The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Military Commission hearings started up again down at Guantanamo this week, and as always, we had them covered. Cody Poplin shared a statement from Military Commissions Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins prior to this week’s hearings in the case of Abd al Hadi al Iraqi. Up next, Nora Ellingsen followed Tuesday's pre-trial hearings.

In a different Military Commissions case, Benjamin Wittes flagged the D.C. Circuit Court’s non-merits opinion in Omar Khadr’s appeal.

With the National Defense Authorization bill going over to the Senate, John Bellinger provided some more thoughts on the proposed congressional restrictions on the National Security Council’s staff size.

Jack Goldsmith indicated that the new Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, passed this week after major amendment, is still harmful congressional shirking.

Not all of Congress’s acts and provisions are public though. Dakota Rudesill tracked Congress’s library of secret law.

Speaking of Congress, Tamara Wittes was up on the Hill this week. She shared her recent comments to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the war in Syria.

In Sunday’s Foreign Policy Essay, Daniel Byman argued that the refugee crisis must be thought of as an integration crisis.

In the latest dispatch of Syria Displaced, Laura Dean travels to “big, bad ‘Molenbeekistan.’” She also shared another dispatch featuring “a cop on the Molenbeek beat.”

Chris Mirasola outlined China’s new foreign NGO law and explained that its real purpose is to protect Chinese security interests. Chris also released the latest edition of Water Wars highlighting a close flyby and an annual report that rattled Sino-American ties.

Paul Rosenzweig rounded up the newest Bits and Bytes in “the All-China Cyber Edition.” He also noted an interview by Geof Stone on NSA matters.

Adam Klein provided a few thoughts on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Spokeo v. Robins.

Quinta Jurecic explored the intersection of sextortion, online harassment, and violence against women. And Benjamin Wittes updated us on the legislative response to the sextortion research he recently unveiled with Quinta, Cody Poplin, and Clara Spera.

In reference to sextortion, Nicholas Weaver provided a quick note on building webcams.

Stewart Baker posted the latest edition of the Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast, featuring an interview with Dmitri Alperovitch.

Cody Poplin released the latest Lawfare Podcast, featuring a conversation on Global Intelligence Oversight with Sam Rascoff and Zachary Goldman.

Herb Lin compared the Don’t Panic report and the ODNI’s response to the 1977 Woody Allen film “Annie Hall.”

Paul Rosenzweig flagged his recent article with David Shedd and Cully Stimson of the Heritage Foundation entitled “Maintaining America’s Ability to Collect Foreign Intelligence: The Section 702 Program.”

Robert Chesney and Steve Slick called for paper submissions for the “Bobby R. Iman Award” for student scholarship on intelligence.

David Bosco highlighted a debate between Harold Koh and Claus Kreß clarifying the state of play regarding the crime of aggression.

Benjamin Wittes issued the latest Rational Security, the “When the Cat’s Away” edition.

Alex Loomis asked why the lower courts ignoring Zivotofsky I’s political question analysis.

And finally, Ellen Scholl shared the latest Hot Commodities, the “Things Fall Apart” edition.

And that was the week that was.