Recent Articles
Untold History of the Torture Program
In this morning’s Los Angeles Times, Larry Siems and I have an op-ed about the soldiers and public servants who tried to expose and end the torture program. It begins: After…
Torture and the SSCI Report
This August, torture is once again on our minds. On the heels of President Obama’s rather callous admission that “we tortured some folks,” the Senate Select Committee on…
Spying Among Friends: The Troubled Waters of the CIA and BND
The rapid erosion of US-German relations continues to prompt much attention and consternation on both sides of the Atlantic. The new era urged by presidential candidate Barack…
New Proposal for Gradual Repeal of the AUMF
As debate over the future of the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force continues, today the National Security Network has released a report contributing to the discussion. Ending…
More focus on jus ad bellum in Gaza
More than 1900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, hundreds of thousands are displaced and the material destructions are formidable. There have been several claims that Israel…
Medical Repatriation of Aging Guantanamo Detainees: The case of Al-Adahi
Mohammed Al-Adahi, a Yemeni national who has been detained at Guantanamo for more than 12 years and was approved for conditional release in 2010, has been described by his lawyers…
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…
The ICRC’s Position on Human Shields (and Gaza)—A Reply to Professor Adil Haque
I agree with Professor Adil Haque’s description of the ICRC’s bifurcated position on voluntary human shields. I have accordingly added a note in my original post which now…
Letter to the Editor: Human Shields in the DPH Guidance
[Editor’s Note: Ryan Goodman responds to Professor Haque’s letter to the editor in a subsequent post.] In his recent post, Ryan Goodman writes that the ICRC adopts the view…
Verdict in Cambodia: Too Little Too Late, but Still Important
Amidst all the developments in the Middle East, we could not allow the verdict rendered by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Case 002 to go unacknowledged.…
Recap of Recent Posts on the Just Security Blog (Aug 2-8)
I. ISIS and Iraq (including Authorization to Use Force) Marty Lederman, The Executive’s Initial Explanation of Domestic Law Authority for the Use of Force in Iraq (Friday, August…
The executive’s initial explanation of domestic law authority for the use of force in Iraq
This from a background phone briefing last evening: Q: I was just wondering if you could comment a little bit on what the legal authorities behind this operation and the (inaudible)…