Transparency

× Clear Filters
414 Articles

2022 Update: Good Governance Paper No. 18: Reforming Emergency Powers

At one-year mark of Biden administration, top experts revisit proposals to restore and promote nonpartisan principles of good government.
A letter dated October 29, 2021. It reads, “From: Panel ICO U.S. vs. Khan; To: Convening Authority; The panel members listed below recommend clemency in the case of Majid Shoukat Khan. Mr. Kahn committed serious crimes against the U.S. and partner nations. He has plead guilty to these crimes and taken responsibility for his actions. Further, he has expressed remorse for the impact of the victims and their families. Clemency is recommended with the following justification: 1) Mr. Khan has been held without the basic due process under the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, he was held without charge or legal representation for nine years until 2021, and held without final sentencing until October 2021. Although designated on ‘alien unprivileged enemy belligerent,’ and not technically afforded the rights of U.S. citizens, the complete disregard for the foundational concepts upon which the Constitution was founded is an affront to American values and concept of Justice. 2) Mr. Khan was subjected to physical and psychological abuse well beyond approved enhanced interrogation techniques, instead being closer to torture performed by the most abusive regimes in modern history. This abuse was of no practical value in terms of intelligence, or any other tangible benefit to U.S. interests. Instead, it is a stain on the moral fiber of America; the treatment of Mr. Khan in the hands of U.S. personnel should be a source of shame for the U.S. government. 3) Mr. Khan committed his crimes as a young man reeling from the loss of his mother. A vulnerable target for extremist recruiting, he fell to influences furthering Islamic radical philosophies, just as many others have in recent years. Now at the age of 41 with a daughter he has never seen, he is remorseful and not a threat for future extremism. It is the view of the penal members below that clemency be granted based on the points above, as well as Mr. Khan’s continued cooperation with us efforts in other, more critical, prosecutions. Panel #1, Panel #8, Panel #5, Panel #9, Panel #12, Panel #4, Panel #11.”

Military Officers’ Handwritten Clemency Letter at Guantanamo – What It Says About Who We Are

"A long step toward the ultimate freedom: the realization that there is no them, there is only us."
Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Washington D.C., November 3, 2021. An American flag stands beside him.

The Missing Kabul Drone Strike Report

"It is simply not credible that the entire investigative report must be withheld in order to protect (as one imagines the claim) sources and methods of intelligence-gathering."
National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen, FBI Director James Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn testify during a hearing before Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee January 29, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

20 Years After the Patriot Act, America Must End Secret Law

Of the many abuses that sprung from the Patriot Act’s toxic soil, the most pernicious and enduring is the growth of secret laws. The insistence that the government must not only…
Legal blind justice Themis metal statue with scales on chains

Judicial Secrecy: How To Fix the Over-sealing of Federal Court Records

The lack of uniform procedures for sealing federal court records has resulted in excessive secrecy that has caused considerable harm.
A photographer kneels on the ground in front of two cars to take a photo of one of them. The cars, a 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari and a 2010 Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 Coupe model car, sit stationary on a brick road. People walk past in the background. The cars are part of an auction preview by sales house Bonhams of sport cars belonging to the son of the Equatorial Guinea's President.on September 28, 2019 at the Bonmont Abbey in Cheserex, western Switzerland.

How American Kleptocracy Works

Review: Casey Michel's book, “American Kleptocracy,” tells the tale of US financial secrecy via two of the world’s great kleptocrats.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), flanked by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Mike Lee (R-UT), speaks after the Senate voted to withdraw support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, in the Senate TV studio at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on December 13, 2018.

A Giant Step Forward for War Powers Reform

The bipartisan National Security Powers Act is a bold set of necessary and mutually reinforcing war powers reforms that would finally reset the balance of power between the political…
The U.S. Department of Justice Building, where the Office of Legal Counsel resides.

Long-Withheld Office of Legal Counsel Records Reveal Agency’s Postwar Influence

The Knight Institute is publishing 14 indexes cataloging the titles of more than a thousand unclassified opinions authored by the OLC between 1945 and 1958.
People gather at a street corner during the Tulsa Race Massacre. Smoke billows from buildings down the block and all the buildings in the image are heavily damaged.

Controlling the Lens of History: From Tulsa to the Capitol Mob

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the hundredth anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, with more essays in the following days.)  The centennial…
The destruction caused by the white supremacists that attacked Tulsa and its black residents during the Tulsa Race Massacre. Buildings were leveled to rubble and buildings still partially standing have extensive fire damage.

How the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 Was (and Might Be) Forgotten

"This effort exemplifies what the philosopher Charles Mills calls 'white ignorance,' in which the ideology of white supremacy infects what counts as knowledge, and testimony about…
Nehemiah Frank holds his cousin David McIntye II as they stand in front of a mural depicting the violence of the Tulsa massacre and teaches him the history of the attack in the Greenwood district, on May 28, 2021 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Reckoning with State-Sanctioned Racial Violence: Lessons from the Tulsa Race Massacre

Top legal scholar outlines five "features of what a capacious commitment to democratic repair in the wake of state violence might mean" for Tulsa.
Hughes Van Ellis, a Tulsa Race Massacre survivor and World War II veteran, and Viola Fletcher, oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, testify before the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee hearing on "Continuing Injustice: The Centennial of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre" on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on May 19, 2021. Some people sit in the seats behind them, but the room is not full allowing for social distancing. Most people wear face masks.

Introduction to Just Security’s Series on Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

This article introduces a new series on the hundredth anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. The series will bring together experts to re-examine different aspects of the Tulsa…
1-12 of 414 items

DON'T MISS A THING. Stay up to date with Just Security curated newsletters: