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* 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. [...]
* United States v. Payen (S.D.N.Y. Sep. 7, 2011) (25 year sentence in NY terror plot) From the press release: NEW YORK – Laguerre Payen was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for plotting to bomb synagogues in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, N.Y., and to use Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles [...]
* United States v. Irfan Ul Haq, et al. (D.D.C. Sep. 12, 2011) An interesting case. The three defendants (all citizens of Pakistan) ran a human smuggling operation in Ecuador, and agreed to smuggle a man whom they believed was a member of the Pakistani Taliban from Pakistan into the United States. They have [...]
Sigh….the listserv software did not like my use of HTML text in the first attempt to announce this event. I hope this goes better: * upcoming events: The HLS-Brookings Project on Law and Security, "Law, Security, & Liberty after 9/11" (Harvard, Friday and Saturday this week) (co-sponsored by the Harvard National Security Journal) [...]
"Differential News Framing of Unmanned Aerial Drones: Efficient and Effective or Illegal and Inhumane?" APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper TIMOTHY JONES, Bellevue College, University of WashingtonEmail: tim.jones@bellevuecollege.eduPENELOPE SHEETS, affiliation not provided to SSRNCHARLES ROWLING, University of WashingtonEmail: rowlingc@u.washington.edu Over the past four years, the United States has significantly expanded its use of unmanned aerial vehicles, [...]
* forthcoming scholarship The Soldier, the State and the Separation of Powers (email dpearlst@yu.edu for copy of the paper) Deborah N. Pearlstein (Cardozo) (forthcoming Texas L. Rev. 2012) As U.S. counterterrorism activities continue to engage the armed forces in profound legal and policy debates over detention, interrogation, targeting and the use of [...]
This evening at Harvard Law School, John Brennan (the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism) delivered an important speech concerning the legal and policy aspects of counterterrorism policy, including some remarkably detailed comments on targeting standards. The full text is posted here. The following passages struck me as particularly important: An area [...]
* United States v. Jayyousi, Hassoun, and Padilla (11th Cir. Sep. 19, 2011) (affirming convictions, granting government cross-appeal on Padilla’s sentence) An across-the-board win for the government in the long-awaited appeal of the conviction and sentencing of Jose Padilla and his co-defendants. Nothing too novel about it from the point of view of the [...]
2 items related to Mexico and transnational criminal organizations * “Calderon’s Cauldron: Lessons from Mexico’s Battle Against Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Michoacan” Vanda Felbab-Brown (Brookings) (September 2011) This monograph explores the effectiveness of the security and law enforcement and socio-economic approaches adopted in Mexico over the past [...]
* al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Dep’t of Treasury (9th Cir. Sep. 23, 2011) A 9th Circuit panel has determined that the OFAC designation process is unconstitutional in various ways, but that the designation of al-Haramain was appropriate. The opinion is here, and the conclusion follows: In summary, we hold as follows: 1. Substantial [...]
* United States v. Kassar (2d Cir. Sep. 21, 2011) A Second Circuit panel has affirmed the conviction of three defendants who were convicted on charges stemming from a sting operation involving a faux effort by the FARC to obtain weapons for use against U.S. personnel. It’s a fascinating fact pattern. As for the [...]
* Regina v. Nasser et al (UK, Sep. 25, 2011) (charges in alleged suicide bomb plot) Last Sunday police in Birmingham, England, arrested a group of suspects in connection with an alleged suicide bombing plot. Details of the allegations, along with the charges, are posted here by the West Midlands Police. I’ve also posted [...]
–_006_51F6B3FDE3C5964BB99ECB81E17EB73904CDFE5A53EXCHMAILausti_ Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=”_000_51F6B3FDE3C5964BB99ECB81E17EB73904CDFE5A53EXCHMAILausti_” –_000_51F6B3FDE3C5964BB99ECB81E17EB73904CDFE5A53EXCHMAILausti_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii” Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable * IACL and Bocconi University present “Secrecy, National Security, and the = Vindication of Constitutional Law” (Dec. 1-2, 20110) (Milan) Going to be in Milan in early December, or looking for a reason to go? The International Association of Constitutional Law Research Group on Const= [...]
* United States v. Alwan (W.D. Kentucky Sep. 27, 2011) (denial of motion to dismiss) District Judge Thomas Russell has denied defendant Waad Ramadan Alwan’s motion to dismiss counts 1 and 2 of the indictment against him, in a much-discussed prosecution involving individuals accused of having been insurgents in Iraq who attacked American troops. [...]
Ok, looks like the military commission process is ready to roll forward again. Charges have just been referred in the al-Nashiri case. Next step: arraignment. Thanks to the very-slick new commissions website (www.mc.mil), the charges are available here. They include some but not all the charges originally specified by prosecutors. To wit: Charge 1: [...]
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} RSVP’s are required for this one, at the address indicated below: The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law presents Curbing Needless Secrecy: Reducing Overclassification Through Accountability Classification is one of the most important tools our government has to keep us safe. But [...]
