Let’s Call it the Slate of the Union

Tomorrow there will be a fantastic event sponsored by three of my favorite organizations on a topic of great interest to me: 

The Federalist Society’s International Law and National Security Law Practice Group, The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and The National Review Institute are sponsoring an event entitled: “The War on Terror: Where Are We Now? Where Do We Go from Here?” 

The organizers have put together a balanced and brilliant panel, something which is always the case with Federalist Society events, making this a must attend for those who want to hear reasoned debate from both sides of the arguments over counterterrorism. 

The panelists include:

• Mr. Steven A. Engel, Partner, Dechert LLP
• The Hon. Neal K. Katyal, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice
• Mr. David B. Rivkin, Jr., Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP and Co-Chairman, Center for Law and Counterterrorism
• Prof. Stephen I. Vladeck, American University Washington College of Law
• Prof. Neomi Rao, George Mason University School of Law, Moderator

Here is a more detailed description of the event:

Read the full entry »

The always fantastic Sentinel, a publication of West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center is now available on-line, here. 

There is an interesting line up of articles on al Qaeda specifically, and the jihadist threat more broadly.  Included are:

• The Façade of Allegiance: Bin Ladin’s Dubious Pledge to Mullah Omar by Vahid Brown
• Assessing the Al-Qa`ida Threat to the United States by Martha Crenshaw
• The Pakistan Military’s Adaptation to Counterinsurgency in 2009 by Sameer Lalwani
• Karachi Becoming a Taliban Safe Haven? By Imtiaz Ali
• Uighur Dissent and Militancy in China’s Xinjiang Province by Chris Zambelis
• Ninawa Province: Al-Qa`ida’s Remaining Stronghold by Andrea Plebani
• The French Approach to Counterterrorism by Charles Rault

Exactly one year has passed since President Obama declared he would close Guantanamo.

And today, The Washington Post reports that his Department of Justice Task Force will recommend “that nearly 50 of the 196 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war.”  How long will we have to wait before human rights groups begin to call President Obama a war criminal?  How long until those who called for President Bush’s indictment by an international tribunal make the same call? 

Don’t hold your breath.  Back in 2005 Amnesty International called Guantanamo “the Gulag of our times”  equating the Bush administration to war criminals.  Now, their tune has moderated –of course in their eyes it is still bad that Guantanamo remains open– but they’ve toned down their Gulag language and now we hear “people around the world who care about human rights and the rule of law will be extremely disheartened” by President Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo.  Disheartened is probably an improvement from the dyspepsia which gripped most of these people during the Bush administration. 

Not to be outdone in moderation, Anthony Romero of the ACLU blandly stated Read the full entry »

This video shows the “rehabilitation” program in Saudi Arabia which former GITMO detainees were sent to.  One program graduate, Said Ali al-Shihiri is second in command of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and was a key planner of the christmas bombing plot.  Note how the prison is a palace and the rehabilitation center is akin to a luxury resort.  Between this and Uighurs in Bermuda, it’s no wonder that al Qaeda recruiting is up. 

Thanks to Marc Thiessen for the pointer.

Bobby Chesney at the University of Texas prepared a handy list of National Security Law related events at the AALS conference in New Orleans January 6-10, 2010.  I’ve included the list below. 

Read the full entry »

The Bar Association of the District of Columbia is proud to announce that it has established a Committee on National Security Law, Policy and Practice.  

The Bar Association of the District of Columbia (BADC) invites its members and any attorneys wishing to become members of the BADC to join its new Committee on National Security Law, Policy and Practice.  The BADC has for many years sponsored committees or sections on civil rights, criminal law, military law, patent law, securities law and many other topics of professional interest to its membership. These committees provide a forum for BADC members to share expertise, receive instruction and training, and contribute to the public debate about cutting edge issues that arise in these areas of practice. 

With the growing role and prominence of national and homeland security issues in national politics and the D.C. practice of law, the BADC has decided to establish a committee of practitioners who work regularly and/or have a professional interest in these issues. 

The co-chairmen of the Committee on National Security Law, Policy and Practice are Steven Cash of Harris, Cutler, Cash & Houghteling LLP and Ken Wainstein of O’Melveny & Myers. They have designed a proposed first-year agenda that will address a range of topics, to include: 

1. Electronic surveillance, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the role of private communications providers in the government’s surveillance efforts.

2. Export control law, practice and legal reform. 

3. Practice before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. 

4. The use of federal civil courts and military commissions to prosecute crimes relating to terrorism. 

5. Corporate Due Diligence in the world of national security contracts. 

6. Representing national security officers before Congress and the Courts. 

7. Privacy interests in the effort to “harden the homeland.” 

8. Classified information, the Classified Information Procedures Act, and the protection of sensitive intelligence sources and methods in the criminal process. 

9. The First Amendment, leak investigations and the proposed federal media shield legislation. 

The new committee will hold seminars and discussion groups to consider these issues, and will bring in subject-matter experts and current and former government officials to provide their insights and perspectives. 

Steve and Ken invite all current or potential BADC members to join the committee. Please contact the following email addresses:

scash@hcchlaw.com (Steve Cash) or kwainstein@omm.com (Ken Wainstein).

For lawyers wishing to join BADC, please sign up through the BADC website, www.badc.org. 

The first meeting of the new committee will take place at 4:30 p.m. on January 7, 2010 at the O’Melveny & Myers office on the 10th floor of 1625 “Eye” Street, N.W. Anybody attending the January 7 meeting, please RSVP to Julianne Paxson at jpaxson@omm.com.

The admitted mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects will head to New York City, blocks from Ground Zero,  to face a federal trial in civilian court and it is creating quite the controversy. 

I appeared on Lawyer2Lawyer, with co-hosts and attorneys, Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams.  Also appearing was Attorney Tara L. Murray, U.S. Counsel for Reprieve we discussed this controversial federal trial in a NY civilian court, the ongoing legal work in Guantanamo and ultimately the closing of Guantanamo.

Issue 3/4 of The National Security Law Report, the journal of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security is now available on-line (full disclosure, I’m the general editor).  Here is a snip from the Table of Contents