rssPosts by Daphne Eviatar
Conservatives Attack Administration for Upholding Constitution
The Wall Street Journal, Pat Buchanan and others are already condemning the Obama administration for treating Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a civilian criminal rather than an illegal warrior to whom we can presumably do whatever we please. We are in “a war,” The Journal More…
Charging of Plane Bombing Suspect Highlights Obama’s Inconsistencies
The Obama administration’s decision to try the Nigerian man suspected of attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas as an ordinary civilian criminal rather than as an “unprivileged enemy belligerent” in a military commission, as the 9/11 hijackers initially were, highlights the inconsistent approach taken by both More…
Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Airline Attack; Prosecutors Cancel Court Hearing
Prosecutors today unexpectedly canceled the first court hearing scheduled for the “underpants bomber” — the Nigerian man suspected of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet en route to Detroit on Friday.
The Justice Department was expected to seek a warrant to take a DNA sample from More…
Republicans Use Nigerian’s Ties to Yemen to Oppose Closing Gitmo
Following up on Spencer’s post, while President Obama’s critics are silent on the detention of alleged would-be Northwest Airlines Flight 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab at a federal prison in Michigan, the failed attempt to blow up the flight to Detroit on Christmas has fast become another More…
Gitmo Not Likely to Close Till 2011 at the Earliest
We’d already set aside the January 2010 deadline for closing the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay that President Obama set on his first day in office. But now the administration is acknowledging that it probably won’t close the prison down until 2011 — at the earliest.
While funding is the More…
Court OKs Pretextual Use of Immigration Detention
In a ruling that slid in quietly under the news radar, a federal court of appeals ruled late last Friday that the government can lawfully use immigration detention as an excuse to conduct criminal investigations into non-citizens if the government likely has the right to deport that person. More…
U.S. Transfers 12 Detainees Out of Gitmo
The Department of Justice this morning announced that twelve detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region.
Here’s the announcement, with the names of the detainees, which had previously been withheld:
As directed by the President’s
NYT Supports Nadler Legislation to Restore Court Access
The New York Times’ editorial board weighs in today in favor of Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) proposed legislation to effectively overturn two recent Supreme Court cases that significantly narrowed the ability of many victims to have their day in court.
Untested Military Commissions Face Challenges
In February 2004, Ubrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was charged with conspiring with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere to attack and murder civilians and destroy property. The government claimed that al Qosi was an armed guard and driver for Osama bin Laden going back More…
Sharp Rise in Immigration Filings Drives Criminal Prosecution Stats
Federal criminal prosecutions reached an all-time high in Fiscal Year 2009, driven by a sharp increase in immigration prosecutions. According to case-by-case data obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), overall federal prosecutions were up nearly 9 percent from the previous year, but More…
