Yesterday I posted a lengthy response to Gabor Rona’s critique of the Brennan speech, and Gabor has now replied to my comments.  Alas, we seem to be speaking past one another in various ways (for example...

Susan Landau is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard's Computer Science Department, formerly a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems, and the author of Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed b...

Back in March (so, well before John Brennan's new remarks on the issue), my friend and colleague Mike Lewis from Ohio Northern and I participated in a "teleforum" debate for the Federalist Society on the...

Over at Opinio Juris, Gabor Rona of Human Rights First offers an extended critique of John Brennan’s speech on the use of lethal force.  It is an interesting and provocative post, leading me to share a f...

Very glad to have joined the Lawfare team.  I look forward to more sustained blogging once the spring grading season is over.  For now, I'll offer just a quick thought on the speech John Brennan delivere...

John Brennan's speech yesterday was important for at least three reasons: (1) it marked the first official White House acknowledgment that “the United States Government conducts targeted strikes against ...

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________...

Last October, I wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled “Will Drone Strikes Become Obama’s Guantanamo?” in which I said that “the administration needs to work harder to explain and defend its use ...

In an earlier post I commented on the politics of the cybersecurity debate.  I wrote: "One final piece of the political calculus is what the Administration wants.  Right now all public signs are that the...

Late yesterday, the House sponsors of the CISPA cybersecurity legislation (to be considered tomorrow) announced a series of amendments to the bill intended to address some of the concerns advanced by pri...

Is al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) so distinct from the original al Qaeda network (“core al Qaeda”) that the use of force against AQAP cannot be justified, as a matter of U.S.

Ken and Ben have recently commented on the national security speeches of Obama Administration officials, including most recently the remarks of CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston.  As a former Bush Admi...