Ben has already commented on David Cole’s TNR essay (subscription needed) about how the Obama approach to counterterrorism differs from the Bush approach.  But since David uses my own TNR essay on the su...

Adam Serwer has a goodcatch on this one.  As we've noted before, the pending omnibus spending package contains a wholesale prohibition on transfers of detainees from GTMO to United States territory.  Or ...

Charlie Savage reports in the New York Times that DOJ is considering charging Julian Assange as a conspirator to Bradley Manning’s undoubtedly illegal leak of classified information: Justice Department o...

Back in October, I posted a link to a speech I had given some months earlier on continuity and change between the Bush and Obama administrations on counterterrorism. I looked at the question through four...

Last Friday, the Senate passed, by unanimous consent, S. 372, a bill designed to improve the existing whistleblower protection regime.  Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) introduced the bill in 2009 to improve ...

How do we define the scope of military detention authority at the individual level?  That is to say, how do we define with precision the necessary and sufficient conditions that make a particular person ...

Today the D.C. Circuit released, in redacted form, its November order dismissing the government's appeal in Basardh v.

Last week I raised the question whether Human Rights Watch has altered its position on the scope of application of international humanitarian law (“IHL”)—a topic with tremendous significance for both the...

I've received a number of interesting responses to my post from Sunday on rewriting the Espionage Act. Two bear particular attention.

I received the following note today from Guantanamo lawyer David Remes in response to my post from Friday on recidivism: Ben raises important questions in his “Thinking about Recidivism” post, but to put...

The New York Times has, for the second time, glibly proposed establishing a new court to authorize killing people.

M.E. “Spike” Bowman, former senior counsel at the FBI and deputy director of the National Counterintelligence Executive, has an interesting piece in the Intelligencer opposing clemency for Jonathan Jay P...

"Don't Charge Wikileaks," say my beloved former colleagues at the Washington Post editorial page this morning. The Post argues that, Such prosecutions are a bad idea. The government has no business indic...

I find myself agreeing with those who think Assange is being unduly vilified.  I certainly do not support or like his disclosure of secrets that harm U.S.

Sen. Lindsey Graham has called for a halt to transfers from Guantanamo in light of the recidivism rate reported by the Director of National Intelligence. A few thoughts on this general subject: First, w...

You have to read to the bottom of Charlie Savage's New York Times story on Attorney General Holder's letter to get to this bit: Meanwhile, officials were bracing for the possibility that WikiLeaks may re...