Terrorism & Violent Extremism
Just Security provides expert legal and policy analysis of terrorism, counterterrorism, and domestic and international violent extremism.
2,223 Articles
“Associated Forces” Has No Legal or Strategic Meaning
Today was national security day in Congress, with three simultaneous hearings on the terrorist threat and how best to fight it. I watched the House Armed Services Committee hearing…
10 Things We Need to Know Now About the US Drone War
A year ago today, NBC News published a leaked copy of a Justice Department memo that justified the killing of a U.S. citizen without a trial in a foreign country outside a war…
Another (Dubious) Guantánamo Precedent
As Wells Bennett flagged over at Lawfare, the D.C. Circuit’s latest foray into the Guantánamo detainee litigation came two weeks ago in Al-Janko v. Gates, in which a…
Reforming The Section 702 Dragnet (Part 1)
The consensus is clear that spying on innocent Americans section 215 of the Patriot Act is flatly illegal. The Center for Democracy and Technology said it, Christopher Sprigman…
Extrajudicial Release: A New Rule-of-Law Problem?
Monday’s Wall Street Journal reported on the release, this past Sunday night, of a statement by U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, lamenting the decision of an Afghan-led review board…
U.S. Operations Against al-Shabaab/al-Qaeda: The Targeting of Godane
As Sarah Knuckey’s post explains, CNN is reporting that the latest US drone strike in Somalia targeted Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of Al-Shabaab. Sarah asks whether the strike…
What rules is the US applying to its Somalia drone strikes?
CNN today provided the most detailed account yet of the latest U.S. drone strike, carried out this past weekend in Somalia. US officials (quoted anonymously by CNN) said the…
First “Public” PRB Hearing Raises More Questions Than it Answers
As expected, today’s Periodic Review Board hearing, the first so-called “public” one of these events, was completely uneventful. In the case of Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel…
Quasi-public Guantanamo Detainee Hearings Start Tomorrow
On Tuesday morning, select members of the media and human rights groups will, for the first time, be allowed to observe a portion of a Periodic Review Board hearing for a detainee…
Counterterrorism Under the Radar: A Notable No Fly List Case and its Broader Implications
Amidst all the discussion of the President’s speech on surveillance (and the PCLOB Report on the same subject), the release of Robert Gates’ memoir, and the discovery of horrific…
A $15 Million Dollar Torture Partnership
It has been common knowledge for a while that Poland hosted a secret CIA prison where Abd al Rahim al Nashiri and other prisoners now held in Guantánamo were detained and tortured. …
An Inauspicious Anniversary: It’s Time to Release the Report of the Special Interagency Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies
Yesterday was the five-year anniversary of President Obama’s Executive Order 13491 on ensuring lawful interrogations. The Order, one of the first acts of the Obama administration,…