April 26, 2010 | Comments are Closed | —
NPR
Today on NPR, Dina Temple-Raston has an interesting story entitled “As Support Fades, Al-Qaida Shows Signs of Decline” she focuses on how terrorist groups can end, or at least how their efforts can oftentimes be counterproductive. In the story Professor Audrey Cronin of NDU and I are both quoted. What’s interesting about this story is its relationship to the Obama administration’s broader counter-terrorism/counter-insurgency strategy which has seen a dramatic increase in drone attacks coupled with a heavy focus on minimizing civilian casualties through restrictive Rules of Engagement on the ground. The hope of these efforts is to cripple the organization operationally (by killing key leaders and facilitators), while also undermining al-Qaeda’s recruitment efforts by delegitimizing the group amongst the local population.
The full story is here, and here are some key excerpts:
Read the full entry »
January 26, 2010 —
Tomorrow there will be a fantastic event sponsored by three of my favorite organizations on a topic of great interest to me:
The Federalist Society’s International Law and National Security Law Practice Group, The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and The National Review Institute are sponsoring an event entitled: “The War on Terror: Where Are We Now? Where Do We Go from Here?”
The organizers have put together a balanced and brilliant panel, something which is always the case with Federalist Society events, making this a must attend for those who want to hear reasoned debate from both sides of the arguments over counterterrorism.
The panelists include:
- Mr. Steven A. Engel, Partner, Dechert LLP
- The Hon. Neal K. Katyal, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice
- Mr. David B. Rivkin, Jr., Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP and Co-Chairman, Center for Law and Counterterrorism
- Prof. Stephen I. Vladeck, American University Washington College of Law
- Prof. Neomi Rao, George Mason University School of Law, Moderator
Here is a more detailed description of the event:
Read the full entry »
January 22, 2010 —
Exactly one year has passed since President Obama declared he would close Guantanamo.
And today, The Washington Post reports that his Department of Justice Task Force will recommend “that nearly 50 of the 196 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war.” How long will we have to wait before human rights groups begin to call President Obama a war criminal? How long until those who called for President Bush’s indictment by an international tribunal make the same call?
Don’t hold your breath. Back in 2005 Amnesty International called Guantanamo “the Gulag of our times” equating the Bush administration to war criminals. Now, their tune has moderated –of course in their eyes it is still bad that Guantanamo remains open– but they’ve toned down their Gulag language and now we hear “people around the world who care about human rights and the rule of law will be extremely disheartened” by President Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo. Disheartened is probably an improvement from the dyspepsia which gripped most of these people during the Bush administration.
Not to be outdone in moderation, Anthony Romero of the ACLU blandly stated Read the full entry »
July 21, 2009 —
In the most recent issue of the ABA National Security Law Report edited by yours truly, we feature three contributions about the International Criminal Court.
In a colloquy entitled Enforcing ICC Arrest Warrants Keith Petty (Captain, U.S. Army JAG Corps) and Tung Yin (Professor of Law, University of Iowa) debate the effectiveness of the ICC as a national security institution in light of the arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Bashir. Captain Petty contends that while enforcement through the ICC is difficult, armed force is not the only effective mechanism to apprehend heads of State suspected of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court. Professor Yin counters by noting that the ICC suffers from an inability to pursue international criminals, a case he demonstrates with evidence drawn from the U.S. experience in Iraq, World War II, the Balkans, and Rwanda.
Also, in National Security and the International Criminal Court, Jason Dominguez-Meyer (Assistant Professor of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law) outlines the potential costs and benefits associated with the U.S. joining the ICC.
Check out the whole issue here.
Cross posted at AIDPBlog.org
