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Officials in the Obama administration have shown signs of discord in formulating national security policy.  Different officials are approaching the government’s anti-terrorism policy from different angles, making it difficult for the Administration to find and maintain a consistent position. The division over counterterrorism strategy flared up most recently when Administration officials struggled with articulating the government’s position on the Belkacem Bensayah detention case.  Bensayah is an Algerian man arrested in Bosnia as a supporter of terrorism and is currently held in Guantanamo.  The New York Times documented the debate between the State and Defense Departments’ top lawyers, Harold Koh and […]

By Brian Itami, NSJ Staff Editor – On Wednesday, March 31, four past and current military lawyers participated in a panel at Harvard Law School entitled “The Indeterminacy of International Humanitarian Law”.  The event, sponsored by the National Security Journal, the HLS International Law Society, the HLS Program on the Legal Profession, and the HLS Advocates for Human Rights, was moderated by Andru Wall, who recently served as a Judge Advocate with the United States Navy, and featured comments from Col. Juan Gomez, a Colombian military lawyer currently on assignment at the National Defense University; HLS Professor Gabriella Blum, formerly

By Mary Ostberg, NSJ Staff Editor – On Wednesday, March 31st, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit’s Northern District of California, granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs in a suit against the U.S. government brought by the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (“Al-Haramain”). The Oregon nonprofit corporation and two of its attorneys, Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, sued high-ranking U.S. officials and associated government agencies in early 2006, alleging they had been subject to warrantless electronic surveillance.  The plaintiffs sought civil damages under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 50 U.S.C. §§ 1801-71 (“FISA”).  In response, the government

By Mat Trachok, NSJ Staff Editor – According to the Washington Post, White House advisers recently stated that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) will most likely be tried before a military commission.  However, the debate still rages.  Last November, NSJ provided a brief overview of arguments for and against trying KSM in civilian courts.  While many of the arguments in the current debate are substantially similar to those put forward last fall, Foreign Policy magazine and the Washington Post recently published three unique arguments on the topic. Writing in Foreign Policy, Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign

By John Cella, NSJ Current Events Editor – A key component of the Obama administration’s fight against al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their affiliates has been the increasing use of drone strikes in Pakistan.  In a speech on Thursday, State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh provided the clearest articulation thus far of the Administration’s legal defense of such drone attacks, justifying them as valid acts of self-defense under international law and as consistent with the law of armed conflict.  Koh pointed to the international law principles of distinction and proportionality, asserting that American drone attacks were limited to military targets

By John Thorlin, NSJ Staff Editor – In Probing Secrets: The Press and Inchoate Liability for Newsgathering Crimes (in the Spring 2009 issue of the American Journal of Criminal Law) Professor William E. Lee of the University of Georgia examines the legality of soliciting or possessing classified information. The issue became a controversial one in the wake of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spy scandal in 2005.  AIPAC lobbyists were charged with violating the Espionage Act by conspiring with a Defense Department official to pass classified information to reporters and Israeli government officials.  In May 2009, the government