Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, today called for holding Ahmad Khan Rahami, the Afghan-American arrested as the sole suspect in the Chelsea bombing, as an enemy combatant: placing him in indefinite military custody and interrogating him without a defense lawyer or a Miranda warning that he has any right to remain silent. Graham argued that the […]
Author: Charlie Savage
Two new FOIA lawsuits about detainees and surveillance — explained
In the past few weeks, the New York Times and I have filed two new Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. This post will explain them. (The hard work, as always, is being done by the NYT’s lawyer, David McCraw, as well as our outgoing annual NYT First Amendment fellow, Tali Leinwald, who is off to […]
Pour one out for another fruitful FOIA case for surveillance documents
Another excellent Freedom of Information Act case for surveillance documents came to an end late last month while I was on vacation, so I’m only now getting to it. It was for inspector general reports at the National Security Agency about the three programs that grew out of Stellarwind. The germ of the idea for this FOIA came from […]
As Gitmo’s Camp 5 closes, the backstory of my 2003 story disclosing its existence
Today, my friend Carol Rosenberg of The Miami Herald, who does God’s work by traveling to Guantanamo to cover every day of every pre-trial hearing in the dysfunctional military commissions system, reports that the military has closed Camp 5 and consolidated the remaining 46 regular detainees in Camp 6. (The 15 former CIA black-site high-value prisoners […]
ISIS war powers lawsuit update and backstory
Today, David Remes and Bruce Ackerman, the lawyers representing an army captain who is suing President Obama over the legality of the armed conflict against the Islamic State, filed a lengthy brief – the plaintiff’s opposition to the government’s motion to dismiss the case. In it, they seek to advance their arguments both that the […]
A FOIA lawsuit that brought to light large amounts of information about post-9/11 surveillance may be ending
Today, Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York issued a ruling in a Freedom of Information Act case brought by The New York Times and me. The case centered on various Justice Department inspector general reports about post-9/11 surveillance. The government had already made public a sizable amount of information due to this […]
Q&A with the Pentagon about Battle Damage Assessments, the Law of War Manual, and Non-Combatants who Support the Enemy
Below, I publish a written Q&A between myself and the Pentagon about rules for targeting and battle damage assessments, including how civilians who provide support to a military force, and are killed in strikes aimed at that force, are counted. Although I was addressing my questions to military lawyers, the exchange took place through Lt. Col. […]
Update from Venezuela on the Lost & Found Ex-Gitmo Detainee
Latest statement from Jon Eisenberg, lawyer for Jihad Diyab/Dhiab: Andres Conteris, who is a member of the U.S. human rights group Witness Against Torture and is part of an informal group of Uruguayans who have offered support to Mr. Dhiab since his arrival in Uruguay, met this morning with a member of the Venezuelan foreign […]
Who are the two mystery agencies Obama says must help review capture operations, but not targeted killings?
The May 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG), also known as the “playbook” for drone strikes outside of conventional war zones, is now mostly public, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. In Chapter 6 of Power Wars, I outlined the second-term interagency process for signing off on proposed targeted killing […]
Lawyer asks Venezuela to let the ex-Gitmo detainee who went missing from Uruguay talk to him
In June, Jihad Diyab (also spelled Dhiab), an erratic former Guantanamo Bay detainee from Syria who was resettled in Uruguay (and who is also the plaintiff in a continuing lawsuit seeking to make public videotapes of forcefeeding sessions), said he was going to be incommunicado for the month of Ramadan. Then authorities lost track of him. This […]