The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged laws of war

U.S. Will Transfer Gitmo Child Soldier to Civilian Court, But Still Won’t Let Him Go

By | 07.27.09 | 8:49 am

It wasn’t until late Friday afternoon that the Obama Justice Department, after years of wrangling over the fate of Mohammed Jawad, the Afghan boy arrested for allegedly lobbing a hand grenade at U.S. soldiers in 2002, admitted that it does not have enough evidence to continue to hold him More…

Obama May Seek Authority Outlined by Mukasey

By | 07.21.09 | 4:14 pm

It’s been exactly one year since then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey proposed in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute that Congress pass legislation declaring a new, expanded war with al-Qaeda and the Taliban — thereby granting the president the authority to detain indefinitely members of those groups anywhere in More…

The Real Test for Obama on Indefinite Detention

By | 07.02.09 | 5:09 pm

Here’s another point I should have made in my piece earlier today: Just because President Obama’s Justice Department has been asserting a remarkably broad, Bush-like view of his detention authority pursuant to the laws of war in the Guantanamo detainees’ habeas corpus cases, that doesn’t mean the president More…

What Is ‘Battlefield’ Detention, Anyway?

By | 07.02.09 | 11:30 am

Since my piece on the intensifying battle over “preventive detention” was published, Ken Gude from the Center for American Progress wrote to point out an important distinction that deserves more emphasis.

As I note in my story, Gude and Kate Martin, Director of the Center for National Security More…

Debate Intensifies Over Preventive Detention

By | 07.02.09 | 12:01 am

Ever since President Obama said in his speech at the National Archives that he believes there’s a category of people at Guantanamo who can’t be tried in criminal court or by military commission but are too dangerous to release, legal and More…

Bush Lawyer: Prolonged Indefinite Detention Is Already Widespread

By | 06.09.09 | 12:44 pm

At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning titled “The Legal, Moral, and National Security Consequences of ‘Prolonged Detention,’” it was actually Richard Klingler, a former lawyer in the Office of White House Counsel under President George W. Bush and former general counsel on the National Security Council staff, More…

Afghan-Taliban talks could boost the case for war crimes charges against Bush Administration officials

By | 10.08.08 | 2:44 pm

As Spencer Ackerman reported yesterday, it appears the Taliban have been talking to the Afghan government, with the help of Saudi Arabia.

Reports last week noted that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had asked the Saudi king for help in reaching out to the Taliban, in the hope of brokering More…