Recent Articles

Iran’s Purported “Right” to Enrich Uranium, and Alleged Bias at the New York Times
As attention turns to the upcoming negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, an important factor will be the media coverage that inevitably shapes public opinion. In a recent piece…

State Department Concludes Review of NGO Drone Strike Reports, Offers Public Response (Sort of)
The U.S. Department of State told reporters late last week that it had concluded its review of the Amnesty International and HRW targeted killing and drone strike reports. The…

News Roundup and Notes: November 19, 2013
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. Surveillance ICYMI, yesterday,…

Additional documents on telephony records collection (and much more) declassified
The government today made public more documents related to the “telephony records program,” as well as other surveillance-related documents, all of which can be accessed…

Periodic Review Board Hearings start up at Gitmo this week – but why in Secret?
Although the Pentagon this week will finally start holding review hearings for Guantanamo detainees who remain in indefinite detention and haven’t yet been cleared for release…

Anonymous US Officials Admit CIA Accidentally Killed a Yemeni Child in a Drone Strike
Buried in a Los Angeles Times article yesterday was this remarkable government admission: In June, a drone-launched missile hit an SUV carrying an Al Qaeda commander in Yemen.…

Supreme Court Denies EPIC Petition for Mandamus on the Telephony Metadata Program
Without comment or dissent. No surprise. As expected, then, the action turns to the several cases that have been filed in district court, two of which are being argued this…

Hearing in Another Surveillance Challenge Today
In previous posts I’ve discussed filings in the two most prominent challenges to the government’s “Telephony Records Program.” Things are moving along…

News Roundup and Notes: November 18, 2013
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. Iran Senior U.S. officials…

Letter from Human Rights and Civil Liberties Groups Supporting Gitmo Provisions of NDAA
On Friday, a large group of human rights and civil liberties groups sent a joint letter to Members of the Senate in support of the provisions of the NDAA on Guantanamo Bay detainee…

Recap of the Week’s Posts on Just Security (Nov 9-15)
I. Surveillance and Data Collection David Cole, More on the Rights of Others – Ben Wittes’ Failure of Imagination (Tuesday, Nov. 12) David Cole, More on Wittes and the Rights…

Major New Step Forward For International Debate on Autonomous Weapons Systems
Today, the 117 state parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) agreed to hold the first ever intergovernmental meeting on autonomous weapons systems. The…