Military Commissions
179 Articles
National Security Politics in the 114th Congress
Last September, I wrote a post exploring whether some of the congressional reactions to the Snowden disclosures might have been portents of a coming political realignment on national…
Due Process and Detention at Guantanamo: Closing the Constitutional Loopholes
The D.C. Circuit recently heard argument in Al Bahlul v. United States, where the defendant has made a series of constitutional challenges to the Guantanamo military commissions. …
Military Commissions After Guantánamo
This Wednesday morning at 9:30 (EDT), a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit (Henderson, Rogers, & Tatel, JJ.) will hear oral argument in al Bahlul v. United States–a Guantánamo…
New al-Nashiri developments . . . regarding the MV Limburg and USS COLE charges [UPDATED as of late November]
In recent days the lawyers for Abd al-Rahim Hussain al-Nashiri, the military commission defendant charged with involvement in the bombings of the USS COLE and MV Limburg, have…
The Very Strange New DoD Detainee Directive
On August 19, the Department of Defense apparently issued a new version of “Directive 2310.01E,” which, if you haven’t been scoring at home, is one of the central…
The important and difficult issues in the al-Nashiri case: When did the war begin? And was the COLE bombing a war crime?
The tragic bombing of the USS COLE by al Qaeda operatives in October 2000 was a heinous crime. Even if it occurred as part of an armed conflict between the United States and…
Letter to the Editor — Lt. Colonel David J. R. Frakt: What will Happen to al Bahlul?
I want to thank my esteemed colleagues Steve Vladeck and Marty Lederman for their very illuminating discussion of the D.C. Circuit’s recent decision in al Bahlul. I was Mr.…
What’s Left of Hamdan II? Quite a Lot, Actually…
Although it’s a bit further into the weeds than the issues Marty and I flagged in yesterday’s lengthy analysis of the en banc D.C. Circuit’s decision in al…
al Bahlul and the Future of “Domestic Law-of-War Offenses” in Military Commissions
As Steve wrote on Monday, the long-awaited en banc decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in al Bahlul v. United States leaves unanswered many of the questions…
The Stakes of al-Bahlul, Nine Months Later…
This past Monday marked nine months since the en banc oral argument in al-Bahlul v. United States, in which the D.C. Circuit is considering whether military commissions at Guantánamo…
Backgrounder: Preliminary Examination into Abuses by United Kingdom Personnel in Iraq
As we reported earlier, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor has reopened the preliminary examination into crimes committed by United Kingdom personnel in Iraq from 2003-2008 during…
Where is al-Bahlul??
I’d previously only been tweeting about this, but it seems worth a proper post to flag the remarkable fact that it’s now been well over seven months (!) since the…