Georgetown Security Law Brief

US helps Ukraine send uranium to Russia

12/31/10: The New York Times reports that in a secret operation to secure nuclear material, the United States has helped Ukraine send to Russia enough uranium to build two atomic bombs. This week's removal of more than 110 pounds of highly enriched uranium followed a pledge by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to get rid of all of his country's highly enriched uranium by April 2012. The material will be blended down in Russia, rendering it useless for bomb making. Details of the operation were provided to The Associated Press by the National Nuclear Safety Administration.

Yemen freeing insurgents under peace deal

12/31/10: CNN reports that Yemen is releasing hundreds of jailed insurgents after the president's directive to free 500 detainees, the country's embassy in Washington announced Thursday. President Ali Abdul Allah Saleh's move is a critical part of the February peace agreement between the government and the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, who have fought for years.

One suspect in Denmark terror case released; three held

12/30/10: The Washington Times reports that an Iraqi asylum seeker accused of plotting a shooting attack on the Copenhagen office of a newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad was freed Thursday because of an apparent lack of evidence. Three other suspects, residents in Sweden, were ordered to remain in custody for four weeks by a Danish court. The four men were arrested in the Danish capital on Wednesday, while police in Stockholm arrested a Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin, suspected of being linked to the plot.

Pakistan says it will defend spy chief in US suits

12/30/10: The Washington Times reports that  Pakistan will "strongly contest" two US lawsuits that link its spy chief and his agency to the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, the government said Thursday. The statement shows how sensitive Pakistan is to claims that its agents were involved in the assault that killed 166 people. It also could be evidence of pressure on the weak civilian government by the powerful spy service.

Ten al-Qaida suspects detained in Turkey

12/30/10: The Washington Post reports that police have detained 10 people suspected of links to the al-Qaida terror network and accused of preparing to stage an attack before New Year's Eve. The suspects were rounded up for questioning in simultaneous raids in the cities of Bursa and Istanbul earlier this week and on Thursday. It was the latest in a string of raids against people described as al-Qaida suspects. The suspects were expected to be interrogated by prosecutors on Friday who will decide whether to press charges against them.

Last of Dutch Somalis in alleged terror plot freed

12/30/10: The Miami Herald reports that Dutch prosecutors say the last of a group of 12 Somalis arrested in the Netherlands last week on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack has been freed. The group was taken into custody December 24 after a tip from the country's intelligence agency and were then released in the days afterward. Prosecutors now say there is no evidence at all against nine. Three, including the man released Thursday, remain suspects, apparently based on evidence contained in the still-secret intelligence agency file.

Navy awards two contracts to build new combat ships

12/30/10: The New York Times reports that the Navy on Wednesday awarded two companies, Lockheed Martin and Austal USA, contracts that could be worth a total of more than $7 billion to build 20 of its new littoral combat ships, splitting the purchase to obtain the vessels more quickly.

Rights groups tie Pakistan to disappearances of insurgents

12/30/10: The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is expressing alarm over reports that thousands of political separatists and captured Taliban insurgents have disappeared into the hands of Pakistan’s police and security forces, and that some may have been tortured or killed. Some American officials think that the Pakistanis have used the pretext of war to imprison members of the Baluch nationalist opposition that has fought for generations to separate from Pakistan.

English-language magazine provided bomb tips to 9 terror suspects, British say

12/29/10: The Washington Post reports that nine men arrested in Britain on terrorism charges last week found inspiration and bomb-making instructions in an English-language Internet magazine published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to British investigators.

One tip now enough to put name on terrorist watch list, officials say

12/29/10: The Washington Post reports that, a year after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials say they have made it easier to add individuals' names to a terrorist watch list. The failure to put Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on the watch list last year renewed concerns that the government's system to screen out potential terrorists was flawed. Since then, senior counterterrorism officials say they have altered their criteria so that a single-source tip, as long as it is deemed credible, can lead to a name being placed on the watch list.

Top Indonesian terror suspect goes on trial

12/29/10: The Miami Herald reports that one of Indonesia's top terrorism suspects went on trial Wednesday on charges of helping set up a militant network that was plotting Mumbai-style attacks on foreigners at luxury hotels and embassies in the capital. Abdullah Sunata was arrested in June during a series of police raids in Central Java province. Prosecutors told the East Jakarta District Court he allegedly helped set up a jihadi training camp in westernmost Aceh province and procure M-16 assault rifles, revolvers and other weapons for the group.

Afghanistan president orders tribunal to hear parliamentary election fraud complaints

12/29/10: JURIST reports that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree Sunday allowing the country's Supreme Court to go forward with its plan to set up a tribunal to hear complaints of fraud during the September parliamentary elections. The decision comes less than a month before the 249-seat parliament is set to convene on January 20 but officials say Karzai is committed to inaugurating the parliament by then.

Eleven homeland security-related stories you might have missed in 2010

12/28/10: Homeland Security Watch has posted a list of eleven woefully under-reported headlines from the past year.

India ups security in cities fearing terror attack

12/28/10: The Miami Herald reports that India increased security in major cities across the country Tuesday after receiving information that a Pakistan-based militant group was planning an attack over New Year's weekend. More police were deployed to city streets, including in India's financial capital, Mumbai, which was attacked in 2008. Airports and railway stations and the popular beach resort state of Goa all tightened security following intelligence reports that the banned militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba was planning to target these places.

Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israel

12/28/10: The New York Times reports that Iran on Tuesday executed two men, one of them said to be a member of an exiled opposition group and the other convicted of spying for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. Iran’s judiciary reported that the alleged spy, Ali-Akbar Siadat, had been hanged at Tehran’s Evin Prison after being found guilty of passing on to “Iran’s enemies” information about the country’s military capability, including the missile program operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Cargo that flies over the United States doesn't get screened to federal standards

12/27/10: The Washington Post reports that, as the Obama administration works to harden domestic defenses against terrorism, some experts point to a potential vulnerability from thousands of flights that pass over the United States each week. Although the United States regulates overflights, the cargo aboard them is not screened to federal standards and passenger lists are not matched to names on the terrorist watch list maintained by the Transportation Security Administration. Security experts are divided about the severity of the risk.

US focusing more on rail, hotel security

12/27/10: The Washington Times reports that the US Department of Homeland Security is sharpening its focus on potential terrorists attacks on trains, subways and "soft targets" such as hotels. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the increased security on trains and other surface-transportation systems was in part a response to the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid. She also said federal officials have in the past year contacted hotels and other soft targets and provided their employees with a "fair amount of training."

Yemen to crack down on regional al-Qaeda wing with special forces deployed to provinces

12/26/10: The Washington Post reports that Yemen's government said Saturday that it plans to set up special anti-terrorism forces in four of its restless provinces to fight al-Qaeda's resurgent regional wing, which has become a focus of Western security concerns. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen, has emerged as a major international security concern since it asserted responsibility for last December's botched attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound aircraft.

Switzerland judge seeks prosecution of CIA-affiliated engineers for giving nuclear secrets to Pakistan

12/26/10: JURIST reports that a Swiss judge on Thursday called for the prosecution of three engineers who have links to the CIA for allegedly smuggling nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan. Brothers Urs and Marco Tinner, along with their father Friedrich, were arrested in 2004 on suspicion of smuggling, but were eventually released. The Tinners said that had been informants for the CIA since 2003. Khan has confessed to giving nuclear technology to Iran and Libya.

As applications drop, work on secret wiretaps grows, US government sources say

12/24/10:  The Washington Post reports that even as the Justice Department reports a two-year decline in the number of wiretap applications approved by a secret US intelligence court, the workload of Justice Department lawyers assigned to request and oversee such sensitive surveillance activities appears to be growing.  The activity by the department's National Security Division, which is responsible for obtaining authorization from a secret court to tap Americans' telephone calls and e-mails and conduct other surveillance, was a prominent factor cited by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in a campaign this month to prod the Senate into confirming Obama's nomination of James M. Cole to serve as Holder's deputy.

Two plead guilty in Navy SEAL weapon smuggling case

12/24/10:  The Miami Herald reportst that two Las Vegas men, Andrew Kaufman, 36, and Omar Aguirre, 35, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring with a Navy SEAL and another man to sell machine guns and other weapons smuggled into the US from Iraq and Afghanistan, the top federal prosecutor in Nevada said.

US approved business with blacklisted nations

12/24/10:  The New York Times reports that despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has allowed American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found. The Treasury Department has granted nearly 10,000 licenses for deals involving countries that have been cast into economic purgatory, beyond the reach of American business.  Most of the licenses were approved under a decade-old law mandating that agricultural and medical humanitarian aid be exempted from sanctions.

ACLU seeks to add two plaintiffs to Lindh's lawsuit

12/21/10:  The Miami Herald reports that two more Muslim inmates are trying to join American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh and another prisoner in a federal lawsuit asking for them to be allowed to hold daily group prayers in their highly restricted cell block.

Holder says terror trials ban "a Constitutional issue"

12/21/10:  POLITICO reports that Attorney General Eric Holder is describing a Congressional effort to block trials for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay as an intrusion into executive branch authority that is so significant it raises Constitutional concerns.

NY appeals court OKs ex-sailor's terror conviction

12/21/10:  The Miami Herald reports that a federal appeals court Monday upheld the conviction of a former Navy sailor serving a 10-year prison sentence after he leaked details about ship movements to a London-based Web site operator that supported attacking Americans.  The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected defense arguments in US v Abu-Jihaad seeking to overturn the 2008 conviction of Hassan Abu-Jihaad of Phoenix. He was a signalman aboard the USS Benfold who was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2002.

Monitoring America

12/20/10:  The Washington Post reports that nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.  The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of US citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing.  The government's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, which is in charge of terrorism investigations in the United States.

Ninth Circuit strikes down ban on military recruitment of minors

12/20/10:  JURIST reports that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday upheld a lower court's ruling in US v City of Eureka and City of Arcata invalidating the ban on the military recruitment of minors passed by two Northern California cities.  In 2008, voters in Eureka and Arcata each passed the Youth Protection Act, identical ballot measures which prohibited the military recruitment of children under the age of 18.

Canadian court hikes terrorists' sentences

12/18/10: The Miami Herald reports that a Canadian court increased the sentences Friday for three convicted Islamic terrorists and ordered the extradition of two Sri Lankan men facing terrorism-related charges in the US in a series of judgments.

Think tank plans study of how US treats detainees

12/18/10: The Wall Street Journal reports that a nonpartisan legal think tank plans to study US treatment of terrorism detainees, partly out of concern that the country's policies lack clarity and can be manipulated to permit abuse or torture in dangerous times. Eleanor J. Hill, one of three chairpersons on The Constitution Project's new panel, said events after the September 11 terrorist attacks such as the abuse by American troops of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and complaints of detainee torture will be one focus of the study. HT to Neal R. Sonnett.

Scholarship: Yearbook of international humanitarian law

12/17/10: The latest volume of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (Vol. 12, 2009) is out. Contents include:

• Luis Moreno-Ocampo, The International Criminal Court: a reflection
• Adam Roberts, The civilian in modern war
• Ryan Goodman, Controlling the recourse to war by modifying jus in bello
• Dale Stephens, Blurring the lines: the interpretation, discourse and application of the Law of Armed Conflict
• Brian J. Bill, The Redulic ‘Rule’: military necessity, commander’s knowledge, and methods
of warfare
• Louise Arimatsu, Territory, boundaries and the Law of Armed Conflict

HT to International Law Reporter.

Palestinian pleads guilty in US weapons case

12/17/10: The Miami Herald reports that a Palestinian man has pleaded guilty in Miami to federal charges of conspiring to obtain stolen military weapons and transport explosives to the Middle East. Abdalaziz Aziz Hamayel, of the West Bank, faces up to five years in prison. Hamayel and an accomplice sought to obtain 300 automatic weapons including AK-47 and M-16 assault rifles, as well as silencers, grenades and explosives detonators. An undercover federal agent posed as a weapons broker to make the US case.

Scholarship: The philosophical foundations of extraterritorial punishment

12/17/10: International Law Reporter has posted the following scholarship by Alejandro Chehtman (University College London - Centre for International Courts and Tribunals): The Philosophical Foundations of Extraterritorial Punishment (Oxford Univ. Press 2010). Here's the abstract:

Why should a Spanish court take jurisdiction over an American lawyer accused of facilitating torture on Guantanamo Bay? What empowers a London magistrate to sign an arrest warrant for a former Chilean President? Can it be legitimate or morally defensible for an Israeli court to try a former Nazi whose crimes occurred outside Israel and indeed prior to the establishment of Israel? This book provides the first full account, explanation, and critique of extraterritorial punishment in international law.

Interpol warned of 'al-Qaeda plots' in US and Europe

12/17/10: BBC reports that Interpol has confirmed it has received information about possible attacks by al-Qaeda cells in the US and Europe. Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani earlier told the Associated Press that militants had confessed suicide attacks were planned for the Christmas period. Bolani did not specify which European countries were alleged targets, and there was no way to verify the confessions.

DC subway system to start random bag searches

12/17/10: The Miami Herald reports that authorities are going to start randomly inspecting bags entering DC subways in a program based on similar efforts in Boston and New York. Metro Transit Police Department Chief Michael Taborn said Thursday the inspections have been in the works for years, and are not a response to any particular threat. In recent months, authorities say the subway system has faced various threats.

Alleged underwear bomber to be arraigned on new charges

12/16/10: CNN reports that a Nigerian man accused of attempting to detonate an explosive device in his underwear aboard a flight to Detroit last Christmas is set to be arraigned on new charges Thursday in federal court. Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was indicted on two new counts -- conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and possession of an explosive device in furtherance of a crime of violence. Abdul Mutallab faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on the new charges and on six counts brought against him in early January.

State Department quadrennial diplomacy and development review (QDDR)

12/16/10: The State Department has released its first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR): Leading Through Civilian Power. Here is the press release:

The QDDR provides a blueprint for elevating American "civilian power" to better advance our national interests and to be a better partner to the US military. Leading through civilian power means directing and coordinating the resources of all America's civilian agencies to prevent and resolve conflicts; help countries lift themselves out of poverty into prosperous, stable, and democratic states; and build global coalitions to address global problems.

Forthcoming scholarship on national security law

12/16/10: Robert Chesney has posted the following forthcoming scholarship on international security law:

• “Still a Bad Idea: Military Commissions Under the Obama Administration”, David W. Glazier , Loyola Law School Los Angeles

• Journal of National Security Law & Policy, Volume 4 Issue #2 (2010)

• “The Principle of Proportionality Under International Humanitarian Law and Operation Cast Lead”, Robert Perry Barnidge Jr., University of Reading - School of Law

• "Use and Misuse of Evidence Obtained During Extraordinary Renditions: How Do We Avoid Diluting Fundamental Protections?" Victor Hansen, NSU Shepard Broad Law Center Research Paper

• "Scholars and Security,"Paul Bracken, Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 8, No. 4, p. 1095, 2010

Poll shows 63% favor military tribunals over civilian trials

12/16/10: Politico reports that a new Rasmussen poll finds 63 percent of Americans favor trying terror suspects in front of military commissions and just 23 percent think those trials should be in civilian courts. The survey comes as Attorney General Eric Holder is urging the Senate to drop a provision the House recently passed barring all transfers of Guantanamo prisoners to the US for any reason. The language was in a spending bill whose prospects are uncertain.

UN lifts Iraq nuclear weapons sanctions

12/15/10: The Miami Herald reports that the UN Security Council on Wednesday lifted sanctions that barred Iraq from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and pursuing a civilian nuclear program, in a symbolic step to restore the country to the international standing it held before Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq's constitution bars the country from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and the country is a party to the main nuclear, chemical, biological and missile treaties.

Clinton seeks to revamp diplomacy, development

12/15/10: The Miami Herald reports that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday will unveil plans to restore civilian diplomacy and development to its former role as the leading edge of American foreign policy. The proposals grow out of the findings of a Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review that Clinton ordered when she became secretary of state, and reflects the Obama administration's "smart power" approach to foreign policy stressing civilian over military operations.

Forthcoming scholarship on national security law

12/15/10: Robert Chesney has published "Who May Be Held? Military Detention Through the Habeas Lens":

We lack consensus regarding who lawfully may be held in military custody in the contexts that matter most to US national security today—i.e., counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. More to the point, federal judges lack consensus on this question. They have grappled with it periodically since 2002, and for the past three years have dealt with it continually in connection with the flood of habeas corpus litigation arising out of Guantanamo in the aftermath of the Supreme Court‘s 2008 decision in Boumediene v. Bush. Unfortunately, the resulting detention jurisprudence is shot through with disagreement on points large and small, leaving the precise boundaries of the government‘s detention authority unclear.

Mental evaluation for man accused of Metro threat

12/15/10: The Washington Times reports that a judge has ordered a mental evaluation for an Arlington man charged with making threats on Facebook to blow up the Washington area Metro system. Awais Younis was arrested last week on charges of communicating threats across state lines. Younis told an acquaintance on Facebook that he could use a pipe bomb to produce casualties on the Metro system and in DC's Georgetown neighborhood. The acquaintance alerted the FBI.

Scholarship: SSRN papers on national security law

12/14/10: The Social Sciences Research Network has posted the following papers on national security law:

    •    "The Architecture of Accountability: A Case Study of the Warrantless Surveillance Program", Kathleen Clark, Washington University School of Law:

This Article identifies mechanisms that help to hold the federal government’s executive branch accountable for complying with the law, and shows how claims of national security secrecy undermine the effectiveness of these accountability mechanisms.

    •    "The Sacrificial Yoo: Accounting for Torture in the OPR Report", David D. Cole, Georgetown University Law Center:

This essay critically reviews the Justice Department's report of its Office of Professional Responsibility on the “torture memos.”

    •    "Use and Misuse of Evidence Obtained During Extraordinary Renditions: How Do We Avoid Diluting Fundamental Protections?", Victor Hansen:

This article considers and questions the ways in which grand schemes of rights infringement such as extraordinary rendition can translate into specific but also corrosive questions of accommodation in the law of evidence.

HT to Neal R. Sonnett.

Event: American Society for International Law annual meeting

12/14/10: The 105th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law will take place March 23-26, 2011, in Washington, DC. The theme is "Harmony and Dissonance in International Law." The program is not yet available, but online registration is now open. HT to International Law Reporter.

Minerals found in consumer electronic devices help finance civil war in Congo

12/14/10: The Washington Post reports that profits from the multi-million dollar trade of minerals mined in Eastern Congo for use in electronic devices such as cellphones, laptops, and digital cameras contribute to financing the country's bloody war. Rebel groups and the national army control many of Eastern Congo's mines. Over the past decade, more than 5 million people have died, and hundreds of thousands of women have been raped in the struggle for power.

Japan to continue paying $2 billion for US troops

12/14/10: The Miami Herald reports that Japan's government agreed Tuesday to continue contributing $2.2 billion a year toward the cost of stationing American troops in the country. Japan had sought a cut in its payment during months of negotiations on the renewal because of economic woes. But officials agreed on no reduction after tensions on the Korean peninsula and worries over China's growing military might highlighted the US military's role as a deterrent for security threats.

Indonesian police arrest four more terror suspects

12/14/10: The Washington Post reports that Indonesian authorities have arrested four Islamist militants suspected of having links to a top terrorist suspect captured last week. The arrests resulted from information obtained from the interrogation of Abu Tholut, who was captured Friday in a raid on a home in Central Java. He identified the four as Anwar Effendi, Wardi, Sukirno, and Sri Puji Mulyo Siswanto. They are suspected of concealing information about terrorism and of hiding Tholut.

German police raid homes linked to Islamist groups

12/14/10: The Miami Herald reports that German authorities raided homes and religious schools connected to two radical Islamist groups with suspected terrorist links on Tuesday morning. The raids, in the western cities of Moenchengladbach, Braunschweig and Bremen, were aimed at Salafist groups Invitation to Paradise and Islamic Culture Center Bremen. In online videos, Invitation to Paradise has called for the execution of secular Muslims and demanded women never leave their homes without male chaperones. It has in particular attracted young Muslim immigrants and German converts.

Germany lays out goals for Security Council tenure

12/13/10: The Miami Herald reports that Germany's ambassador to the United Nations said Monday his country hopes to use its two-year tenure on the influential Security Council to focus on fighting terrorism, peace-building and bringing climate-related threats to the forefront. Peter Wittig also stressed Germany's aim of working together with fellow two-year Security Council member India to push for reforms that would include expanding the number of permanent council members, with hopes of securing a seat itself.

Stockholm hit by blasts after e-mail warning

12/12/10:  The New York Times reports that one man was killed and two other people were injured when two explosions hit the heart of Stockholm’s city-center shopping district on Saturday evening, the police in the Swedish capital said. The country’s foreign minister called the blasts a terrorist attack, and an e-mail to news organizations minutes before the blasts seemed to link them to anger over anti-Islamic cartoons and the war in Afghanistan.