AQAP
26 Articles
Killing a Cleric: Many More Questions Than Answers
Yesterday, Ryan wrote about the killing, presumably by US drone, of Ibrahim al-Rubaysan, an alleged leading cleric of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Ryan presumes that…
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…
Wall Street Journal Grants Anonymity to al-Qaeda’s “First Easily Accessible Media Liaison”
The Wall Street Journal today quotes at length from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) “first easily accessible media liaison” and explicitly grants the source…
The Administration’s Theory for How the 2001 AUMF Could Apply to ISIS
Senator Tim Kaine, in a statement on Monday, marked out the position that expanded military operations against ISIS are not covered by Congress’s 2001 authorization for use of…
Are AQAP Domestic Insurgents in Yemen Covered by the AUMF?
According to Dan Klaidman’s excellent book, President Obama and John Brennan drew a red line in 2011: The United States would target members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula…
Ongoing “Drone Strikes” in Yemen Raise Four Questions
From Saturday to Monday morning, the US has reportedly been carrying out a series of air strikes in Yemen, delivering multiple blows to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).…
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…
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.…
Belonging to a Party to a Non-International Armed Conflict: A Reply to Kevin Jon Heller [Updated]
In a recent post, I argued that an unexplored and independent legal basis exists for the US practice of targeting “associated forces” of al-Qaeda: the rules governing armed…
A New War?: The United States Involvement in Yemen’s Internal Armed Conflict [Updated]
In an op-ed in the Guardian last week, I argued that the United States appears to have become militarily directly involved in fighting a domestic insurgency in Yemen as an ally…
IHL, Transparency, and the Heyns’ UN Drones Report
In his critique of Christof Heyns’ new UN report on the right to life in the context of lethal drone strikes, Eric Jensen erects two straw men and then proceeds to knock them…
The Report of the UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Executions: Law or Advocacy?
As has already been discussed in several postings, the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions has been published and deserves close attention. To the…