Military Law

Full 4th Circuit Hears ‘Enemy Combatant’ Case

Whether the president has the power to hold a legal U.S. resident in military custody as a so-called enemy combatant is being argued today before the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel of the Richmond, Va.-based 4th Circuit ruled in June that the president does not,…

Oct 31, 2007 7:23 PM CDT

Security Contractors in Iraq Face More Oversight

Iraq and the United States are both taking action to increase oversight of private contractors after a September incident in which security guards with Blackwater Worldwide were accused of killing 17 Iraqis. Iraq’s cabinet has approved legislation that would allow private security contractors to face prosecution for wrongdoing, Reuters reports.…

Oct 31, 2007 1:52 PM CDT

Army Overturns Rushed 1944 Conviction of Black Soldiers in Lynching

Updated: An Army review board has overturned the conviction of African-Americans court-martialed for lynching an Italian prisoner of war at a Seattle military base in 1944. The board concluded the trial, which resulted in the convictions of 28 African-Americans, was “fundamentally unfair.” Four men requested the review, but the ruling…

Oct 29, 2007 1:35 PM CDT

Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor Says Meddling Drove Him from Job

Guantanamo’s former chief prosecutor tells the Wall Street Journal he resigned after concluding that U.S. meddling in the prosecutions of accused terrorists would not end with the guilty plea of David Hicks of Australia. Col. Morris Davis said he opposes a new structure in which Guantanamo’s chief prosecutor must report…

Oct 29, 2007 12:55 PM CDT

Was Hicks’ Gitmo Plea a ‘Political Fix’?

The conviction of Australian David Hicks in a U.S. terrorism case after years of imprisonment at an American military prison at Guantanamo Bay has been a hot political issue in his home country. And the controversy is nowhere near dying down even months after he accepted a plea bargain that…

Oct 26, 2007 9:19 PM CDT

Navy Lawyer Convicted for Crusade in a Valentine

A Navy lawyer who mailed a secret list of the names of 551 detainees at Guantanamo to a public interest group in a valentine was convicted for his act of defiance this spring. Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz was disillusioned by the government secrecy policy, which made it difficult for pro…

Oct 22, 2007 7:13 PM CDT

FBI Rebuilding Gitmo Cases

The government is rebuilding cases against 15 accused al-Qaida leaders partly because of concerns that evidence gathered by CIA interrogations is inadmissible or controversial, the Los Angeles Times reports. As many as 300 FBI agents are participating in a task force to gather evidence to be used in military tribunals…

Oct 22, 2007 11:32 AM CDT

American ‘Unlawful Combatants’ Abroad?

As efforts continue to address controversial killings of civilians in Iraq by private American military contractors, some United States officials reportedly are asking whether such conduct could put the U.S. in violation of international treaties. If so, it may be that those responsible for the killings could be characterized as…

Oct 15, 2007 6:46 PM CDT

Families of Dead Iraqis Sue Blackwater

In an unusual effort to hold a private military contractor in Iraq civilly liable for alleged wrongdoing, the families of three dead Iraq civilians and one survivor of a recent Baghdad shooting sued Blackwater USA and its affiliates in federal court in Washington, D.C., this morning. Filed by the Center…

Oct 11, 2007 7:13 PM CDT

Law Firm to Clients: Feds Tapped Our Phones

Lawyers at a Vermont firm that represents clients being held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan believe the federal government may be wiretapping their law office phones. So Gensburg, Atwell & Broderick sent a letter to other clients of the firm on Oct. 2, warning…

Oct 11, 2007 6:48 PM CDT

Hurdles to Blackwater Prosecutions

The government faces many hurdles if it decides to prosecute Blackwater security guards for a Sept. 16 incident in which they killed 17 Iraqis. “A patchwork of laws that are largely untested, and practical obstacles to building cases in war zones, have all but insulated contractors from accountability,” the New…

Oct 11, 2007 1:06 PM CDT

Chief Gitmo Prosecutor Resigns

The chief military prosecutor for the Guantanamo Bay war tribunals has resigned, apparently over a lack of prosecutorial discretion. A Pentagon spokesman says Air Force Col. Moe Davis asked to be assigned to another post after losing a dispute over whether the higher-ranking officer responsible for holding the tribunals should…

Oct 5, 2007 11:12 PM CDT

CIA Director Details Interrogations

In another reaction to a lengthy New York Times article yesterday on secret Department of Justice legal opinions on interrogation tactics, the director of the CIA sent an internal memo to employees disputing the premise that the memos opened the door for harsher methods. In his memo, Michael Hayden describes…

Oct 5, 2007 10:40 PM CDT

Gitmo Lawyer: The Immoral is Mundane

Clive Stafford Smith is a lawyer who serves as the legal director of Reprieve, a British human rights agency that represents prisoners at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Not long ago, he made the news after being accused by military authorities of smuggling contraband briefs—that is to say,…

Oct 5, 2007 6:10 PM CDT

Surveillance Backlash in Britain

The U.K.’s famously state-of-the-art national surveillance system (at least compared to the U.S.), is suddenly taking it on the chin. A blog post today by the Pinsent Masons law firm says up to 95 percent of the closed-circuit television systems in Britain and Wales are illegal—and that may soon be…

Oct 1, 2007 6:50 PM CDT