily consolidate its legitimacy and power. Let us hope that the country’s internal forces push for an evolution of the political system towards genuine rule of law and democracy first."

Report finds returning US soldiers' alleged crimes due to combat stress

07/27/09:  The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that a rash of crimes committed by US soldiers after returning from Iraq were caused by a lack of discipline combined with combat stress and substance abuse. HT to Jurist.

New claim of secret UK complicity in Ghafoor torture

07/27/09: The Guardian reports that Alam Ghafoor, a businessman who was held and mistreated in the United Arab Emirates following the London bombings, believes he has evidence that British consular officials asked permission from the UK's own security services to visit him while he was detained. Heavily redacted documents seen by the Guardian appear to indicate that the request to visit Ghafoor was made to an unidentified British intelligence officer and not to officials in the UAE.

Egypt to try 26 Hezbollah-linked terror suspects in special state security court

07/27/09: Jurist reports that twenty-six men suspected both of plotting numerous attacks in Egypt and of having links to Hezbollah were transferred Sunday to an emergency Egyptian state court that deals specifically with terrorism and state security.

Suspect in border agent's killing identified

07/27/09: The Washington Times reports that authorities in Mexico have identified Ernesto Parra Valenzuela as the man suspected of fatally shooting a US Border Patrol agent. 

German constitutional court rules secrecy in rendition inquiry violated constitution

07/27/09: The Lift reports that the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rebuked Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government last Thursday for withholding information from a parliamentary inquiry into the extraordinary rendition of two German Muslims to a US prison in Afghanistan. It said the fundamental right of Germany’s parliament to oversight of the intelligence services was breached if the government withheld information without a detailed reason.

Cambodia cracks down on dissenters

07/26/09: The Financial Times reports that on Friday, a court is to hand down its verdict in a case against Mu Sochua, an opposition parliamentarian accused of defamation against Hun Sen, Cambodia’s prime minister, the latest such case against a member of the country's opposition and press. “The Cambodian government is imposing its most serious crackdown on freedom of expression in recent years,” Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said last week.

India launches nuclear submarine

07/26/09: CNN reports that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the country's first locally built nuclear-powered submarine.

Anti-drug, anti-gun, efforts beefed up along US-Canada border

07/25/09: The Miami Herald reports that the US Border Patrol has tripled the number of agents along the 5,500-mile border in recent years, with hundreds more soon to be deployed, as authorities on both sides ratchet up efforts to curb bustling traffic in illegal drugs and guns.

Opinion: Beijing’s peculiar definition of state secrets

07/24/09: The Financial Times has an opinion piece by Phelim Kine, an Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, discussing China's byzantine state secrets laws and the recent Rio Tinto case, and arguing that foreign investors, representative governments and international business federations such as the Chambers of Commerce of both the US and the European Union should urge China to narrow its definition of state secrets and demand an end to the routine violation of international due process standards for all suspects in state secrets cases.

Lawlessness at sea

07/24/09: Security Debrief reports that, though many suggestions of the 9/11 Commission have been enacted, there are still many significant holes in our country’s maritime and port security.  Many Americans are shocked, and horrified, to learn that approximately 225 hostages are being held off the Somali coast at this very moment.

Domestic crime strikes soldiers home from war; bill proposed

07/23/09: The Washington Times reports that in the wake of two murders of members of the armed forces on US soil, lawmakers are weighing whether to amend the law on military homicides to impose harsher sentences on the perpetrator, even if the victim is not in military uniform at the time of the killing. The Captain Scott Corwin Armed Forces Protection Act of 2007, introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), proposes making murdering a member of the armed forces a federal crime, punishable by death, whether the person is in or out of uniform.

Opinion: Terror creeps into the heartland

07/23/09: The New York Times has an opinion piece by columnist Nicholas Kristof arguing that it would be terrible if Afghanistan or Iraq collapsed, but it would be unthinkably catastrophic if Pakistan — with perhaps 80 to 100 nuclear weapons — were to fall into chaos, and that’s one reason Pakistan should be President Obama’s top foreign policy challenge.

UN SG Ban proposes campaign to prevent massive rights abuses

07/23/09: Jurist reports that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called on world leaders to take new steps to combat genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights abuses, introducing a report detailing a new campaign against the offenses. Called the "Responsibility to Protect", the campaign focuses on holding states responsible for preventing the abuses from happening to their citizens, drawing on international support to help countries prevent the abuses from occurring, and quickly enlisting the international community to end the abuses when they arise.

07/23/09: The Economist reports that the idealistic effort to establish a new humanitarian principle is coming under attack at the United Nations.

Vinas, US-born militant who fought for Al Qaeda is in custody

07/23/09: The LA Times reports that Bryant Neal Vinas, an American Muslim convert from Long Island, NY, who was captured while fighting for Al Qaeda in Pakistan is now cooperating with authorities, opening a rare window into the world of Western militants in the network's hide-outs, US and European anti-terrorism officials said.

Spy agencies hid true number of employees

07/23/09: CQ reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee has found that at least some of the spy agencies under Directorate of National Intelligence's purview have not been reporting their true numbers of employees. The revelation is buried in a new report from the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2010.

Yoo, author of torture memos, pranked in classroom

07/22/09: Wired reports that John Yoo, a former deputy attorney general who has faced intense criticism for authoring constitutionally-questionable memos justifying torture and the government’s warrantless wiretapping program, was confronted by an Australian comedian last week during a lecture he was giving on international law at Chapman University School of Law, a private school in Southern California.

Iran implements controversial Internet data retention law

07/22/09: Jurist reports that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has implemented a law requiring the country's Internet service providers to retain records of users' incoming and outgoing data for at least three months.

Rights group slams Saudi Arabia over terrorism trials

07/22/09: The Financial Times reports that Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned Saudi Arabia for detaining thousands of suspected militants for several years without charge and urged the government to end the secrecy around terrorism trials. In a 69-page report, the London-based human rights group urged the UK government to block the potential extradition of British resident Shaker Aamer, a Saudi national currently held in Guantánamo, owing to prolonged detentions in the kingdom.

Scholarship: Harvard international law journal

07/22/09: The latest issue of the Harvard International Law Journal is out. Contents include:

• Alex Whiting, In International Criminal Prosecutions, Justice Delayed Can Be Justice Delivered
• Sean Watts, Reciprocity and the Law of War

HT to the International Law Reporter.

Envoy claims no acts against US by Quds detainees

07/22/09: The Washington Times reports that Ryan Crocker, the former US ambassador to Iraq, says he does not know of any evidence linking three Iranian Quds Force officers to specific acts against US forces even though the three were jailed by US authorities for more than two years.

Opinion: The CIA, licensed to kill

07/22/09: The LA Times has an opinion piece by author David Wise, arguing that the problem with assassination, morality aside, is that the US is not very good at it, as the CIA's farcical efforts to murder Castro demonstrate. There is also the real possibility of retaliation for a state-sponsored assassination.

Saudi efforts to combat terrorist financing

07/21/09: The Counterterrorism Blog reports that Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, on his first official trip to Saudi Arabia last week, praised the efforts of the Kingdom in combating terrorism financing. In the week prior to Geithner's visit, the Saudis announced that 330 individuals had been convicted of terrorism charges in the first trials involving the kingdom's new specialized terrorism court, including for terrorist-financing-related charges.

Oversight options for Congress on sensitive covert action notifications

07/21/09: OpenCRS has a report on the "Gang of Eight" provision, which allows the president to limit notification of certain highly sensitive covert actions to certain members of Congress instead of the full intelligence committees, with a legislative history, and examining both the impact of such notifications on congressional oversight as well as options that Congress might consider to possibly improve oversight.

Detainee and interrogation policy reviews delayed

07/21/09: The Atlantic reports that the administration said today that its two Guantanamo Bay policy task forces, one on interrogations and the other on long-term detention policy, had asked for extensions. The detention policy task force released a preliminary report.

9/11 case could bring broad shift on civil suits

07/21/09: The New York Times reports that the most consequential decision of the Supreme Court’s last term got only a little attention when it landed in May, though lower courts have cited Ashcroft v. Iqbal, which makes it much easier for judges to dismiss civil lawsuits right after they are filed, citing it more than 500 times in just the last two months.

ICTY convicts Lukic cousins of war crimes and crimes against humanity

07/20/09: Jurist reports that The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Monday convicted Bosnian Serb cousins Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their actions as part of a paramilitary unit during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

Scholarship: Crime, war, and global trafficking

07/20/09: Christine Jojarth of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University has published Crime, War, and Global Trafficking: Designing International Cooperation. Combining international legal theory and transaction cost economics, the book develops a novel, comprehensive framework which reveals the factors that determine the optimal balance between institutional credibility and flexibility in the role of international organizations in combatting a number of global ills. HT to International Law Reporter.

Court rebukes Government over “secret law” in Pulungan case

07/20/09: Secrecy News reports that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of Doli Syarief Pulungan, who had been found guilty of exporting rifle scopes in violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. In its ruling, the court said that the government had failed to properly identify which items are subject to export control regulations, or to justify the criteria for controlling them.