Recent Articles
Drone Strike Kills al-Qaeda Cleric in Yemen—But are clerics lawful military targets?
A U.S. drone strike has reportedly killed a leading cleric of al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen. A religious theologian, Ibrahim al-Rubaysh had risen to the level of top cleric or Mufti…
Actual text (!) of the Corker/Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015
Perhaps you’ve read a few–even a few dozen–stories describing the negotiated compromise legislation that passed unanimously out of the Senate Foreign Relations…
The European Convention meets the Crisis in Ukraine
This post is part II of a series on the European Union and Council of Europe’s response to the Ukraine Crisis. In parallel to the muti-pronged EU action I discussed on Friday,…
News Roundup and Notes: April 15, 2015
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. YEMEN U.S. drone strike…
The Targeted Killing That Wasn’t: What We Can Learn From the Case of Mohanad Mahmoud al-Farekh
A 2009 US Air Force photo titled “Ready to hunt” shows an armed MQ-9 Reaper drone taxiing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Almost two weeks ago, we learned from the Washington…
No Asking and No Telling – A Quick Thought on Stephen Preston’s Speech at ASIL
As Marty Lederman and Jennifer Daskel have already noted, the Department of Defense’s General Counsel Stephen Preston gave an extensive and lengthy keynote speech on Friday last at…
Whatever became of the Votel transparency proposal concerning drone strikes in Yemen?
The Open Society Justice Initiative yesterday released a report alleging that nine U.S. drone strikes in Yemen between May 2012 and April 2014 each resulted in civilian casualties,…
News Roundup and Notes: April 14, 2015
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. IRAQ and SYRIA Iraqi Prime…
Defeating ISIS in Iraq: We Cannot Fight Evil With Evil
News of the “liberation” of Tikrit, the city nearby the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, from occupation by ISIS militants two weeks ago was a welcome advance in the war to destroy…
The Patriot Act’s Sunset is the Perfect Chance to Make the FISA Court More Like a Real Court
In the coming weeks, Congress must decide whether to renew the Patriot Act, which the National Security Agency (NSA) uses to collect Americans’ telephone records in bulk, regardless…
National Security-Related Congressional Hearings, April 13–17
Below is a calendar of congressional hearings on national security matters for this week. Tuesday, April 14, 2015 9:30am – Senate Armed Services – U.S. Defense Policy Issues…
Further thoughts on the Preston ASIL speech
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…