Congressional Oversight
443 Articles
Did USAID engage in “covert action” in Cuba without proper domestic legal authority?
Lost in last week’s wave of news coverage on Cuba was an important Associated Press story on reportedly clandestine practices conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development…
The Unintended Consequences of the 2001 AUMF Sunset
I join Ryan Goodman in applauding the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under the strong leadership of its Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and many others…
Why Do We Talk About Torture The Way We Do?
Editors’ Note: The following post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from…
The Torture Report is Only the First Step
Ed Note. This piece also appears in Foreign Policy. Great nations admit and learn from their mistakes. The United States took a major step forward this week with the long-delayed…
Five Torturous Steps to Hell
In a short and early section of the SSCI’s redacted summary of its torture report, we can read about the step-by-step descent from humanity to inhumanity, from the 20th century…
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…
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…
An Intelligence Committee Agenda
There are big changes coming to the congressional intelligence committees in the 114th Congress, with new leadership in both the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI)…
The Senate Torture Report Should Name Victims
The Senate Intelligence Committee finally appears ready to release a redacted summary of its report on CIA torture and abuse of suspected terrorists. The release of this document…
There Will Be Surveillance Reform
How should we understand the Senate’s failure to pass the USA Freedom Act on Tuesday? I’m not sure. But I’m pretty sure it’s misguided to propose, as Steve Vladeck did…
Sen. Kaine: Narrow the Scope of the 2001 AUMF
WASHINGTON — It’s no secret that Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) doesn’t buy the White House’s claim that the 2001 authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against al-Qaeda…
Avoiding Unnecessary Wars and Preserving Accountability: Principles for an ISIL-Specific AUMF
Earlier today, a group of legal experts–including Rosa Brooks, Sarah Cleveland, Jen Daskal, Walter Dellinger, Harold Koh, and Marty Lederman–released a set of “Principles…