Check out this bit of inside baseball in this excellent Greg Jaffe piece about gay servicemembers waiting patiently for a final and to-be-determined end to the military’s ban on open gay service:
Even President Obama, set to name a new Marine Corps commandant in the coming weeks, is likely to
One lingering question from today’s Senate hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder is just how the Justice Department determines which terror suspects get tried in a criminal court and which get tried in a military commission. It’s a persistent uncertainty: David Kris and Jeh Johnson, the two senior-most officials More…
Mike Isikoff scoops the world that retired Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald is going to be appointed new chief “convening authority” of the revamped military commissions — basically the guy who decides if prospective detainees will receive the military-commissions version of indictments — a sign that the new commissions are More…
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduces his bill to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” today. As I write, he’s giving a presser that (alas) I was unable to attend. But via Jen DiMascio at Politico, Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued instructions for his information-gathering team — Pentagon General Counsel Jeh More…
The Pentagon’s top civilian and military leadership made an unequivocal and at times emotional appeal Tuesday to end the decades-long ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, and spelled out a year-long process for securing uniformed and congressional support to change the policy.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates More…
Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is perhaps the barometric view here. Mullen said the heads of the military services did not yet have firm military advice for the president. But then, in a hearing just getting underway in the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mullen More…
The Pentagon general counsel, July 7:
Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson suggested to the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the difficulties inherent in bringing legal charges against (or deciding on preventive detention for) about 220 detainees at Guantanamo Bay means that some continued detention past President Obama’s January
Ever since Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson mused that the Obama administration had the power to detain people acquitted at trial of terrorism charges — and he didn’t distinguish between the limited detainee cohort currently at Guantanamo Bay and future terrorism captures, either — it’s been difficult to gauge More…
Minnesota’s Mohammed Abdullah Warsame has admitted to providing material support to al-Qaeda in the form of cash, military training and personnel. He visited al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 2000. And he kept in touch with old friends. “If you have any news or important information please let me know, More…
Jameel Jaffer, head of the American Civl Liberties Union’s national security project, has a few problems with Defense Department General Jeh Johnson’s speculation yesterday that the Obama administration might detain people even after they’ve been acquitted in a terrorism trial. From a just-released statement:
“Continuing to detain a person
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