Last week, we argued that the public discussion surrounding two of the government’s most controversial mass surveillance programs – PRISM and Upstream – has not sufficiently acknowledged the broad scope of collection under these programs, which take place under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).… continue »
A series of posts at Just Security have focused on the rules that apply to U.S. and U.K. support for the Saudi-led coalition’s military operations against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. A key question is whether supporting States, like the United States and the United Kingdom, avoid becoming a “party” to the armed conflict (and thus being bound by international humanitarian law) by providing assistance that stops short of engaging in direct combat.… continue »
In the United States, concerns over the conduct of the Saudi-led coalition in the war in Yemen have grown in intensity in recent weeks amid reports that US-supplied weapons have been used directly in the conflict, including in the bombing of an MSF hospital.… continue »
Ryan Goodman raised a great question yesterday about the US-Russia deal on Syria: may the United States coordinate military operations with Russia if Russia is highly likely to engage in serious violations of the law of armed conflict when conducting its part of the operations?… continue »
While Secretary John Kerry appears to be trying to resuscitate the US-Russia deal in Syria, one issue worth considering is whether a major step in the US-Russia plan is permitted under international law. As announced by Sec. Kerry, a second stage of the plan would involve coordinated U.S.… continue »
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) — the statute the government uses to engage in warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international communications — is scheduled to expire in December 2017. In anticipation of the coming legislative debate over reauthorization, Congress has already begun to hold hearings.… continue »
In his appearance with Secretary Clinton at NBC’s Commander-in-Chief Forum earlier this month, Donald Trump called for actions that amount to a war crime. Addressing US policies in the Iraq war, he said, “You know, it used to be to the victor belong the spoils… I always said: Take the oil.” This was no slip of the tongue.… continue »
As we have periodically done since its February launch, we’re updating our guide to the 2016 presidential candidates’ positions on national security matters. Today, we have streamlined the guide to include only the presumptive candidate of each major party: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.… continue »
This third post of a series on the ICRC’s Updated Commentary on the First Geneva Convention of 1949 offers some concluding observations and further comparisons with the recent DoD Law of War Manual, as well as thoughts on what each might mean for law-of-war interpretation.… continue »
The legal authority behind the controversial PRISM and Upstream surveillance programs used by the NSA to collect large swaths of private communications from leading Internet companies – Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2017.… continue »
