It was a prolific week for
Lawfare.
This week
we launched a new project with
The New Republic,
called Security States. It is designed to bring
Lawfare writers to
New Republic readers:
As Washington braced itself for the government shutdown, John
wondered aloud (or rather, in written form) whether those ideologically extreme Republicans have forgotten about September 11 and the threats the United States still faces.
The Washington Post quoted his piece at length in an editorial this week.
I
previewed, and Wells and I
recapped, this week's
en banc oral arguments in
Al-Bahlul v. United States.
Steve laid out his predictions. Professor of Law at Loyola Law School David Glazier
provided his thoughts about the arguments in a guest post, focusing in particular on the government's interpretation of history in arguing that the D.C. Circuit affirm Al-Bahlul's military commission conviction.
We learned of the extradition to the United States of Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian convicted for terrorist charges, and indicted here in the States for plotting to drive a car bomb into the canteen at the NATO/U.S. Air Force Base Kleine-Brogel in Belgium.
John
tagged the decision in the Eastern District of New York's to dismiss a suit brought against two former heads of the Pakistani intelligence agency on the basis of the U.S. government's suggestion of immunity.
Ben shared a
guest post by Mark Klamberg, of Sweden's Uppsala University Department of Law. Klamberg compares European laws governing metadata collection with those in the U.S.
A
very important new piece of research came out, as our latest installment of the
Lawfare Research Paper Series over the weekend: by David Kris, former head of the National Security Division, and entitled
"On the Bulk Collection of Tangible Things." Ben
flagged Orin Kerr's reaction over at
Volokh Conspiracy.
Our latest podcast episode features two
Lawfare-ers, Ben and Steve, along with Orin Kerr of George Washington University, debating NSA surveillance.
Despite the government shutdown, Congress's doors were open, in particular to discuss the NSA surveillance programs:
the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing,
featuring the usual suspects (NSA Director Keith Alexander and DNI James Clapper), frequent
Lawfare scribe and Georgetown Law Professor Carrie Cordero, Georgetown Law Professor Laura Donohue, and Princeton's Edward Felton.
Ben's webcast at West LegalEdCenter about the NSA disclosures is
now available (you can even get CLE credit by watching it).
The shutdown
prompted a statement by Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein. You can guess what the focus of her floor remarks was.
Jack
flagged two different comments in the media along the popular theme of security versus transparency in the U.S. intelligence world.
It seems that some federal agencies prepared particularly well for the shutdown: Paul
sends his thanks to the Department of State, which expedited his expedited request for a new passport before shutting down.
Another important,
FISA-related development on
Lawfare this week:
a wiki page documenting the leaks and declassifications, collected by our
Lawfare intern Nick, made its way to the web.
Jack
noted a major
New York Times story assessing the damage to U.S. intelligence capabilities a
McClatchy story leaking an extremely valuable source of Al Qaeda intelligence in August may have caused.
Matt Danzer, our newest student contributor,
previewed and
recapped this week's oral arguments in the Second Circuit FOIA appeal related to the president's targeted killing program. A letter from the Court in that case
caught Jack's attention: it seemed to voice skepticism with regards to the U.S. government claims about the executive branch materials the
Times and the ACLU were seeking.
Paul
highlighted the recent assassination of the head of Iran's cyber warfare program as a reminder that "bullets still beat 1s and 0s in many contexts."
John
explained what makes a United Nations Security Council resolution "binding," and takes a look at that chamber's draft resolution regarding Syria.
Lawfare-ers continue to flag the vacancies around the government in key national security positions: this week,
it's Paul on the open positions in their cybersecurity office.
I
wrote about a long-running habeas appeal before the D.C. Circuit:
Ali v. Obama. A three-judge panel held oral arguments in the case last week.
A Guantanamo detainee has succeeded in receiving a writ of habeas corpus, as the Department of Justice filed a response indicating that it doesn't oppose the District Court issuing a writ in the case of
Idris v. Obama, which Judge Lamberth
promptly did.
I am adding this interesting-looking article (
h/t to Paul for noting) to my reading list:
"The Case for Canamerica" in
Foreign Policy.
And here's your monthly dose of
Lawfare reader statistics: in comparison to our
August statistics, viewership is up more than twofold in Iran, but halved in Cuba, up by 30 percent from Russia, and up from a single visit to 19 from Syria. Nearly 60 percent of our visits this month came from new visitors.
And that was the week that was.
