Recent Articles
Why We Shouldn’t Prosecute the Torturers
Count me as one of those who believes not only that the United States engaged in a systematic, widespread, and officially sanctioned campaign of coercively interrogating terrorism…
News Roundup and Notes: December 11, 2014
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. SENATE TORTURE REPORT The…
Big News: US Closes Bagram Detention Facility
Big news out of Afghanistan—the United States has closed the detention facility at the Bagram Airfield. The last two prisoners were turned over to Afghan authorities on December…
The Torture Report and the “Glomar Fig Leaf”
The Glomar Explorer, the CIA ship after which the much-abused legal doctrine is named Buried in the SSCI’s report is an arresting passage that suggests that the CIA was quietly…
Guest Post: They Knew It Was Illegal
The Senate Intelligence Committee report released December 9 confirms many already-reported facts about the CIA torture program, including the agency’s use of brutal stress positions,…
State Responsibility and Reparation for Torture as a Violation of IHL
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) yesterday released the redacted executive summary of its report on the CIA’s rendition, detention and interrogation program.…
News Roundup and Notes: December 10, 2014
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. SENATE TORTURE REPORT The…
Torture: Unreliable and Inestimably Costly
A few years ago, I served as a member of the Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment – an 11-member, bi-partisan group of former, high-ranking officials in…
A Guantánamo (Numerical) Milestone, and What It Means…
Although public and media attention has been, understandably, focused on this morning’s release of the SSCI Torture Report, another piece of national security-related news…
Kerry Outlines 5 Key Positions: What the Administration wants in an ISIL AUMF [Updated]
In his opening statement before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry outlined the Administration’s position on five core issues…
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on AUMF and Kerry Testimony
Secretary of State John Kerry’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today has been released. The hearing, scheduled for 2:00pm today, has begun, and live…
The SSCI Torture Report, Rasul, and Transfers to Avoid Jurisdiction
[Update: 12/9, 4:30 p.m.: I missed this in my first run through the SSCI Torture Report, but on page 151, the report explains that “[in early 2005], the U.S. solicitor…