Scribbling, scribbling, scribbling on the Internet.
Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report has finally been released to the Department of Justice, and thus far, the item on which people are focusing the most is the apparent fact that Mueller has recommended no further indictments. This little bit of news has apparently caused “glee” in the White House, which believes that “this was a …
Continue reading "A Ridiculously Quick Take on the Mueller Report"
Today, Monday, January 30, 2017, has seen yet more insanity perpetrated on the country by the Trump administration, which continues to be determined to prove itself the worst thing to have ever happened to American politics. First off, let it be noted that the Trump travel ban/Muslim ban was both stupid and evil: Let’s start …
Continue reading "Anatomy of Craziness–Monday Night Massacre Edition"
I agree with Benjamin Wittes when he writes that "there’s a lot to be said for a foreign policy organization’s willingness to hear out, ventilate, and challenge the views of our foreign policy adversaries." I also agree with Benjamin Wittes when he writes that during the hearing, there should be no effort to whitewash awful and despicable …
Continue reading "Why Don’t Evil Regimes Get Called Out as Evil Regimes?"
Well . . . maybe, if certain noises from the Obama administration are to be believed. But Benjamin Wittes is rightly skeptical: Let me be blunt about this: I will believe this the day it happens, and not a moment before. If Obama were serious about using the power of his office to close Guantanamo, …
Continue reading "Are We Finally Going to Close Guantanamo?"
I hereby direct you to support Lawfare. As I have written before, it is one of the best and most informative sites out there, and certainly the best at discussing the intersection between law and national security policy. Indeed, Lawfare is so good, that it is routinely the subject of Denial of Service Attacks and attacks of more hawkish varieties1 launched …
If you believe Glenn Greenwald’s new book (which I reviewed here), the NSA’s appetite for gobbling up communications is unlimited. Legal controls on its behavior are trivial. Its much-repeated claim that it does not spy on American citizens is a lie. And its goal in its collection activities is political control over citizens, whom surveillance renders …
It's one of the best blogs out there, and it is the target of a lot of cyber attacks from people/institutions who are discomfited by the site's exceedingly justified prominence. Benjamin Wittes and the Lawfare gang are committed to keeping the site going, but they are going to need help. Please give that help--as much …
On Friday of last week, Rick Perlstein of the Nation, wrote this post, in which he claimed that the New Republic was "taking money from an NSA contractor to run defenses of the NSA." The post also implicated Lawfare. Perlstein argued that "[t]he National Security Agency has a friend at the Harvard Law School. And …
I am very pleased to note the success of Lawfare in attracting readers and in shaping the law/national security debate, and not just because I guest-blogged at Lawfare one time, or because Jack Goldsmith once had nice things to say in passing about an article I wrote. Rather, I am pleased by Lawfare's success because I …
Benjamin Wittes discusses the reasons why we should be glad that James Comey was nominated to be the next FBI director--reasons I am fully in agreement with:Here’s the easy part: A qualified director of the FBI needs to have significant managerial experience in law enforcement. These days, you particularly want someone with a real intimacy …
Pejman Yousefzadeh 