Two weeks ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in the midst of negotiations with the White House over trading a military tribunal for 9/11 conspirator Khalid Shaikh Mohammed for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, floated a new proposal: “a new national security court” for terrorism detainees. Graham More…
Human Rights First has just released a new report updating its previous study of criminal terrorism cases prosecuted since the early 1990s. Once again, it concludes that the federal courts are fully capable of prosecuting complex and sensitive cases of international terrorism.
The organization’s previous report, issued More…
NPR’s report this morning that the Brookings Institution’s Benjamin Wittes has proposed what’s expected to be a highly influential plan for “preventive detention” — which could lock up “dangerous” terror suspects potentially forever without charge or trial — gives even more urgency to the question that Spencer raised More…
As Spencer just noted, it’s yet another day of strange and tumultuous proceedings, the five detainees charged with planning the 9/11 attacks withdrew their initial attempt to plead guilty before the Guantanamo military commission. Although all five detainees this morning sent a letter to the judge indicating they More…
In the NY Times Week in Review on Sunday, Jonathan Mahler opens his piece about “How to Define Terror” with the story of Salim Hamdan, former driver for Osama bin Laden, who was shipped back to Yemen last week after being acquitted of most of the charges brought against More…
Whatever you think of the prosecution and conviction yesterday of the Holy Land Foundation following a 7-week trial, it does seem to prove that federal courts are capable of handling the prosecution of suspected terrorists.
Holy Land former chairman Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu-Baker, the group’s chief executive, were More…
When word leaked last week that advisers to President-elect Barack Obama were suggesting he create special national-security courts to try high-level Guantanamo detainees, a firestorm erupted among civil-rights advocates and lawyers who’ve represented prisoners there.
By the next day, the Obama camp had issued a statement backing away from the More…
Monday’s news that President-elect Barack Obama and his advisers are planning to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and prosecute some of the prisoners detained there in special national-security courts has prompted a retreat by the Obama team and swift responses by advocates on all sides.
On Tuesday, senior Obama More…
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