While the unsuccessful attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day captured the headlines and put major political roadblocks in the path of prisoner release from Guantanamo Bay, the courts – far more quietly – continued to play a major role in influencing the detention issue. That influence was demonstrated by two cases …
Continue reading “Afghan Prisoners Challenge Indefinite Detention”
His actions increased our risk of attack, says Ivan Eland
The botched attempt by a Nigerian, apparently trained in Yemen by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, to conduct a suicide bombing on a plane as it neared Detroit has highlighted the U.S. government’s overzealous, ineffective, and even counterproductive efforts to overcome terrorism. Although Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano’s stance that "the system" worked buckled under …
Continue reading “Learning the Wrong Lessons From the Attempted Bombing”
The attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner by a Nigerian allegedly associated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has propelled long-neglected Yemen into the media spotlight. The attempt, which was foiled by alert passengers who subdued the alleged bomber, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, as he tried to set off explosives, could result …
Continue reading “Aborted Bombing Puts Yemen in the Limelight”
It just wouldn’t be Christmas in the age of terror if we didn’t have a visitation, ostensibly from al-Qaeda, now would it? ‘Tis the season, and all that. Recall Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber," arrested on December 22, 2001, for trying to blow up American Airlines flight 63, coming into Miami from Paris. As in …
Continue reading “The Lap Bomber Mystery”
As the holiday travel season rolls around again, the government’s terrorism watch list and no-fly list get ever more bizarre. Of course, for starters, the list has always been unconstitutional, because the government does not have probable cause to believe the vast majority of those on the list have committed a crime (otherwise they could …
Continue reading “Government Terrorism Lists Are a Holiday Turkey”
The U.S. government’s decision to bring five high-profile terror suspects to the United States to face trials in a civilian court has drawn reactions ranging from praise to condemnation to confusion. While human rights advocates are generally applauding the decision to conduct trials in federal court in New York, they are at the same time …
Continue reading “Decision on 9/11 Trials Sparks Praise, Anger”
A weird concatenation of events – the Ft. Hood shoot-up, the decision by the Obama administration to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters, and the seizure of a mosque and other properties said to be owned by a front for the Iranian government – has once again brought the question of domestic …
Continue reading “The Trial of the Century and the Long Shadow of 9/11”
Charles V. Peña on the rush to politicize Ft. Hood
Human rights advocates and legal scholars are voicing sharp criticism of President Barack Obama’s revisions to the George W. Bush administration’s Military Commissions Act of 2006, characterizing them as unnecessary and saying the new law will lead to further delays and create a system of "second-class justice." One powerful advocacy group, the American Civil Liberties …
Continue reading “Rights Groups: Obama’s Terrorism Courts ‘Fatally Flawed’” 
