Yesterday (Tuesday, March 23, 2010) I was pleased to appear as a witness before the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, to discuss drone warfare and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The list of witnesses is here, along with a link to a webcast (which I can’t seem to open), and links to the witness […]
Archive | Counter-Terrorism Policy
Response from ACLU’s Jonathan Manes on Drones and US Forces
By Kenneth Anderson on March 22, 2010 6:58 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Jonathan Manes, the ACLU lawyer whose work and presentations I have cited a couple of times in posts here at Volokh, and someone for whom, despite some fundamental agreements, I have great respect and like very much, has responded with the following letter. He has given me permission to post it here. The most important […]
House Subcommittee Hearing on Drone Warfare
By Kenneth Anderson on March 22, 2010 1:04 am in Afghanistan, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
In the midst of the healthcare debate in Congress, other business does go on (sort of), including a subcommittee hearing on drone warfare, at which I’ll be testifying, along with some other experts, including the author of the seminal Wired for War, which put the issue of robotics and war squarely on the table. I’ll […]
No Righteous Gentile Awards, Please
I’ve refrained so far from commenting on the Liz Cheney – AQ7 ad, but I want to make one lengthy statement on it and, I hope, leave it at that. (Background to this kerfuffle. At this point, there is the initial AQ7 ad, then a group response letter drafted by Ben Wittes of the Brookings […]
My Contribution to the NYT ‘Room for Debate’ Blog on the AQ7 Argument
By Kenneth Anderson on March 10, 2010 2:08 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Public Interest Law, War on Terror
I’ll post up something fuller on my views about the AQ7 debate, but for now, here is my contribution at the New York Times’s “Room for Debate” blog. (Like Orin, I’m a signer on the original letter objecting to the AQ7 ad.)
Drone Warfare and the Harvard National Security Conference
By Kenneth Anderson on March 9, 2010 1:51 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
I’m writing from Cambridge, where I just finished a great short conference on targeted killing and drone warfare put on by the Harvard Law School National Security Law Society and Journal. The presentations should go up as video one of these days I hope!) and I highly recommend them if you are studying this topic. […]
Predators over Pakistan, My New Weekly Standard Essay
By Kenneth Anderson on February 28, 2010 3:47 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Well, “polemic” is probably closer to it. Regular readers have been hearing about this piece for a while, and I have posted various arguments from it (concerning targeted killing and Predator drones and the CIA and armed conflict and self-defense, and my general concern that the Obama administration has embraced a policy that its lawyers […]
Drones as Strategic Airpower and the Counter-Raiding Light Cavalry?
By Kenneth Anderson on February 25, 2010 10:43 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, Targeted Killing, War on Terror
David Rittgers, a Cato legal analyst and former Special Forces officer, has an excellent op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal on the use of Predator drones. He cautions, on the one hand, against reflexively regarding drone attacks as nonjudicial execution or, really, functionally different from other weapons that soldiers might use – as well as […]
Harold Koh Discussion with John Bellinger on International Law and the Obama Administration
By Kenneth Anderson on February 19, 2010 10:12 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War on Terror
Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the State Department, held an informal public discussion a couple of days ago with his predecessor from the Bush administration, John Bellinger. This was an American Society of International Law event, held at John’s law firm, Arnold & Porter, and moderated by my old friend and ASIL’s Treasurer, Nancy Perkins. […]
Is Dissent Today Any Less Patriotic?
In December 2001, then-Attorney General provoked howls of outrage when he made the following statement at a Congressional hearing: To those who pit Americans against immigrants, citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity […]
Court Clerk-in-Chief
In response to political blowback over the Administration’s decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City, President Obama has decided to become personally involved in determining where KSM should be tried. The Washington Post reports: President Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of […]
The Gitmo Rebellion
The title is actually from Nick Baumann’s article at Mother Jones. On Tuesday morning, Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) teamed up with Graham for a press conference to announce a bill that would block funding for Obama’s proposal to try 9/11 co-conspirators, including Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, in civilian courts. By expressing full […]
Eric Holder Letter to Senators on Abdulmutallab
By Kenneth Anderson on February 3, 2010 6:12 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Criminal Law, War on Terror
AG Eric Holder has released a letter to a group of Senators wanting an explanation for, among other things, the decision to Mirandize the Christmas Day bomber. I’ve read it quickly and guess I’d describe it as doubling down on the administration’s actions, rather than walking them back. Holder takes responsibility for the decision: I […]
OLC Memo on FBI-Telco Cooperation
By Jonathan H. Adler on February 2, 2010 6:48 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Privacy, War on Terror
Marc Ambinder has an interesting post on a yet-to-be-released, classified Office of Legal Counsel memorandum on the FBI’s authority to seek the “voluntary” disclosure of some records by telecommunications companies. The memo was issued on January 8, apparently in response to a request from the FBI, and is referenced in an unredacted portion of this […]
Interrogating the CIA
By Kenneth Anderson on January 31, 2010 11:02 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, Targeted Killing, War on Terror
I just finished up the initial draft of an essay for the Weekly Standard on drone warfare, self defense, and the CIA, riffing off of my chapter in Ben Wittes’s book. One of my observations is that the Obama administration (and really the whole US government) seems to be remarkably sanguine about the other shoe […]