Georgetown Security Law Brief

Cameron says Britain ‘resolute’ after attack

05/23/13:  The New York Times reports a day after an attack on an off-duty British soldier by two knife-wielding assailants, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that Britain would be “absolutely resolute” in confronting terrorism and that extremist assaults would “only bring us together.”  Mr. Cameron was speaking after leading the emergency Cobra committee, a group of cabinet ministers and high-level security officials that oversees the operations of police and security agencies during high security alerts. The attack raised new fears of terrorism when the soldier, walking near a military barracks in south London, was rammed by a car and then hacked to death. One of the men shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” during the attack, government officials said. Police officers shot and wounded the suspects. The British police said on Thursday that the victim, whose body was left in a road as one of his attackers gave an impromtpu interview to a passer-by, was a soldier. He was not identified by name. The police in Lincolnshire, 150 miles north of London, also said that a house had been searched in the town of Saxilby. After the attack, the wounded suspects were taken to separate hospitals under police guard, one in serious condition.

Drone strikes have killed four Americans since 2009

05/23/13: CNN reports counterterrorism drone strikes have killed four Americans overseas since 2009, the US government acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday, one day before President Barack Obama delivers a major speech on related policy. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Attorney General Eric Holder said the United States specifically targeted and killed one American citizen, al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, in 2011 in Yemen, alleging he was plotting attacks against the United States. The letter provided new details about al-Awlaki's alleged involvement in bomb plots targeting US aviation. Holder also said the Obama administration was aware of three other Americans who had been killed in counterterrorism operations overseas. Holder said Samir Kahn, Abdul Rahman Anwar al-Awlaki and Jude Kenan Mohammed were not targeted by the United States but he did not add more details about their deaths. The letter represents the first US admission that the four were killed in counterterror strikes even though their deaths had been reported in the media.

New database tracks 11,000 global rendition flights

05/23/13:  Phys.Org reports a new University-hosted database has tracked over 11,000 flights by more than 120 aircraft linked by past investigations to renditions. It also contains details of over 50 private companies contracted for or by the CIA in relation to rendition flights. The database is the latest addition to the Rendition Project, an online project designed to analyse the global system of rendition, secret detention and torture initiated by the US. The new database will enable users to search for, and visualise, underlying data contained within the Rendition Project via an interactive map showing rendition flights. Flight data underpinning the database is collated from over 40 separate sources. Launched in May 2012, the Rendition Project is part of wider research to collate and analyse huge amounts of data on the global rendition system. It is led by Dr Ruth Blakeley, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Kent's School of Politics and International Relations, and Dr Sam Raphael, Lecturer in Politics at Kingston University. They work closely with Reprieve, a UK-based legal action charity which has led the way in investigating secret prisons and representing victims of rendition and torture. The Rendition Flights Database, produced in collaboration with The Information Lab, a company specialising in this type of web tool, can be viewed here.

Man with ties to Tsarnaev killed by FBI officer in Florida

05/22/13:  The New York Times reports a man with ties to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect, was shot and killed by a law enforcement official in Orlando, Fla., as the FBI tried to interview him early Wednesday morning, according to a law enforcement official.  The man was identified as Ibragim Todashev, the official said. The FBI's Tampa field office released a short statement saying that it was “currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent” that had occurred in Orlando. “The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties,” the statement said. “The suspect is deceased. We do not have any further details at this time.” Early on Wednesday morning, officials at the FBI's headquarters in Washington dispatched a shooting-response unit to Florida to help investigators determine what had occurred, according to a law enforcement official. In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, the FBI has sought to speak with people who knew Mr. Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar, in an effort to learn how they were radicalized and to rule out the possibility that they had accomplices.

Debate aside, number of drone strikes drops sharply

05/22/13:  The New York Times reports President Obama embraced drone strikes in his first term, and the targeted killing of suspected terrorists has come to define his presidency. But lost in the contentious debate over the legality, morality and effectiveness of a novel weapon is the fact that the number of strikes has actually been in decline. Strikes in Pakistan peaked in 2010 and have fallen sharply since then; their pace in Yemen has slowed to half of last year’s rate; and no strike has been reported in Somalia for more than a year. In a long-awaited address on Thursday at the National Defense University, Mr. Obama will make his most ambitious attempt to date to lay out his justification for the strikes and what they have achieved. He may follow up on public promises, including one he made in his State of the Union speech in February to define a “legal architecture” for choosing targets, possibly shifting more strikes from the CIA to the military; explain how he believes that presidents should be “reined in” in their exercise of lethal power; and take steps to make a program veiled in secrecy more transparent.

Bin Laden’s son-in-law seeks a new lawyer

05/21/13:  The New York Times reports when a high-profile defendant in a terrorism case appeared last week before a federal judge in Manhattan, it seemed as if the entire bar association was there to represent him. The defendant, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who is Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, was brought to the United States to face trial on a charge of conspiring to kill Americans. When he was arraigned in March, his case was assigned to the public defender’s office, which has long experience in representing terrorism defendants. But Mr. Abu Ghaith has since said he wants to retain Mr. Cohen, an outspoken former Legal Aid Society lawyer with a gray ponytail, who has also handled many terrorism cases over the years. It is the kind of switch between lawyers that often occurs with little discussion. But the handoff in Mr. Abu Ghaith’s case has been complicated by the fact that Mr. Cohen is under federal indictment in Syracuse and under federal investigation in Manhattan, a judge said in court last week. Mr. Cohen said the investigations were related. The judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, took Mr. Abu Ghaith through a series of questions to make sure he understood the potential risks and ethical conflicts that might result from hiring Mr. Cohen, because of the lawyer’s own legal difficulties. Mr. Cohen was charged with obstructing the Internal Revenue Service and failing to file certain reports regarding cash transactions. He has pleaded not guilty.

New weapon in the terror tool kit? Encryption software blocks all eavesdropping

05/21/13:  The Washington Times reports a cheap new encryption technology for mobile phones completely blocks eavesdropping, even from warrant-wielding law enforcement agents – raising fears the technology could fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals. The software poses a growing problem that US law enforcement agencies call “going dark” – the spread of communications technologies that cannot be intercepted even with a warrant because agencies lack the technical capabilities. But experts say the feds’ proposed solution to get around the blackout – by legally mandating the insertion of “back doors” into such software to allow eavesdropping – creates an opening which could be exploited by hackers, online criminals or cyberspies. The issue is not unique to the United States. Intelligence and counter-terrorism officials in the United Kingdom are concerned about the new mobile phone application, called Seecrypt, according the London Mail on Sunday. The app provides individual users with military grade encryption — sending voice and text over the Internet in an a scrambled data stream that can only be deciphered by another user. The new application, which is free to download and will cost $3 a month, is made by a South African-based company, Porton Group, that boasts “we don’t comply” with such mandates, said CEO Harvey Boulter. The program does not have a “Legal Intercept” capability. Last year, the US company Silent Circle caused consternation in law enforcement circles when they launched a similar package here.

'Terrorist attack' in Moscow prevented

05/20/13:  The BBC reports Russian counter-terrorism agents have carried out a raid on a group planning a terrorist act in Moscow killing two suspects, officials say. Local media quoted the National Anti-Terrorism Committee as saying the group was located in a house in the town of Orekhovo-Zuyevo, east of the capital. A third suspect was held in the raid. One agent was slightly hurt. The suspects are said to be Russian citizens who had undergone training in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

Obama to speak on legality of drone program

05/20/13:  The Washington Times reports President Obama will discuss the legality of his administration’s secret drone program and other counterterrorism practices during a speech Thursday, a White House official said. Mr. Obama’s speech will be an attempt to fulfill his State of the Union pledge to be more “transparent” with the public about the controversial drone program that has become the centerpiece of the White House's efforts to combat terrorism. The official said Mr. Obama would also use Thursday’s address at the National Defense University to discuss efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The president had vowed to renew those efforts despite being thwarted in his attempts to close the prison during his first term. Civil liberties groups and an unusual coalition of Democratic and Republican lawmakers have criticized the White House for keeping most details of the drone program secret. Particularly concerning for these critics has been the administration’s rare use of drones to kill American citizens overseas. The administration is expected to increase its use of drones and other counterterrorism techniques as the war in Afghanistan winds to a close at the end of 2014 and the vast majority of US troops return home.

Colombia Farc rebels ask for 'more time' for peace deal

05/20/13:  The BBC reports Colombia's left-wing Farc rebels have rejected criticism that efforts to end almost fifty years of conflict are moving too slowly. Farc lead negotiator Ivan Marquez said achieving lasting peace in Colombia would take "more time". He spoke as the rebels and the Colombian government marked six months since peace talks began. President Juan Manuel Santos has said he hopes a deal can be reached within months rather than years. Peace negotiations began in Cuba in November. Mr Marquez told reporters in the capital, Havana, on Sunday that he did not understand why the pace of talks was being described as slow. Talks remain stalled over the issue of land redistribution in Colombia, the first of a five-point agenda. The Colombian government has promised to return millions of hectares of stolen land to displaced peasants, one of the rebels' main demands. But Bogota insists that the rebels must first put down their guns and cease hostilities.

Bombing kills key figure in northern Afghan province

05/20/13:  The New York Times reports a suicide bomber disguised as a police officer killed 14 people on Monday, including the head of a provincial council in northern Afghanistan, officials said. The head of the council, Rasul Mohseni, commonly known as Rasul Khan, was widely regarded as the most powerful man in Baghlan Province and was a veteran commander who had led northerners in revolt against the Taliban regime. He was killed along with four of his bodyguards and three police officers, as well as six civilians, according to Zubair Akbari, the province’s director of public health. Nine other people were wounded. Mr. Mohseni, who was viewed as more powerful than either Baghlan’s governor or its police chief, had been accused of quietly rearming militia fighters in the north in case the Taliban again proved to be a threat. His brother Mustafa Mohseni is an Afghan general, and another brother, Azim Mohseni, is an influential member of Parliament. They were all prominent members of the Jamiat-i-Islami party, formerly led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was assassinated in 2011 by a Taliban suicide bomber pretending to be a peace emissary.

Nigeria army's offensive to continue "as long as it takes"

05/19/13:  The BBC reports  Nigeria's army has vowed to continue its offensive against militants in the north-east "as long as it takes" to achieve its main objectives. Brig Gen Chris Olukolade told the BBC the aim was to assert Nigeria's "territorial integrity as a nation". Earlier, a 24-hour curfew was imposed in parts of the city of Maiduguri, where the military said it had arrested 65 "terrorists". Maiduguri has been an important base for Boko Haram Islamist militants. Earlier this week, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three north-eastern states - Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe - after a series of deadly attacks by militant groups.  Nigerian military spokesman Brig Gen Olukolade said the army would continue its operation "as long as it takes to achieve our objective of getting rid of insurgents from every part of Nigeria". Earlier, an army statement named 12 areas of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, which would now be under permanent curfew.

Blasts kill dozens of Iraqis as sectarian tensions boil

05/18/13:  The New York Times reports at least 66 people were killed in bomb blasts in Iraq on Friday, officials said, making it one of the bloodiest days this year as the country struggles to contain spiraling sectarian violence.  Two bombs exploded in Baquba, the capital of Diyala Province, a turbulent region whose population is a mix of Sunni and Shiite Muslims. One of the bombs exploded at the edge of a bridge near a Sunni mosque where worshipers had gathered for Friday Prayer. Within minutes, after a crowd of people ran to help the wounded, another bomb exploded in their midst. Officials said 40 people were killed and 46 were wounded in the two blasts. The Saraya mosque, where the blasts took place, is one of the main mosques where Sunnis in Baquba pray and hear speeches to support protests in Anbar and other Sunni provinces calling for change in the Shiite-dominated government.

Gunmen assassinate Yemeni colonel

05/18/13:  Reuters reports gunmen shot dead a senior Yemeni military intelligence officer who had been targeted for assassination by al Qaeda-linked militants, a local security official said. Colonel Abdullah al-Rabaki was walking home in the city of Mukalla in Hadramawt Province late on Friday when the gunmen shot him six times with a revolver fitted with a silencer, the official said. They escaped on a motorbike. Leaflets from Islamist militants allied to al Qaeda had previously been circulated in the city on Yemen's south coast, calling for Rabaki's assassination, the official said. Tackling lawlessness in Yemen, which lies near important oil shipment routes and flanks the world's biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, is an international priority for the United States and other Western countries. It is home to an al Qaeda wing that has planned international bomb plots. More than 60 army and security officers have been assassinated in the country's southern provinces in the past two years as government forces attempt to wrestle back control of areas seized by militants during the chaos of the Arab Spring. As well as battling an Islamist insurgency in the south, the government faces a southern separatist movement and a revolt among some tribes in the impoverished country's north.

Debating the legal basis for the War on Terror

05/17/13:  The New York Times reports a top Pentagon official said Thursday that the evolving war against Al Qaeda was likely to continue “at least 10 to 20 years” and urged Congress not to modify the statute that provides its legal basis. “As of right now, it suits us very well,” Michael A. Sheehan, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, said, referring to the “authorization to use military force,” often referred to as the AUMF, enacted by Congress in 2001. The statute authorized war against the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and those who harbored them — that is, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Lawmakers are considering enacting a new authorization, because the original Qaeda network has been largely decimated, while the current threat is increasingly seen as arising from terrorist groups in places like Yemen that share Al Qaeda’s ideology but have no connection to the 2001 attacks. That possibility has elicited a decidedly mixed reaction. Human rights groups that want to see the 12-year-old military conflict wind down fear that a new authorization would create an open-ended “forever war.” Some supporters of continuing the wartime approach to terrorism indefinitely fear that the war’s legal basis is eroding and needs to be bolstered, while others worry that a new statute might contain limits that would reduce the power that the Obama administration claims it already wields under the 2001 version.

Justice Department lost track of terrorists, report says

05/17/13:  The New York Times reports the Justice Department temporarily lost track of two former terrorists who had participated in its witness protection program and until recently did not disclose the fictitious identities it created for terrorism-linked witnesses to the agency that generates watch lists, allowing some who were on the no-fly list to take commercial flights under their new names, according to a new report. A public summary of the classified report, issued Thursday by the office of the Justice Department’s independent inspector general, Michael Horowitz, revealed that the internal watchdog raised alarms with senior department officials in early 2012 about how the witness protection program was dealing with terrorism-related witnesses, leading to an overhaul of its procedures. In a response to the report, Armando Bonilla, a senior counsel in the office of the deputy attorney general, said that department officials agreed that terrorism-related witnesses needed greater monitoring and that changes had been put in place, including a ban on commercial flights for all participants who had a “no-fly” status under their real names. But he also defended the use of the program for terrorism cases, saying that it had been key in securing cooperation from witnesses necessary for successful prosecutions, that no “terrorism-linked witness ever has committed a single act of terrorism after entering the program” and that an FBI review of participants revealed none who posed a threat to national security.

Turkey arrests four over bombings near Syrian border

05/16/13:  Reuters reports four suspects were arrested in Turkey late on Wednesday in connection with car bombings that killed 51 people in a town near the Syrian border at the weekend, state-run Anatolian news agency reported. The two bomb blasts in Reyhanli fanned fears that Syria's civil war is dragging in neighboring states. Damascus has denied Turkish allegations it was involved in the blasts. Turkish prosecutors sent eight suspects to a court in the southern city of Adana after questioning and the court released four, remanding the other four in custody, the agency said. It was not clear what charges they were facing. A total of 17 people have been detained in connection with the attacks and police were continuing to question the remaining suspects.

White House releases Benghazi emails, documents

05/16/13:  The Washington Times reports the White House released more than 100 pages of e-mails Wednesday in an effort to quiet criticism that President Obama and his aides downplayed the role of terrorism in the deadly attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya The documents detail discussions between top administration officials on developing “talking points” to describe the attack last Sept. 11 that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The CIA originally drafted those talking points, and Republican lawmakers have said the administration scrubbed the memos to remove any references to a terrorist attack. In the early days and weeks following the attack, the administration portrayed it as a mob assault fueled by protests about an anti-Islam video. But in the CIA’s original set of talking points, the first bullet point included a reference that the Benghazi attack was “spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US consulate and subsequently its annex.” It said the agency’s assessments could change “as additional information is collected and analyzed.” The second bullet point said the Benghazi assailants were “a mix of individuals from across many sections of Libyan society.”

Attack on US military vehicles kills at least 16 in Kabul

05/16/13:  The New York Times reports a Toyota Corolla packed with explosives rammed a pair of American military vehicles in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday, setting off a blast that killed at least 16 people, including 6 American military advisers, and shook the relative calm that has prevailed for months in the city, Afghan officials said. The explosion was powerful enough to rattle windows across the city. It left bodies strewn along the street and one of the American vehicles – an armored Chevrolet Suburban that weighed nearly five tons – lying in ruins more than 30 feet from the blast site. A witness called it a “dreadful scene.” Hezb-i-Islami, a relatively small insurgent faction that often competes with the Taliban for influence, took credit for the attack, which also wounded more than three dozen Afghans. Haroon Zarghon, the group’s spokesman, reached by telephone in Pakistan, said the bombing was carried out by a 24-year-old who grew up south of Kabul. It was the first significant attack in months on a Western target in Kabul, despite repeated efforts by insurgents to launch a major strike in the city..

Commentary: Daskal and Vladeck working paper on "After the AUMF"

05/15/13: Lawfare has this post, which links to a working paper authored by our own fellow Jennifer Daskal and Professor Steve Vladeck.  The paper - which is available here - is a more comprehensive effort to explain the authors' view that proposals for an expanded, open-ended Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), from whatever quarter and with whatever caveats, are unneccessary, counterproductive, and unwise. Instead, we offer out an alternative vision for the next generation of U.S. counterterrorism policy—one in which law enforcement and intelligence-gathering capabilities, with the backstop of self-defense authorities, are the baseline. We hope that this is an approach that Congress will take seriously if and when it decides to revisit the AUMF.  As this is an early draft of the paper, Profs. Daskal and Vladeck both (1) welcome comments of all shapes and sizes (whether online or via e-mail); and (2) beg readers’ indulgence for typos or other early-draft indiscretions.

Arrests and calls for calm in Turkey

05/14/13:  The New York Times reports Turkish officials said Sunday that they had arrested nine people accused of carrying out twin bombings in this town near the Syrian border the day before, as the investigation moved at a clip that underscored the intense pressure on the government to contain the fallout from the attacks.  Officials said the detainees were all Turkish citizens and asserted that the group had been backed by the intelligence services of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Anxieties were high in Turkey’s ethnically and religiously mixed southern border region, where some saw the bombings — which killed 46 and injured more than 100 — as a menacing consequence of the government’s strong support for Syria’s rebels. Officials’ repeated calls for calm reflected fears not only of the conflict’s spreading across the border, but also of the contagion of its sectarian fighting, with massacres and forced relocations compounding the horrors of the war. Turkey, like Syria’s other neighbors, is increasingly worried that the conflict will inflame border areas, where tensions among various groups are deepening amid the flood of traumatized Syrian refugees.

Egypt 'al-Qaeda linked plot on Western embassy' foiled

05/11/13:  The BBC reports Egyptian police have arrested three al-Qaeda militants planning a suicide attack on a Western embassy, the country's interior minister says. Mohammed Ibrahim did not specify which embassy had been targeted, but said a quantity of chemicals had been found. Mr Ibrahim gave the names of three men and said they were planning attacks in both Cairo and Alexandria. The plot was said to be in its final stages, he said. At a news conference, the minister gave details about the discovery of 10kg (22lbs) of explosive material, a computer with files containing information on bomb-making and a flash memory with instructions on how to build rockets. "The interior ministry was able to direct a qualitative blow to a terrorist cell which was planning to carry out suicide attacks against vital, important and foreign establishments," Mr Ibrahim told reporters. One of the three suspects had been in touch with al-Qaeda in Algeria and had travelled to Iran and Pakistan for training, he said. All three men, described as jihadists, had been in touch with an al-Qaeda militant in Pakistan as well as another in the Sinai peninsula, he said.

FBI Says Data About Probe Of Bombing Suspect Was Shared

05/10/13:  NPR reports Boston Police Chief Edward Davis told Congress on Thursday that before the Boston Marathon bombings, his department wasn't aware the FBI had questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev in recent years about whether he had been in contact with Muslim extremists in Dagestan. As far as he knew, Davis said, the FBI did not share that information with local authorities. The chief conceded that even if his department had known, that might not have prevented the April 15 blasts at the Boston Marathon — which the now-deceased Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzohkhar, are accused of carrying out. Later on Thursday, the FBI's Boston Division released a statement from Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers in which he says the bureau's "assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev" was entered into a database which representatives of the Boston Police can access.

Tunisian is accused of proposing contamination of water or air in US

05/10/13:  The New York Times reports a Tunisian man has been accused of seeking to develop a terrorist network in the United States and of proposing to poison the water or air to kill up to 100,000 people, federal prosecutors said in court papers unsealed on Thursday. The man, Ahmed Abassi, 26, who came to the United States from Canada in March and was arrested last month at Kennedy International Airport, told the authorities that he may also have “radicalized” one of two men arrested recently in Canada in an elleged Qaeda-linked plot to derail a passenger train. Mr. Abassi was arraigned on May 2 in a sealed court proceeding before a federal judge in Manhattan. A prosecutor asked at the time that the case remain secret for one week to determine whether Mr. Abassi would be “in a cooperative posture with the government,” a transcript shows. The government has not said whether Mr. Abassi agreed to cooperate, and Mr. Abassi’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment. She did say that her client “flatly denies the accusations in the indictment.” On Thursday, Mr. Abassi appeared again in court, this time in public, and the judge, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, had the court papers and transcript of the May 2 hearing unsealed.

Pakistan election: Sharif 'would end' war on terror role

05/09/13:  The BBC reports the man tipped to be Pakistan's next prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has said he would end the country's involvement in the US-led war on terror if elected. Mr Sharif told the BBC that the move was necessary for there to be peace in Pakistan and elsewhere in the world. Pakistan has been part of the US-led fight against Islamist militancy in the region since the 9/11 attacks. Voters in Pakistan are due to go to the polls on 11 May following an election run-up marred by violence. It is the first time in the country's history that an elected government will hand over power to another elected government. The remarks by Mr Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), may cause concern among Western leaders, the BBC's Orla Guerin reports from Islamabad. They fear it could lead to militants having greater freedom to operate in Pakistan, as foreign troops prepare to leave Afghanistan in 2014. One of the key questions for the West is how Pakistan's next prime minister will tackle militants on home soil, our correspondent says. Asked whether he would take Pakistan out of the war on terror, Mr Sharif said: "Yes, we have to." But he declined to say whether he would stop military operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The business magnate, who served as Pakistan's prime minister twice in the 1990s, said he wanted to work with other countries to find a lasting peace in the region. Meanwhile, there was further violence on Wednesday ahead of the elections. At least three people were killed and about 25 injured - including six policemen - in a suicide bombing outside a police station in the Bannu region of north-western Pakistan on Wednesday.

 

Bodies pour in as Nigeria hunts for Islamists

05/08/13:  The New York Times reports a fresh load of battered corpses arrived, 29 of them in a routine delivery by the Nigerian military to the hospital morgue here. Unexpectedly, three bodies started moving. “They were not properly shot,” recalled a security official here. “I had to call the J.T.F.” — the military’s joint task force — “and they gunned them down.” It was a rare oversight. Large numbers of bodies, sometimes more than 60 in a day, are being brought by the Nigerian military to the state hospital, according to government, health and security officials, hospital workers and human rights groups — the product of the military’s brutal war against radical Islamists rooted in this northern city. The corpses were those of young men arrested in neighborhood sweeps by the military and taken to a barracks nearby. Accused, often on flimsy or no evidence, of being members or supporters of Boko Haram — the Islamist militant group waging a bloody insurgency against the Nigerian state — the detainees are beaten, starved, shot and even suffocated to death, say the officials, employees and witnesses. Then, soldiers bring the bodies to the hospital and dump them at the morgue, officials and workers say. The flood is so consistent that the small morgue at the edge of the hospital grounds often has no room, with corpses flung by the military in the sand around it. Residents say they sometimes have to flee the neighborhood because of the fierce smell of rotting flesh. From the outset of the battle between Boko Haram and the military, a dirty war on both sides that has cost nearly 4,000 lives since erupting in this city in 2009, security forces have been accused of extrajudicial killings and broad, often indiscriminate roundups of suspects and sympathizers in residential areas.        

Kurdish PKK rebels 'begin leaving Turkey' after truce

05/08/13:  The BBC reports Kurdish rebel fighters have begun leaving south-eastern Turkey for their safe havens in Iraq under a ceasefire, Kurdish sources say. "We know that they have started moving," Selahattin Demirtas, a pro-Kurdish politician involved in the peace process, told AFP news agency. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced last month a phased withdrawal to start early in May. More than 40,000 people have died in their 30-year fight against Turkey. There was no immediate official confirmation of the move from Turkey but an unnamed security source told Reuters news agency: "We have observed movement among [PKK] group members, but have not been able to establish whether this is regrouping or preparation for a withdrawal." The PKK is believed to have up to 2,000 fighters inside Turkey and their full withdrawal may take up to four months. They are expected to cross the border on foot, heading for their bases in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq. Abdullah Ocalan, the veteran PKK leader in prison in Turkey, ordered the withdrawal in March as part of peace negotiations with Ankara.

Two Iranians found guilty of Kenya terror plot

05/04/13:  The BBC reports a Kenyan court has found two Iranian men guilty of plotting to attack Western targets inside Kenya. Ahmed Mohammed and Sayed Mansour were caught with 15 kilos (33 pounds) of explosives in the capital, Nairobi, last June. They are accused of belonging to a terror network planning to blow up British, US or Israeli targets in Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa. The pair, who deny all charges, face up to 15 years in prison. Judges ruled that both men had been proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt of all terror-related charges. Prosecutors said the suspects had explosives "in circumstances that indicated they were armed with the intent to commit a felony, namely, acts intended to cause grievous harm". Swift action by the Kenyan police in apprehending the men had averted mayhem and a massive number of deaths, the court magistrate said. The two Iranians arrived in Kenya on 12 June last year and travelled to Mombasa to pick up the powerful explosive RDX. They were arrested a week later in Nairobi. Officers discovered the explosives hidden at a golf course in Mombasa. Another accomplice was still at large, police said.

Terror watch list grows to 875,000

05/04/13:  The Washington Times reports the number of names in a secret US database of suspected terrorists has swollen to 875,000 from 540,000 only five years ago, in part because of rule changes introduced after al Qaeda's failed underwear bomb plot in 2009. The new figures were released Friday by the US National Counterterrorism Center, which manages the database, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE. A senior intelligence official explained the changes to The Washington Times.  US intelligence and law enforcement agencies have software tools for sorting through the data to find what they need, the official said, “They use the database every day and get the results they desire.” As of December 2012, a factsheet from the center states, TIDE contained over 875,000 entries. Each one represents a known or suspected terrorist and includes all their known aliases and spelling variations on their name, the official said. Less than one percent, or fewer than 9,000, were Americans, including both citizens and legal permanent residents, he said, adding the center does not release exact numbers.

FBI says okay to continue questioning terrorism suspect who asks for lawyer

05/01/13: Politico reports the FBI says its agents are on solid legal ground if they continue to question a terrorism suspect who has asked for an attorney, as they reportedly did with Boston Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  The February 2011 article by Carl Benoit, a lawyer and FBI Academy instructor, points to two federal appeals court rulings that concluded such questioning was constitutional and that evidence obtained as a result could be used in court.  The article appeared in the Law Enforcement Bulletin, an FBI publication aimed at “the larger policing community.”  The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Tsarnaev “asked several times for a lawyer, but that request was ignored.”  DOJ’s current policy on questioning terror suspects without Miranda warnings does not give explicit guidance, at least publicly, about how to proceed if a suspect invokes his right to counsel.

DNI supports review of intelligence on alleged Marathon bomber Tsarnaev

05/01/13: CNN reports Director of National Intelligence James Clapper believes an independent review of how the government handled its investigation of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev prior to the attack is a prudent step “to ensure that nothing was missed.”  Clapper spokeswoman Shawn Turner said the DNI believes all of the agencies involved in collecting and sharing information “took all the appropriate steps,” but that the Intelligence Community inspector general, a watchdog that investigates risks, vulnerabilities, and deficiencies within sixteen intelligence-related agencies and departments across the government will lead a review.  Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with Boston police days after the April 15 bombings.  His brother Dzhokhar, also a suspect, remains in custody and has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah warns of further involvement in Syria

05/01/13: The New York Times reports Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah edged closer on Tuesday to acknowledging that the powerful Lebanese Shi‘ite organization’s fighters were battling rebels in neighboring Syria, threatening to drag Lebanon deeper into that conflict.  Nasrallah warned in a televised speech that Hezbollah could become more deeply involved in the future, and warned that Syria had “real friends” who would not allow it “to fall into the hands” of America or Israel.  As President Obama faces questions about whether the Syrian government has crossed what his administration has called the “red line” of using chemical weapons in the conflict, Nasrallah sketched some red lines of his own.  He warned of “very serious repercussions” if rebels destroyed or damaged the shrine of Sayida Zeinab, a revered pilgrimage site for many Muslims near Damascus.

Obama renews call to close Guantanamo

05/01/13: The Washington Times reports President Obama Tuesday vowed to redouble his efforts to close the US detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.  “I don’t want these individuals to die,” the President said of detainees currently on a hunger strike.  “Obviously, the Pentagon is trying to manage the situation as best as they can.  All of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this.  Why are we doing this?”  He decried the US policy of holding the suspects without trial “in a no-man’s land” in perpetuity.  “That is contrary to who we are, it is contrary to our interests, and it needs to stop.”  Congress has blocked efforts to move detainees to the United States, even though the Government has tried and convicted other terrorism suspects on US soil without incident.

DOJ asks court to shut down suit over Afghan war memoir

05/01/13: The Blog of Legal Times reports the Justice Department has renewed its effort to shut down a lawsuit in Washington over the scope of information a former US defense intelligence officer can publish in a memoir about service in the war in Afghanistan.  DOJ lawyers said in court papers filed April 26 that the government has determined that some of the details in the book, Operation Dark Heart, written by Anthony Shaffer, are classified and cannot be publicly disclosed.  “[T]here is no First Amendment right to publish classified information,” DOJ lawyer Scott Risner wrote.  Shaffer’s book, DOJ said, reveals “intelligence activities, sources and methods, as well as information about military plans and the foreign activities of the United States that … could reasonably be expected to cause serious identifiable damage to our national security.”

Massacre in Nigeria spurs outcry over military tactics

04/30/13:  The New York Times reports days later, the survivors’ faces tensed at the memory of the grim evening: soldiers dousing thatched-roof homes with gasoline, setting them on fire and shooting residents when they tried to flee. As the village went up in smoke, one said, a soldier threw a child back into the flames. Even by the scorched-earth standards of the Nigerian military’s campaign against Islamist insurgents stalking the nation’s north, what happened on the muddy shores of Lake Chad this month appears exceptional. The village, Baga, found itself in the cross hairs of Nigerian soldiers enraged by the killing of one of their own, said survivors who fled here to the capital of Borno State, 100 miles south. Their home had paid a heavy price: as many as 200 civilians, maybe more, were killed during the military’s rampage, according to refugees, senior relief workers, civilian officials and human rights organizations. The apparent size of the civilian death toll — staunchly denied by Nigerian military officials, some of whom blame the insurgent group, Boko Haram, for the carnage — has prompted an unusual uproar. Though heavy civilian casualties are routine in the military’s confrontation with Boko Haram, with dozens dying in poor neighborhoods since 2010 as the army searches for “suspects,” Nigeria’s politicians usually have little to say about them. Past massacres of civilians in retaliation for soldier deaths have passed largely with impunity. This time, there have been calls in Nigeria’s national assembly for an investigation, and the government has come under harsh criticism at home and abroad, including the United States. The military has said it has begun its own inquiry, and some longstanding observers of the country’s heavy-handed fight against Islamist militants say a tipping point may have been reached. But in a country where corruption abounds and accountability is rare, others wondered whether it would truly become a watershed moment — or get brushed aside as an unfortunate side effect of fighting a dangerous insurgency.

PKK to withdraw from Turkey

04/25/13:  The BBC reports the military leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Murat Karayilan, has said fighters will begin to withdraw from Turkey on 5 May. "The withdrawal is planned in phases... and will be completed as soon as possible," he said at a news conference in the Kandil mountains, northern Iraq. It follows a call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for a ceasefire. More than 40,000 people have died in the 30-year fight for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in Turkey's south-east. More than 50 journalists from Turkish and foreign media outlets were taken from the regional capital, Irbil, to the briefing and had their mobile phones confiscated. No television crews were given access.

Drone strikes turn allies into enemies, Yemeni says

04/25/13:  The New York Times reports a Yemeni man who studied at an American high school told Congress on Tuesday that a drone strike on his village in Yemen last week terrified his neighbors, turning them against the United States in a way that terrorist propaganda had failed to do. The man, Farea al-Muslimi, said his friends and neighbors used to know of the United States primarily through “my stories of the wonderful experiences I had” here. “Now, however, when they think of America, they think of the fear they feel at the drones over their heads. What the violent militants had failed to achieve, one drone strike accomplished in an instant.” A man killed in the strike was well known locally, Mr. Muslimi also asserted, and could easily have been arrested by Yemeni forces.   His testimony, before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, was part of a rare public hearing on the use of drones. The Obama administration did not send anyone to testify at the hearing, but witnesses included legal specialists, a retired Air Force colonel who formerly worked with drones, and retired Gen. James E. Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The topics discussed included the number of civilians inadvertently killed in the strikes, whether there should be a secret court to approve who becomes a target, and legal issues raised by the killing of American citizens who are deemed to be terrorists. Several witnesses said the government should be more open and clear about the standards and procedures it uses in selecting who should be targeted. But some also stressed that legally, a drone strike is no different from other means of lethal force, like artillery, a commando raid or a cruise missile. 

Congress’s war crimes power at issue

04/25/13:  The SCOTUS Blog reports after pondering the issue for more than a month, the DC Circuit Court voted on Tuesday to review anew Congress’s power to create new war crimes that apply to alleged terrorist acts that occurred even before those laws were enacted.  In ordering en banc review in the case of a Yemeni national held at Guantanamo Bay, the Circuit Court nullified a Circuit panel decision in January overturning three war crimes convictions of that individual. The coming decision by the seven-judge Circuit Court almost certainly will be appealed to the Supreme Court, by whoever loses at the Circuit Court, and that could lead to a major new ruling on the powers of the special military commissions that have had a troubled seven-year history at the US military prison on the island of Cuba. The rehearing order came in the case of Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul, who has been described by military prosecutors as a propagandist for the late terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden.  He was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted by a military tribunal of providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, and soliciting others to do so. Although the en banc Circuit Court will be reviewing the government case involving Bahlul, the actual target of its review will be a decision by a different panel of the Circuit Court last October, in the case of another Yemeni national — Salim Ahmed Hamdan, often described by prosecutors as a driver for Osama bin Laden.  It was in overturning Hamdan’s conviction on a “material support” charge that the Circuit Court narrowed the powers of military commissions to try crimes that did not exist in U.S. or international law at the time of the conduct charged as criminal.  It was on the basis of that ruling that the Circuit Court wiped out Bahlul’s convictions, leading the Obama administration to ask for en banc review in early March. In ordering further review of Congress’s power to define war crimes, the Circuit Court told lawyers not only to brief and argue the issues that had been decided by the Hamdan panel, but also two new issues: whether the detainees at Guantanamo Bay are protected by the Constitution’s Ex Post Facto Clause, which generally bars prosecuting someone for a crime when the act was not a crime at the time it occurred; and whether the crime of conspiracy allegedly committed by Bahlul did violate international law concept at the time of his conduct.

Suspected Iran link in Canadian rail plot puzzles terror experts

04/25/13:  CNN reports the Canadian announcement on Monday that they had thwarted a plot to attack a rail link between Canada and the United States has puzzled some terrorism experts, because Iranian authorities are widely seen as hostile to al Qaeda. Iran has denied the conspiracy could have been plotted from its territory. Canadian officials say they did not think the alleged conspirators were "state-sponsored" but suspect al Qaeda elements in Iran had provided two men in Canada with direction, guidance and information. As CNN National Security analyst Peter Bergen noted, "If these allegations are true, it would appear to be the first time that al Qaeda elements based in Iran have directed some kind of plot in the West." While Western intelligence agencies have long thought that al Qaeda operatives are present on Iranian soil, they were thought to be under some form of house arrest and under strict control. Many al Qaeda sympathizers and members took refuge in Iran in the aftermath of the post 9/11 invasion of Afghanistan, including one son of Osama bin Laden, Saad bin Laden, and a son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. Abu Ghaith left Iran in February this year and entered Turkey, but was subsequently arrested in Jordan and flown to the United States in March. But Iran has become increasingly hostile to al Qaeda as it has become a Sunni sectarian group, especially in Iraq and Syria, as much as an anti-western outfit. But the United States says there appears to have been some tactical co-operation between the Islamic Republic and al Qaeda. In 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Iran of a "secret deal with al-Qa'ida allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory." Another aspect of the alleged Canadian plot is that it underlines the enduring interest of al Qaeda and its supporters in attacking railroad systems, seeing such operations as relatively cheap and easy to carry out -- with potentially devastating results.

 

New York judge sentences bin Laden secretary to life

04/25/13:  The Miami Herald reports a former personal secretary to Osama bin Laden got a strong rebuke from a judge on Tuesday as he was sentenced to life in prison for a second time after claiming the Sept. 11 attacks and Superstorm Sandy were "God's punishment" for injustice by the United States against him and others. "You, sir, in my judgment, are a committed terrorist who has betrayed his country," U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told Wadih El-Hage after listening to the claims of the Lebanese-born man who became a US citizen. El-Hage said he was treated unjustly before his 2001 conviction in the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The attacks killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans. The judge said a life sentence was necessary in part because El-Hage, 52, was "quite likely to engage in or further terrorist activities against this country in this district until your last breath, if you were ever released." He also re-imposed a $33.8 million restitution order, saying $7 million would go to the families of victims and the rest to the U.S. government. El-Hage was convicted in 2001 of conspiracy and other charges and was sentenced to life in prison. A federal appeals court in Manhattan ordered a resentencing after El-Hage argued that the federal sentencing guidelines under which he was sentenced were no longer mandatory.

Boston bombing suspect faces civilian court, not ‘enemy combatant’ status

04/23/13:  The Washington Times reports federal prosecutors charged suspected bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Monday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the deadly attack on the Boston Marathon, as the Obama adminstration opted for a civilian court with a possible death sentence over dubbing him an “enemy combatant” for investigative reasons. Tsarnaev is conscious and responded to questions from authorities in writing, but the criminal complaint shed no light on the motive of the attack. An affidavit in the case by FBI agent Daniel R. Genck said Tsarnaev was seen using a cellphone after placing a knapsack on the ground at the second explosion site and that he was calm when the first explosion triggered chaos around him. The charges were filed exactly one week after the deadly explosions, which survivors, residents and state officials remembered with a moment of silence across Boston.  White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration had no choice but to charge Tsarnaev in federal court. He said US citizens cannot be tried by military tribunals, adding that since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the federal court system has been used to convict and incarcerate hundreds of terrorists. Tsarnaev became a naturalized US citizen on Sept. 11 last year.  Mr. Grahan agrees that Tsarnaev isn’t eligible for a military tribunal because he was not caught on a foreign battlefield.

Commentary: Small Cells vs. Big Data: Can information dominance crush terrorism?

04/23/13:  Foreign Policy posted an article by John Arquilla discussing terrorism and big data. The fundamental dynamic of the Cold War was an arms race to build nuclear weapons; conflict today is primarily driven by an "organizational race" to build networks. Terrorists, insurgents, and other militants focus on the creation of dispersed cells -- most comprised of just handfuls of operatives -- pursuing common goals, but without central controls. Intelligence, law enforcement, and military organizations strive to network their information flows, the aim being to mine "big data" to illuminate enemy cells, then to use this knowledge to eliminate them. In Boston last week, both aspects of this organizational race were evident -- the small cell and big data -- and both had their innings. Opposed to this new terrorist trend are the rising informational networks of many countries that hinge upon the sustained effort to unmask small cells and preempt them before they can strike. These counterterror networks have been doing pretty well, and to date have prevented about 20 major terrorist attacks -- not least two recent ones involving cells comprised of North Caucasians that were aiming to hit Americans at Naval Station Rota, in Spain, and British targets at Gibraltar. Yes, a small cell did pull off an attack in Boston last week, but massive flows of shared information swiftly identified the malefactors and brought them down. One and done. If this is how matters will play out, terrorist networks will be in big trouble because of the power of big data. And when one adds in the losses to the small-cell network due to preemptions before some of these cells can mount a single attack, terrorist prospects look even worse.

Car explodes outside French Embassy in Libya

04/23/13:  The New York Times reports the explosion of a car parked outside the French Embassy in Libya wounded two French guards on Tuesday in what appeared to be the first major terrorist attack on a diplomatic compound in the capital since the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011. If deliberate, the blast would be the most significant such attack on a diplomatic facility in Libya since a siege of an American outpost in Benghazi last September, in which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed. A string of more minor attempted attacks on Western or United Nations diplomats began before that attack and has continued since then, although mostly outside the capital. No one claimed responsibility Tuesday, following the pattern of earlier attacks. But Libyans immediately suspected militant Islamists angry over the French intervention in Mali, where French troops are supporting government efforts to oppose Islamic militants in the north of the country. The assault came a day after the French Parliament voted to extend the French military deployment there. In the months since French soldiers landed in Mali in January to roll back an attempted takeover by hard-line Islamists, militants in Libya and around the region have denounced the invasion as a new imperialist adventure by the Mali’s former colonial ruler.

Spain holds two North African 'al-Qaeda suspects'

04/23/13:  The BBC reports Spanish police have arrested two North African suspects thought to be linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. An Algerian identified as Nou Mediouni was arrested in Zaragoza, northern Spain, the interior ministry said. The other suspect, a Moroccan named Hassan El Jaaouani, was arrested in Murcia in the south. They have "a similar profile to the two suspects who carried out the Boston attacks", the ministry said. French police had helped to track them down. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is among several Islamist groups fighting French and West African troops in Mali. It has its roots in the bitter Algerian civil war of the early 1990s, but in 2007 it emerged as an international jihadist group linked to Osama Bin Laden's network. AQIM says its aim is to spread Islamic law and it is known for kidnapping Westerners and extracting ransoms. It is not clear whether the pair arrested in Spain are suspected of planning any attacks. Their similarity to the Boston marathon bombers was not explained in the ministry statement. Moroccan Islamists linked to al-Qaeda were found guilty of the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 1,800.

Two are accused in Canada of plotting train derailment

04/23/13: The New York Times reports the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Monday announced the arrest of two men who are accused of planning to derail a passenger train in an Al Qaeda-linked plot. The police, saying the investigation was continuing, offered little in the way of details or evidence at a news conference in Toronto. Canadian politicians and government officials were similarly reticent. Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said that the two suspects had received “direction and guidance” from “Al Qaeda elements living in Iran,” but that there was no evidence that the effort had been sponsored by the government of Iran. He declined to explain how the link to Al Qaeda had been made. The suspects were identified as Chiheb Esseghaier, 35, who has been living in Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 30, of Toronto. The police said the men were not Canadian citizens, but declined to identify their nationalities or to describe their immigration status in Canada. Chief Superintendent Jennifer Strachan said the two men had studied train movements and rail lines in and around Toronto, and had been plotting to attack a train operated by Via Rail Canada, the government-owned rail system, within Canada. The police emphasized that the public had never been in “imminent danger.” Officials said that the suspects had been under constant observation and that contingency plans had been made. Both the police and David Jacobson, the United States ambassador to Canada, indicated that the FBI and other American law enforcement and intelligence agencies were involved in the investigation. No one, however, offered any specifics about that involvement or indicated if the plot had a cross-border element.

Boston bombs: Tsarnaev brothers 'planned more attacks'

04/23/13:  The BBC reports the brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon were probably planning further attacks, the city's police commissioner has said. Ed Davis told CBS News that Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been carrying homemade bombs and grenades which they threw at police when cornered. A top US interrogation group is waiting to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in a serious condition in hospital. His elder brother died during a gunfight with police on Thursday night. Two women and an eight-year-old boy were killed in Monday's blasts, close to the finish line of the marathon. A police officer was killed and a transport officer shot in the thigh during the operation to track down the brothers. Speaking to CBS's Face the Nation, Mr Davis said: "We have reason to believe, based upon the evidence that was found at that scene - the explosions, the explosive ordnance that was unexploded and the firepower that they had - that they were going to attack other individuals." He said more than 250 rounds of expended ammunition were found at the scene, and that the ground was "littered with unexploded improvised explosive devices that we had to point out to the arriving officers". Boston police chief Ed Davis said improvised devices were strewn around the area. Another device was found inside a car the brothers had earlier hijacked. Officials were now trying to trace all the weapons used by the brothers, he said, adding that this would be a "significant part of the investigation".

Analysis: Four reasons Senators Graham and McCain are wrong

04/20/13:  Lawfare posted, in an article by Benjamin Wittes, that Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain were quick out the box last night in declaring that the Obama administration should hold Dzhokar Tsarnaev in military detention: "Now that the suspect is in custody, the last thing we should want is for him to remain silent. It is absolutely vital the suspect be questioned for intelligence gathering purposes... Under the Law of War we can hold this suspect as a potential enemy combatant not entitled to Miranda warnings or the appointment of counsel. Our goal at this critical juncture should be to gather intelligence and protect our nation from further attacks." Bobby quickly explained why this is both unncessary and a bad idea; this very find Wall Street Jouranl blog sketches out why it would pose legal problems as well. But the idea has had legs on Twitter, so I want to bring together in one place  and explain the several distinct but overlapping reasons why it would be not merely ill-advised but absolutely nuts to try to treat Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant. First and most important, Tsarnaev may not be an enemy combatant.   Second, assuming for a moment that the facts as they emerge would support an enemy combatant designation, Tsarnaev is reportedly a naturalized American citizen, and the government’s appetite for the detention of American citizens under the laws of war has waned—and rightly so. This began under the Bush administration, which tried twice—in the early cases of Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla—to detain US citizens under the laws of war and ultimately backed down both times. The question of whether such detention is legally appropriate for a US citizen captured by law enforcement remains an open one.  He was certainly captured in the United States, and the military detention of domestic captures is problematic for many of the same reasons that the detention of the citizen poses difficulties. Fourth, military detention offers no clear advantages in this case and has several big disadvantages. 

Second Bombing Suspect caught after frenzied hunt paralyzes Boston

04/20/13:  The New York Times reports the teenage suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, whose flight from the police after a furious gunfight overnight prompted an intense manhunt that virtually shut down the Boston area all day, was in serious condition at a Boston hospital Saturday morning after the police found him in nearby Watertown, Mass., officials said.  The suspect, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, was found hiding in a boat just outside the area where the police had been conducting door-to-door searches all day, the Boston police commissioner, Edward Davis, said at a news conference Friday night. “A man had gone out of his house after being inside the house all day, abiding by our request to stay inside,” Mr. Davis said, referring to the advice officials gave to residents to remain behind locked doors. “He walked outside and saw blood on a boat in the backyard. He then opened the tarp on the top of the boat, and he looked in and saw a man covered with blood. He retreated and called us.” “Over the course of the next hour or so we exchanged gunfire with the suspect, who was inside the boat, and ultimately the hostage rescue team of the FBI made an entry into the boat and removed the suspect, who was still alive,” Mr. Davis said. He said the suspect was in “serious condition” and had apparently been wounded in the gunfight that left his brother dead. A federal law enforcement official said Mr. Tsarnaev would not be read his Miranda rights because the authorities would invoke the public safety exception to question him extensively about other potential explosive devices or accomplices and to try to gain intelligence.

FBI agents interviewed bombing suspect in 2011

04/20/13:  CNN reports FBI agents interviewed one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings two years ago, but found no connection with terror groups. Agents interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 at the request of a foreign government that suspected he might have ties to extremist groups, the FBI said Friday. "The request stated that it was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer," the FBI said, "and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups." An FBI official declined to name the foreign government, but said the FBI took a number of investigative steps to check on the request, including looking at his travel history, checking databases for derogatory information and searching for Web postings. Agents also interviewed Tsarnaev's family members, the FBI said, but did not detect terrorist activity. "The FBI did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign, and those results were provided to the foreign government in the summer of 2011," the FBI's statement said. "The FBI requested but did not receive more specific or additional information from the foreign government."

Two US citizens found guilty in NY in Taliban case

04/20/13:  The Miami Herald reports two US citizens have been found guilty in New York of conspiring to provide material support to the Taliban and conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles. US Attorney Preet Bharara (buh-RAH'-ruh) says Friday Alwar Pouryan (AH'-wahr per-AHN') and Oded Orbach (OH'-ded OR'-bahk) face a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for the anti-aircraft missile count. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 4. The two men were arrested in Bucharest, Romania, last February. Authorities say the men were approached by US government witnesses posing as representatives of the Taliban. They say the men thought they were arranging the sale in 2010 of lethal weapons to members of a dangerous drug organization with terrorism links. Lawyers for the men haven't returned calls seeking comment.