Robert M. Chesney is Charles I. Francis Professor in Law at UT-Austin School of Law. Chesney is a national security law specialist, with a particular interest in problems associated with terrorism. Professor Chesney recently served in the Justice Department in connection with the Detainee Policy Task Force created by Executive Order 13493. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security, a senior editor for the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, an associate member of the Intelligence Science Board, a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the American Law Institute. Professor Chesney has published extensively on topics ranging from detention and prosecution in the counterterrorism context to the states secrets privilege. He served previously as chair of the Section on National Security Law of the Association of American Law Schools and as editor of the National Security Law Report (published by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security). His upcoming projects include two books under contract with Oxford University Press, one concerning the evolution of detention law and policy and the other examining the judicial role in national security affairs.
Leon Panetta appeared on PBS Newshour not long after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency at that time, and during the course of the interview he took up the question of the CIA’s role in the attack.
* United States v. Boyd (E.D.N.C. Sep. 14, 2011) (yes, another guilty plea) Well, I spoke to soon. Another DOJ win in a terrorism case. You have to admire the concatenation of inchoateness in this particular charge: aiding-and-abetting a conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, where that underlying material support offense in turn is [...]
* United States v. Harpham (E.D. Wash. Sep. 7, 2011) (guilty plea) Ok, this should be it for today. Last week was a busy one for DOJ in terrorism cases! In this case, Kevin Harhpham has pled guilty to placing an IED along the planned route for the MLK Day parade in Spokane last January. [...]
“The Evolution of Wiretapping” Engage: The Journal of the Federalist Society, Vol. 12, No. 2, Fall 2011 Paul Rosenzweig,CYBERWARFARE: HOW CONFLICTS IN CYBERSPACE ARE CHALLENGING AMERICA AND CHANGING THE WORLD, Praeger, 2012 PAUL ROSENZWEIG, George Washington University School of Law, The Heritage Foundation The technology for communications through cyberspace have begun to outstrip the capabilities [...]
“Leveling the Deference Playing Field” Kathryn E. Kovacs (Rutgers) Judicial deference to federal agency expertise is appropriate. What is not appropriate is the judicial tendency to give the military more deference than other agencies not only in cases that directly implicate military expertise, but also in administrative law cases raising constitutional, environmental, and employment issues. [...]
A guilty plea today in a case involving a man who unknowingly provided financial support (via an illegal hawala arrangement) to Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber. Details from the press release appear below, and the plea agreement is attached. NEW YORK – Mohammad Younis pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to operating [...]
* United States v. Omar (D. Minn. Aug. 2011) (material support & murder conspiracy indictment in al-Shabaab case) A Somali man (with lawful permanent resident status in the US) has been extradited from the Netherlands to the United States to face charges including conspiracy to commit murder abroad (18 USC 956(a)) and [...]
* upcoming event: "Ten Years In: Appraising the International Law of the ‘Long War’ in Afghanistan and Pakistan" (BU School of Law, Oct. 14, 2011) Please see the attached pdf for the details for this terrific upcoming conference at Boston University School of Law. See also the information below: Ten Years In: Appraising the International [...]
* United States v. Abdo (W.D. Tex. Aug. 9, 2011) (indictment in Fort Hood bomb plot case) A grand jury yesterday returned an indictment in the case of Naser Abdo, the guy recently arrested in connection with an alleged bomb plot in relation to Killeen (the same guy who shouted “Major Nidal Hassan 2009!” in [...]
Proportionality in Counterinsurgency: A Relational Theory Evan J. Criddle (Syracuse University College of Law) 87 Notre Dame Law Review (2011) At a time when the United States has undertaken high-stakes counterinsurgency campaigns in three countries (Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan) while offering support to insurgents in a fourth (Libya), it is striking that the international legal [...]
* United States v. Begolly (W.D. Pa. Aug. 9, 2011) (guilty plea) Well, for better or worse this ends what would otherwise likely have been a very interesting First Amendment case involving the constitutionality of charging solicitation based on online incitement to terrorism (as well as the constitutionality of prosecuting for the publication of bomb-making [...]
* United States v. Abdo (W.D. Tex.) (Ft. Hood indictment) As you probably have heard by now, an AWOL soldier from Ft. Campbell was arrested this week in Texas in connection with an apparent bomb plot targeting Ft. Hood soldiers. Details from the press release are below, and the indictment is attached: WACO, Texas – [...]
Last week, the President issued an Executive Order, acting under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), that imposes sanctions on four TCOs (including most notably Los Zetas, in Mexico) and also creating a system for further designations of such groups…and their material supporters. Very interesting stuff. Details, and links to the order, are here.
* United States v. Henareh, et al. (S.D.N.Y. July 2011); United States v. Gul (S.D.N.Y. July 2011) For those of you interested in the intersection of terrorism, organized crime, and narcotics—not to mention international cooperation in investigating such matters—these will be very interesting: NEW YORK – Two indictments resulting from two DEA narco-terrorism undercover operations [...]
* Guilty plea in al-Shabab recruitment case in Minneapolis This is the latest in a series of convictions federal prosecutors have obtained in response to the recruitment of young Somali-American men in the Minneapolis area to travel to Somalia to fight for al-Shabab. Details from the press release follow: MINNEAPOLIS – Earlier today in federal [...]
For those of you who do not use Facebook, the following may not be of interest. But for those of you who do, you might want to take note of the growing number of national security law-related outlets that have pages providing feeds of their own content, posts from others, and (hopefully increasingly often) comments [...]
A request for information from a colleague: If your school has or is contemplating having an LLM degree program focused more or less on national security and the law, please send an email to Professor Peter Raven-Hansen at pravenhansen. Thanks! (FYI, he does know about Georgetown’s new program).
* forthcoming scholarship The latest issue of the Journal of National Security Law and Policy is out, and as usual it has lots of great stuff in it. I’ve previously posted the lead article from David Kris, but below you’ll see all the rest as well. The Journal of National Security Law & Policy (JNSLP) [...]
* United States v. Begolly (E.D. Va. July 14, 2011) (indictment alleging solicitation to carry out terrorist attacks and distribution of explosives knowledge) A fascinating case. Details from the press release below, and the indictment is attached: WASHINGTON – Emerson Winfield Begolly, 22, of New Bethlehem, Pa., was indicted by a federal grand jury in [...]
Call for Papers: Lieber Society Richard Baxter Military Writing Prize (see attachments) Professor Eric Jensen (BYU) writes with the following call for papers: Attached you will find the announcement for the 2012 LIEBER SOCIETY RICHARD R. BAXTER MILITARY WRITING PRIZE. We have also included an announcement of the change of the award to honor Richard [...]
