Georgetown Security Law Brief

Pakistan to seek terror charges against Virginia men

12/31/09: The Washington Times reports that Pakistani police said Thursday they plan to ask a court to charge five Americans arrested in early December with terrorism and will seek life sentences against them. The young Muslim men, who are from Northern Virginia, were captured in the eastern Pakistan city of Sargodha in a case that has spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to Pakistan to join militant groups.

Al-Qaeda's 'most dangerous' arrested in Yemen

12/31/09: CNN reports that a man described as "one of al Qaeda's most dangerous members," Mohammed Abdu Saleh al-Haudali, was arrested in Yemen according to the Yemeni military.

UN moving many foreign workers out of Pakistan

12/31/09: The New York Times reports that the United Nations is moving as many as 60 foreign employees, or about one-quarter of its international staff, out of Pakistan  for at least six months out of safety concerns, a United Nations official said Thursday. The decision, which does not apply to the organization’s 2,700 Pakistani employees, will be re-evaluated in three months, the official said. Improvements in the country’s security could shorten the relocation.

Court rules US can keep secrets in surveillance

12/31/09: The Miami Herald reports that a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that law professors and attorneys who represent Guantánamo Bay detainees cannot force the government to reveal whether an anti-terrorism program eavesdropped on their conversations. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling supported the findings of a lower court judge in Manhattan who also rejected the attempt to uncloak the warrantless electronic surveillance system's targets.

TSA threatens blogger who posted new screening directive

12/31/09: Wired reports that two bloggers received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents Tuesday after they published a new TSA directive that revises screening procedures and puts new restrictions on passengers in the wake of a recent bombing attempt by the so-called underwear bomber. Special agents from the TSA’s Office of Inspection interrogated two US bloggers, one of them an established travel columnist, and served them each with a civil subpoena demanding information on the anonymous source that provided the TSA document.

Scholarship: International Criminal Court

12/31/09: The New Criminal Law Review is publishing a symposium on the ICC. Contents include:

• Kevin Jon Heller, Introduction
• Neil Boister, Treaty Crimes, International Criminal Court?
• Roger S. Clark, Building on Article 8(2)(b)(xx) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Weapons and Methods of Warfare
• Robert Cryer, Royalism and the King: Article 21 of the Rome Statute and the Politics of Sources
• Jens David Ohlin, Joint Criminal Confusion
• Elies van Sliedregt, Article 28 of the ICC Statute: Mode of Liability and/or Separate Offense?
• Mohamed Elewa Badar, Dolus Eventualis and the Rome Statute Without It?
• Olympia Bekou, A Case for Review of Article 88, ICC Statute: Strengthening a Forgotten Provision
• Ilias Bantekas, The Need to Amend Article 12 of the ICC Statute: Remedying the Effects of Multilateral Treaties upon Third Parties
• Cedric Ryngaert, The International Criminal Court and Universal Jurisdiction: A Fraught Relationship
• Héctor Olásolo, Systematic and Casuistic Approaches to the Role of Victims in Criminal Proceedings Before the International Criminal Court
• Michael Bohlander, Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility? A Pragmatic Proposal for the Recruitment of Judges at the ICC and Other International Criminal Courts
• Kai Ambos, Confidential Investigations (Article 54(3)(E) ICC Statute) vs. Disclosure Obligations: The Lubanga Case and National Law
• Alexander Zahar, International Court and Private Citizen
• Göran Sluiter, “I Beg You, Please Come Testify”—The Problematic Absence of Subpoena Powers at the ICC

HT to International Law Reporter.

Three men indicted on narcotics-terrorism charges

12/31/09: The Miami Herald reports that three men suspected of being al-Qaida associates have been indicted on charges they plotted to ferry drugs through the Sahara Desert to raise money for terrorist attacks. The charges of narcoterrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists were contained Wednesday in an indictment returned in Manhattan.

Peter Moore freed after US hands over Iraqi insurgent

12/31/09: The Times (UK) reports that British hostage Peter Moore was dramatically set free yesterday after the United States handed over an Iraqi insurgent suspected of planning the deaths of five American servicemen. Mr Moore, an IT consultant, was freed by League of the Righteous, or Asaib al-Haq (AAH) — an extremist Shia group allied to Iran — after 31 months and spent his first night of freedom at the British Embassy in Baghdad.

GOP leaders renew call to stop Guantánamo transfers

12/31/09: The Miami Herald reports that Republican leaders on Wednesday, seizing on the claim that ex-Guantánamo detainees were linked to the foiled Christmas Day terror attack, called on the White House to stop sending captives home to Yemen from the detention center in southeast Cuba.

Veteran benefits entangled in red tape

12/31/09: The Washington Times reports that the Veterans Benefits Administration, the branch of the Department of Veterans Affairs that dispenses aid and assistance to veterans and their families, is simply overwhelmed. It reported on Monday that there are 481,751 pending claims, some of which will take more than a year to be processed.

Government supporters hold mass rallies against Iran's political opposition

12/30/09: The Washington Post reports that hundreds of thousands of government supporters rallied against Iran's political opposition in Tehran on Wednesday, calling for the execution of the movement's two key leaders.

Former Gitmo detainee killed in Yemen while plotting attack on British embassy

12/30/09: The Long War Journal reports that a former detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was killed by Yemeni forces during a raid in Arhab, which is north of the capital Sanaa, on Dec. 17. The former detainee, Hani Abdo Shaalan, was preparing attacks along with other al-Qaeda terrorists against the British embassy and other Western targets at the time.

Obama curbs secrecy of classified documents

12/30/09: The New York Times reports that President Obama declared on Tuesday that “no information may remain classified indefinitely” as part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch’s system for protecting classified national security information. In an executive order and an accompanying presidential memorandum to agency heads, Mr. Obama signaled that the government should try harder to make information public if possible, including by requiring agencies to regularly review what kinds of information they classify and to eliminate any obsolete secrecy requirements.

Terror plot raises questions over efforts to close Gitmo

12/30/09: The Miami Herald reports that the foiled Christmas Day plot to blow up a jetliner over Detroit has thrown up a major roadblock to President Barack Obama's pledge to close the prison camps at Guantánamo. Cascading reports that the alleged would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had trained in Yemen, and that the plot was hatched by two former Guantánamo detainees, have even supporters of emptying the prison predicting a new impediment to their effort. Nearly half of the 198 captives at Guantánamo are citizens of Yemen.

White House prepares for immigration overhaul battle

12/30/09: The Los Angeles Times reports that senior White House aides privately have assured Latino activists that the president will back legislation next year to provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. In addition to the citizenship provision, the emerging plan will emphasize efforts to secure US borders against those trying to cross illegally.

Interview with John Yoo

12/30/09: The New York Times has an interview with John Yoo, author of the Bush administration "torture memos" and current professor at Boalt Hall.

Public Warehousing in talks with US to settle fraud case

12/30/09: The Washington Post reports that the Kuwaiti firm indicted last month for allegedly overcharging the Army on a multibillion-dollar contract to supply food to US troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan has announced it is negotiating with the Justice Department to settle the case.

Judge slams Obama in Palestinian terror suit

12/29/09: Politico reports that a federal judge is slamming the Obama administration for refusing to take a position in a lawsuit brought against the Palestinian Authority in connection with an alleged terrorist attack in 2000 that claimed the life of a 25-year-old American, Esh Gilmore. US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler complained that the Obama administration was "particularly unhelpful" and the State Department "mealy-mouthed" in refusing to provide official guidance on the complex foreign policy issues involved in the case.

Iran limits movements of opposition leader

12/29/09: The Washington Times reports that Iranian security forces have limited the movements of a leading opposition figure by refusing to protect him when he leaves his home, his son said Tuesday as authorities broadened their crackdown with a new wave of arrests that included the sister of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi.

Top FOIA stories of 2009

12/29/09: The FOIA blog has posted a retrospective year-end look at FOIA news in 2009, focusing particularly on the repercussions of Obama's 1/21/09 memorandum and the furor over detainee photographs.

Philippines prosecutors begin rebellion trial

12/29/09: JURIST reports that the Philippine Department of Justice (PDOJ) on Monday began the trial of over 600 people charged with rebellion for allegedly interfering with government operations following the November killings of 57 in the country's semi-autonomous province of Maguindanao. All but five of the accused missed a Monday deadline to respond to the charges against them, and fewer than 40 of the suspects have been detained by police. If convicted, those charged could face as much as life in prison.

Scholarship: The Human Rights Committee’s Views in Sayadi v. Belgium

12/29/09: Marko Milanovic of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights has posted The Human Rights Committee’s Views in Sayadi v. Belgium: A Missed Opportunity which addresses the interaction between human rights treaties and UN Security Council resolutions. HT to International Law Reporter.

Iranian appeals prison sentence for arms smuggling

12/29/09: The Miami Herald reports that an Iranian national who pleaded guilty to plotting to ship sensitive US military technology to Iran is appealing his prison sentence. An attorney for Amir Hossein Ardebili filed a notice in federal court Monday indicating that Ardebili was appealing the 5-year sentence he received earlier this month.

Obama quietly changes US immigration policy

12/29/09: The Council on Foreign Relations reports that those who arrive in the United States fleeing torture or persecution abroad will no longer automatically be welcomed with handcuffs and months in a jail cell. Instead, many of those seeking protection will again be permitted to live freely in the country while their applications for permanent asylum are considered by an immigration judge. The measure is the latest in a string of little-noticed initiatives by the Obama DHS to reconsider some of the most controversial enforcement policies of the past decade.

North Korea says American is detained

12/29/09: The New York Times reports that North Korea said Tuesday it has detained an American who entered the country illegally, after activists claimed that a 28-year-old from Arizona went to the communist nation on a mission to call attention to the regime's human rights abuses. The American was being investigated after ''illegally entering'' the country through the North Korea-China border last Thursday, North Koreas's official Korean Central News Agency said in a two-line dispatch.

Court hearing in airline attack postponed to January

12/28/09: The Miami Herald reports that a court hearing to determine whether the government can get DNA from a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane has been postponed. The federal court in Detroit says a hearing scheduled for Monday has been delayed until January 8. No reason was given.

Britain had rejected visa renewal for terrorism suspect

12/28/09: The New York Times reports that the British government said Monday that it had acted earlier this year to reject a bid for a renewed student visa from the Nigerian man accused in the failed Detroit airliner bombing plot, and that the man was placed on an official watch list to prevent him from re-entering Britain.

Human rights groups fear violence as Thailand forces deportation of Hmong

12/28/09: JURIST reports that several human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, on Sunday expressed concern over the potential for violence as the Thai government begins the forced deportation of 4,000 ethnic Hmong to Laos from a refugee camp inside Thailand. The Hmong fear that they will face persecution in Laos for supporting the opposition government if they are forced to leave their camp in Thailand. The Thai government believes that the Hmong entered the country illegally, and therefore are not entitled to be protected as refugees.

Passenger on US-bound flight detained

12/28/09: The Washington Post reports that just two days after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on descent into Detroit Metropolitan Airport, another man, aboard Sunday's Flight 253, was detained after becoming disruptive and locking himself for a lengthy period in a bathroom, according to a flight crew report radioed to the federal Transportation Safety Administration.

It's manatee vs. military in pending habitat ruling

12/28/09: The Los Angeles Times reports that the US Fish and Wildlife Service soon will make a decision on whether to expand what's called critical habitat for the manatee in Florida and southern Georgia, in response to a petition from several environmental groups. The coastlines of these states are home to naval installations including Pensacola Naval Air Station, where World War II aviators trained; Kings Bay in southern Georgia, which houses nuclear-armed Ohio-class submarines; and the South Florida Testing Facility in Dania Beach, where the Navy operates an undersea range to determine ships' acoustical signatures. Although the Navy does not object in principle to an increase in protected areas, and points out the many measures it takes to prevent harm to endangered species, it says that an overly broad expansion could have "significant impacts" on Navy operations.

Opinion: Democracy is the Greatest Revenge

12/28/09: The Wall Street Journal has an opinion piece by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari welcoming the opportunity to rebut corruption charges in court.

Argentina puts officials on trial over the abuses of the 'Dirty War'

12/28/09: The Washington Post reports that, with former generals and admirals well into their 70s and the courts emboldened to hand down severe penalties, Argentina is finally close to delivering justice for the estimated 30,000 people killed by state security services during the "Dirty War," including some who were thrown from airplanes after being tortured and sedated. The trials in Argentina come as other South American countries grapple with delivering justice for the victims of dictatorships and government-linked death squads.

Opinion: Russia's 'sphere' in Europe

12/27/09: The Washington Post has an opinion piece by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ronald Asmus on the future of US and European relations with Russia.

Opinion: Trials of the Decade

12/27/09: The New York Times has a retrospective opinion piece by Scott Turow reviewing the impact of the terror trials of 2004.

Israel's military kills six Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza

12/27/09: The Washington Post reports that Israeli troops blasted their way into the homes of three wanted Palestinians in the West Bank on Saturday, killing each in a hail of bullets and straining an uneasy security arrangement with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The three, affiliated with a violent offshoot of Abbas's Fatah movement, were targeted in the raids in Nablus because they had killed an Israeli settler in a roadside ambush last week and had turned down a chance to surrender, the Israeli military said. Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, three young men approaching Israel's southern border were killed by shots from an Israeli helicopter gunship.

Police lose battle over evidence of ‘British 9/11’ plot

12/26/09: The Times (UK) reports that Scotland Yard has been ordered to reveal whether it has any evidence to support America’s claim that Britain was saved from a 9/11-style disaster by the CIA’s secret foreign interrogation centres.

Deciding terror trial’s venue is a complex case

12/26/09: The New York Times reports that since the government’s announcement that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would be tried with others in Manhattan in connection with the 9/11 attacks, some lawyers and others have expressed skepticism that such a trial will ever be held in the city.

US blames plane attack on terrorism

12/26/09: The Financial Times reports that security was stepped up on flights to and from the United States on Saturday as federal officials questioned a Nigerian man who set off an incendiary device aboard a plane from Amsterdam to Detroit before being subdued by fellow passengers.

12/26/09: The Times (UK) reports that a Nigerian reported to be studying in Britain allegedly tried to blow up a transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day in what the White House called an attempted act of terrorism.

Guantánamo prepares for trials, not camps closure

12/26/09: The Miami Herald reports that rather than shutting Guantánamo, the U.S. military is gearing up for the war-crimes trial of a former child soldier at the navy base on southeastern Cuba this summer.

US military drops ban on soldiers getting pregnant

12/25/09: CNN reports that the US military has dropped a controversial rule that called for punishing soldiers in northern Iraq for becoming pregnant or impregnating another soldier.

Thailand may send Hmong back to Laos

12/25/09: The Washington Post reports that an estimated 4,200 ethnic Hmong, many of whom fought for the CIA during the Vietnam War or are related to soldiers who worked with the agency, are set to be expelled from Thailand back to Laos, where they could face political persecution.

When is discovery appropriate in a FOIA case?

12/25/09: FOIAblog reports that in recent decision, the DC Circuit has held that discovery in a FOIA lawsuit is usually only appropriate (and rarely then) when it is needed after the government moves for summary judgment. 

Historical Japan-US secret nuclear deal discovered

12/25/09: Intelligence Daily reports that in 1969, the US signed a secret deal with Japan to allow the US military to bring nuclear weapons into the country, despite Japan's official ban on nuclear weapons.

Appeals Court rules in case challenging racial profiling

12/25/09: The Lift reports that a recent Second Circuit decision has held that it is lawful to use the pretext of immigration detention as an excuse to hold non-citizens for the purpose of criminal investigation or other purposes unrelated to immigration as long as their deportation remains “reasonably foreseeable.”

Specter looks to revive 9/11 suits against Saudis

12/24/09: The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that, in a sign that the bitter litigation between victims of the 9/11 attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia is far from over, Sen. Arlen Specter yesterday introduced legislation that would overturn court rulings barring lawsuits that contend the desert kingdom helped cause the terrorism.

Short extension for UN peacekeeping forces in Congo

12/24/09: The New York Times reports that The UN Security Council took the unusual step on Wednesday of extending the mandate of the 20,000-member peacekeeping force in Congo only until May, instead of for a year. The shorter period is intended to focus attention on how best to reorganize the force to protect civilians in the eastern Congo, and to respond to President Joseph Kabila’s request that the UN start developing an exit strategy for the peacekeeping force, the world’s largest, which has been active since November 1999.

NY court told to consider harsher sentence in terror case

12/24/09: The Miami Herald reports that a federal appeals court in New York City says a judge who sentenced Lynne Stewart to just over two years in prison should consider a harsher sentence in light of the case's terrorism connection.  The 70-year-old Stewart was locked up last month after the court said she should begin serving the penalty for her 2005 conviction on charges she let a jailed Egyptian terrorism client's messages reach his followers. 

Two lawyers named to intelligence advisory board

12/24/09: The Blog of Legal Times reports that President Obama has chosen Washington lawyer Roel Campos and New York lawyer Rita Hauser to be appointed to spots on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.

US agencies faulted by GAO for leak of nuclear data

12/24/09: The Washington Post reports that five government agencies, the National Security Council and two congressional offices all share blame for the inadvertent publication of sensitive information regarding hundreds of civilian nuclear sites.  The draft declaration of US nuclear facilities -- which included locations for those that store enriched uranium and other materials for use in nuclear weapons -- was meant to be seen by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but it appeared for about a day on the GPO Web site. 

Convictions of terrorist’s legal team upheld

12/24/09: The Lift reports that a US federal appellate court has upheld the convictions of members of Sheikh Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel Rahman’s legal team for passing communications between him and a federally designated terrorist organization.