In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

05 May

The video is here. No big surprises. Dellinger's argument is based on the post-9/11 Authorization for the Use of Military Force and that under international law "you can kill enemy combatants."  Dellinger explains that drones attacks on other al Qaeda members are legal too. However, regarding drone attacks, I wish he hadn't said that that there was "a policy judgment" to be made...

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04 May

Cross-posted at Balkinization In response to my post a few days ago lamenting the post-bin Laden urge to rehash debates about torture’s efficacy, Ben Wittes writes to disagree. “Pearlstein is right, of course, that we will never know with any certainty whether any specific piece of information that the CIA program developed would have been developed had the program used no coercion–or...

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03 May

The United States military sent some of its most highly trained combat experts into Pakistan without asking for Pakistan's permission. They entered Pakistan's airspace in military helicopters specifically equipped to defeat the Pakistani air defenses. According to a national security official in the immediate aftermath of the operation they went there for the sole purpose of killing Osama...

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03 May

Often used to model legislative politics, positive political theory (PPT) has core insights that can be applied to the journal submissions process as well. There are important differences between the legislative and editorial processes. Like legislative action, however, editors' deliberations and voting on submissions are a process of aggregating preferences within the constraints of voting rules and other institutional features....

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02 May

Cross-posted at Balkinization For all the interesting things that might be said about the still-emerging circumstances of bin Laden’s death, it’s disheartening to see conversation already turning to old, old debates about interrogation. Peter King (R-N.Y.) was naturally quick to suggest that reports that information leading to bin Laden’s capture came from detainees held at Guantanamo Bay should lead Obama...

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02 May

Over at Lawfare Ben Wittes aks Will Bin Laden's Death Reignite the Interrogation Debate? I think there is little doubt that it will. Consider this recent post by Marc Thiessen over at The American Enterprise blog.  Thiessen writes: "So Guantanamo detainees provided the key intelligence that allowed the CIA to track down bin Laden. But not just any Guantanamo detainees. It turns...

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02 May

It is interesting comparing this mornings posts. Ken's sober, philosophical reflection on all that has gone on since 9/11, Kevin's reflexive response to view events through a political lens, and Greg's operationally-minded quest for figuring out "who's next, and when will we get him?" My reaction contained elements of all three. Having friends that died in Afghanistan trying to...

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01 May

Beyond confirming that Bin Laden was actually the person killed in Abottabad, what is the significance of troops being on the ground to conduct the Bin Laden Operation?  Can their presence lead us to the new #1 in al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri? In the coming days we will likely hear about the gathering of "pocket litter" and other exploitable intelligence and...

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01 May

Thanks to OJ for allowing me to guest blog for a bit.  I'm a law professor at Pepperdine, specializing in national security law and policy. First off, there is a lot of talk about this operation being a "human operation" involving special operations forces.  Some readers may assume that this meant there were no air assets involved (e.g. no Predators and...

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