Terrorism

May the US Kill Rank-and-File Terrorists in Yemen and Somalia? Administration Lawyers Are Split

Administration lawyers are split on whether it is legally permissible to kill rank-and-file terrorists in Yemen and Somalia. The original al-Qaida based in Pakistan and Afghanistan is growing weaker, the New York Times reports. But an al-Qaida affiliate in the Arabian Peninsula and a group called Shabab in Somalia are…

Sep 16, 2011 12:06 PM CDT

Court Spree Shooter Allegedly Abused Wife Long Ago, Looked for Judge Who OK’d 1999 Protective Order

A man who fired 70 rounds at an Arkansas courthouse from semi-automatic weapons on Tuesday before being shot to death in a gunfight with authorities didn’t seem likely to snap, the police chief of his hometown said afterward. But James Palmer’s former wife, and perhaps some of his family members,…

Sep 15, 2011 10:47 PM CDT

Heightened Alert on Sept. 11 Anniversary Led to Courthouse Evacuations in 3 States Today

As many yesterday and today commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a reported credible threat of a plan to set off a bomb in New York or Washington, D.C., led to increased watchfulness nationwide. However, despite concerns about a possible bomb that resulted in evacuations…

Sep 13, 2011 1:48 AM CDT

Sept. 11 Survivor Who Claims US Allowed Attack Has Sued Cheney, Bin Laden and American Airlines

April Gallop is leaving no stone unturned in her effort to recover money after surviving the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon. Gallop has filed suit against Dick Cheney alleging the United States allowed or arranged the Sept. 11 attacks. She has also sued Osama bin Laden, a bank and…

Sep 12, 2011 1:27 PM CDT

Eleven People Killed in Bomb Explosion at New Delhi Appeals Court

Updated: A bomb exploded at an appeals court in India today, killing eleven people and wounding 59 others. The bomb was hidden in a brief case at an entrance to the High Court, an appellate panel below India’s Supreme Court, the Associated Press reports. The bombing was the second at…

Sep 7, 2011 11:29 AM CDT

Contract Dispute Reveals Rendition Program Details; Lawyers Surprised CIA Didn’t Object

Lawyers representing two companies linked to the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program are surprised the agency never objected to contract litigation that played out in an upstate New York courtroom. The plaintiff, Richmor Aviation, had supplied a private plane to a one-man aircraft brokerage business called Sportsflight for a cost of…

Sep 1, 2011 12:10 PM CDT

The Anti-Terror Attorney: Andrew Hall’s Life Is a Story of Survival Against Tyranny

Photo by Helen Ashford/Getty Images One could say that for Andrew C. Hall, life has always been a battle against terror. Hall, founder of Hall, Lamb and Hall in Miami, is credited as the first attorney to win a case in the United States against a country labeled a state…

Sep 1, 2011 9:20 AM CDT

The Legacy of Sept. 11: Still Searching for Focus

Photo by AP Photo/Alexander Fuchs After 10 years, it’s harder than ever to remember what the world was like before Sept. 11, 2001. That world disappeared at 8:46 a.m. Eastern time, the moment on that sparkling morning when the first hijacked airliner crashed into the North Tower of the World…

Sep 1, 2011 9:20 AM CDT

A Day of Days: ABA Members Recall How 9/11 Changed Their Lives and Their Work

Cynthia Weiss Antonucci was walking out the door of her Manhattan townhouse the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the phone rang. It was her roofing contractor, who wanted to stop by to inspect a leak. Antonucci, an attorney at Harris Beach, had a court hearing scheduled for that morning…

Sep 1, 2011 9:16 AM CDT

Turning Point: Even as Threats Still Loom, US Officials Raise Possibility of Defeating al-Qaida

Ten years after the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, top-level U.S. government officials are raising the possibility that a strategic defeat of al-Qaida may be in sight. During his first visit to Afghanistan after becoming secretary of defense on July 1, Leon Panetta indicated that U.S. intelligence has now…

Sep 1, 2011 9:12 AM CDT

Military Tribunals Draw No Flak

If there is significant opposition to the U.S. war on terror, it wasn’t apparent in a roomful of lawyers at one annual meeting program. Salli Swartz, outgoing chair of the ABA Section of International Law, mentioned xenophobia and a “mass intrusion on privacy” as she moderated “9/11—A Decade Later and…

Sep 1, 2011 5:50 AM CDT

Tax Lawyer Burned over Most of His Body on 9/11 Considers Himself Lucky

Cantor Fitzgerald tax lawyer Harry Waizer was in an elevator in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 when terrorists flew a plane into his building. Waizer tells the New York Daily News that his life changed when the elevator plummeted and twice broke out in flames, burning Waizer over…

Aug 15, 2011 4:55 PM CDT

Blawg Review #314: LawLawpalooza 2011

We at ABAJournal.com are honored to be asked to host Blawg Review—“a blog carnival for everyone interested in law”— in conjunction with the 2011 ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto. We are not actually blawgging from Canada—as usual, we are in Chicago taking the el train into the office over the…

Aug 8, 2011 7:00 PM CDT

With a Show of Hands, Lawyers Endorse Military Commissions over Civilian Trials

If there is significant opposition to the U.S. war on terror, it wasn’t apparent in a roomful of lawyers on Friday. Salli Swartz, chair of the ABA Section of International Law, mentioned xenophobia and a “mass intrusion on privacy” as she moderated an ABA Annual Meeting program on the impact…

Aug 5, 2011 7:39 PM CDT

Judge OKs Army Vet’s Suit Against Rumsfeld Over Torture Allegations

A federal judge this week allowed the case of an Army veteran who claims he was imprisoned and tortured by U.S. military in Iraq to move forward against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The vet, who isn’t identified in court documents, was working as a contractor for an American company…

Aug 4, 2011 11:10 AM CDT