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By NSJ Staff Writer The November 8th shootings at Ft. Hood are less than a week old, and yet investigators and pundits are already interpreting what they see to be their deep-seated meaning.  Officially, after two days of investigation, the FBI and the Army Criminal Investigation Command have come to the tentative conclusion that the attacks were not part of a terrorist plot.  However, they have also suggested that U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan “acted out under a welter of emotional, ideological and religious pressures,” and “have not ruled out the possibility that [Hasan] believes he was carrying out […]

By Jonathan Abrams, HLS 2012 NSJ Staff Writer On October 14th, a Canadian Federal Court judge dismissed the Canadian government’s case against a Montreal resident arrested under a controversial deportation program. In 2003, Adil Charkaoui was arrested under a security certificate–an administrative tool by which the Canadian government can detain non-citizens without charge and without showing them or their lawyers the evidence against them.  The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) alleged that Mr. Charkaoui was an al-Qaeda sympathizer who should be returned to his native Morocco. After two years’ imprisonment, Mr. Charkaoui was released, but made to wear an ankle

By NSJ Staff Writer On November 4th, an Italian court convicted in absentia 23 Americans–twenty-two purported CIA agents and one Air Force Officer–for their role in the kidnapping and rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, better known as Abu Omar.  Twenty-two Americans were given sentences of five years in prison, and the former CIA Milan station chief, Robert Seldon Lady, was sentenced to eight years.  Three Americans were acquitted on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.  These convictions are the first handed down in relation to the United States’ alleged “extraordinary rendition” program. In addition to these Americans, five Italians were

By Jonathan Abrams, HLS 2012 NSJ Staff Writer On September 4th, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down an important ruling on preventive detention, holding that the federal government’s use of the material witness statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3144, to detain suspected terrorists is unconstitutional. The case, al-Kidd v. Ashcroft, 580 F.3d 949 (9th Cir. 2009), involves a lawsuit brought by Abdullah al-Kidd, an American citizen who was thought to have ties to suspected terrorist Sami Omar Al-Hussayen.  Shortly after Al-Hussayen was arrested, authorities learned that al-Kidd was about to leave the country for Saudi

By NSJ Staff Writer On October 11, 2009, The New York Times reported that, “Afghanistan’s judiciary is so weak that Afghans increasingly turn to a shadow Taliban court system,” especially in rural areas where people lack access to the judicial process.  As the Obama Administration continues to review its Afghanistan strategy to determine whether or not to increase U.S. troop levels in the country, it should keep in mind that its approach to advancing the rule of law there has considerable implications for the security situation on the ground.  Indeed, the White House appears to have recognized this in recent

By Mat Trachok, HLS 2012 NSJ Staff Writer What exactly is the nature of the cyberterrorist threat?  How realistic is the prospect of nation-to-nation cyberwarfare?  How should the government respond to and protect against such threats?  What role should the law play in fighting cyberterrorism?  On Wednesday, October 28th, the Harvard Law School National Security & Law Association and the Journal on Law & Technology co-hosted a panel discussion moderated by HLS Professor Phil Malone that sought to answer these questions.  The panel brought together experts from both inside and outside the U.S. government, including Leonard Bailey, cyberterrorism expert in