National Defense Authorization Act NDAA
93 Articles

The Pentagon’s 2018 Civilian Casualties Report: What’s In It and What’s Next
The Pentagon’s latest annual report, released this morning, lists shockingly low numbers of "credible" civilian casualties. It also illustrated the need for better processes…

New DoD Policy on Amends Needs to Address Transparency Gap
New information from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) reveals a previously unrecognized transparency gap in the U.S. military’s efforts to acknowledge and address civilian…

The Pentagon’s Latest Report on Civilian Casualties Policy
Late on Friday night, the Pentagon submitted to Congress and publicly released a 17-page report required under the 2019 John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)…

Pentagon’s Climate Change Report Lacks Analysis the Law Requires
Hurricanes and wildfires in the U.S. and humanitarian crises abroad illustrated the national security impact of climate change in 2018. Yet the Pentagon’s congressionally required…

Biodefense: Coordinating Our Response to Deadly Disease with a Strategy and Policy Memo
The FBI arrested a Navy veteran for sending two letters to a Pentagon distribution center that tested positive for ricin, providing a test run on the effectiveness of interagency…

Condolence Payments for Civilian Casualties: Lessons for Applying the New NDAA
The new National Defense Authorization Act can help improve the way the U.S. responds to civilian casualties. FOIA requests and interviews with DoD officials, U.S. soldiers, judge…

The Trump Administration Should Publicly Disclose its New Policy on Lethal Force
On Monday, President Trump is required to submit a report to Congress setting out changes he’s made to US policy governing the use of military force in counterterrorism operations.…

Will the Next Use of Force “Transparency Report” be Transparent? Devil May be in Classified Details
Congress recently required the President to submit a report that describes the administration’s legal and policy positions on the use of military force and related national security…

Draft EO on Detention and Interrogation: Update And Additional Concerns
As is now well-known, the White House has disclaimed the draft EO which appeared to open the door to torture and revival of the CIA detainee program. (Sean Spicer: This is “not…

Guilty Pleas For GTMO Detainees (Without Ever Setting Foot on US Soil)
Last week Steve wrote about the then-not-yet public provision in the Senate version of the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would permit Guantánamo detainees…

Are Republicans Serious About NSC Reform?
It appears the House Republican project to clip the National Security Council’s (NSC’s) wings may be a larger scale project than reflected in my last post. There, I discuss…

The New US Anti-Torture Law: A Genuine Step Forward
Just over two months ago, on the day before Thanksgiving, President Obama signed into law an important provision concerning torture that has garnered surprisingly little attention.…