Anthony Clark Arend

The Washington Post reports:
When senior Obama administration officials invoked the state secrets privilege Saturday to dismiss a lawsuit brought on behalf of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, they declared in federal court that the case threatened to expose secret military and intelligence operations against al-Qaeda’s overseas network.
In a 60-page filing, the government asked U.S. District Judge [John] Bates to dismiss a …

Former Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith has an op ed in today Washington Post in which he comments on the current dysfunctionality of the current detention and trial system for terror suspects. His specific recommendations:
There is no silver bullet for this mess, but a few pragmatic steps can bring real progress toward resolution.
First, give up on closing the Guantanamo Bay …

My former student and MSFS alum, Salmah Rizvi, has an excellent post over at The Daily Beast on the contributions of Muslim American to counterterrorism. Rizvi, now an analyst for the US Department of Defense, writes:

In the neverending “ground zero mosque” debate, many people have been asking one question: Where are the moderate Muslims who denounce terrorism?
To that …

Former Air Force interrogator, who writes under the pseudonym, Matthew Alexander, has an outstanding piece over at The Huffington Post in support of building Cordoba House– the proposed Muslim  community center and mosque. Alexander writes:
The debate over the mosque in lower Manhattan has caused our country’s political volcano to erupt. Republicans and Democrats, among them Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, …

This is a strange trial for so many reasons. And now, the Christian Science Monitor reports today:
The Guantánamo war crimes tribunal of a Canadian national accused of murdering a US special forces soldier in Afghanistan has been postponed for a least a month after his defense lawyer became ill during the first day of the trial.
Army Lt. Col. Jon Jackson …

Anna Mehler Paperny at The Globe and  Mail reports today:
A Guantanamo Bay military judge has dealt a blow to Canadian Omar Khadr’s legal case: All the confessions the prosecution wanted to submit at his war-crimes trial are fair game.
The decision, coming late Monday afternoon, supports the prosecution’s argument that threats of gang rape and alleged abuse in one interrogation do …

A previous post reported on the decision by the Supreme Court to allow the military commission trial of Guantanamo detainee, Omar Khadr to proceed next week. Over at the Crimes of War Project, Colonel Morris Davis, the former Chief Prosecutor of Military Commissions, expresses concern about the military commissions proceedings. After a very useful discussion of pending cases and issues, …

The New York Times reports:
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. as the next director of national intelligence, overseeing the nation’s 16 spy agencies. President Obama nominated General Clapper, who served as the Pentagon’s chief intelligence official and is retired from the Air Force, to succeed Dennis C. Blair, who stepped down.