Terrorism & Violent Extremism
Just Security provides expert legal and policy analysis of terrorism, counterterrorism, and domestic and international violent extremism.
2,224 Articles

ISIL’s Online Offensive: Challenges in Countering ISIL in Cyberspace
The US-led campaign against ISIL is going well in neither the terrestrial nor cyber realms. ISIL’s successful offensives against Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria in late May…

Major Second Circuit Ruling Sides With Immigrants Subjected to Post-9/11 Roundup
I’ve written at some length in the past about judicial hostility to damages suits brought by victims of allegedly unlawful post-9/11 counterterrorism policies. I may have…

Why al Bahlul is Rightly Decided
Over at Lawfare, I have a pair of longer posts following up on Friday’s quick-and-dirty summary of the D.C. Circuit’s ruling in al Bahlul v. United States, in which…

What Rights Does International Law Afford Umm Sayyaf?
The legal machinations within the US government must have been considerable last month after an American special operations raid in Syria captured Umm Sayyaf, the wife of suspected…

What al Bahlul Says, and What It Means
It’s going to take some time to fully work through the lengthy opinions handed down by the D.C. Circuit this morning in al Bahlul v. United States. But at the risk of…

al-Bahlul decided: Court invalidates military commission conviction for domestic-law offense
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by a 2-1 vote (Rogers and Tatel, Henderson dissenting) has overturned the conspiracy conviction on Article III grounds.…

Closing Guantánamo Will Help Combat Terrorist Propaganda
It’s no secret that extremist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL use the American prison at Guantánamo Bay as a recruiting tool and rallying cry against the United States. The topic…

The Ridiculous GTMO Counsel-Stripping Amendment: An Easy Vote
[UPDATE: The Amendment failed by a vote of 133-297.] Steve has already described the likely constitutional problems with the latest Guantanamo amendment designed to strip funding…

Why the Latest Ridiculous Guantánamo Amendment is Almost Certainly Unconstitutional
Later today, the House of Representatives appears set to vote on the following amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill, sponsored by Missouri Congressman Jason…

An Important New Filing in the Continuing Saga of Mohamedou Ould Slahi
This morning, lawyers for Guantánamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi–the international best-selling author of “Guantánamo Diary”–filed a new motion in the…

No Torture Means No Torture – Why We Need the McCain-Feinstein Anti-Torture Amendment
Do we mean what we say when we ban torture? That has been a question for more than a decade, ever since President George W. Bush, on United Nations International Day in Support…

A New, and This Time Bipartisan, Proposal for an AUMF Against ISIL
As we highlighted last week, there has been recent movement in Congress to refocus on the need for an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against ISIL. Sen. Tim…