Coauthored with Daniel Byman, The Atlantic, January 3, 2013 Over the past two years, the Obama administration has begun to formalize a so-called “disposition matrix” for suspected terrorists abroad: a continuously evolving database that spells out the intelligence on targets and various strategies, including contingencies, for handling them. Although the government has not spelled out […]
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Will Military Commissions Survive KSM?
The Washington Post, May 3, 2012 When Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four others are arraigned Saturday in a military commission at Guantanamo Bay on charges of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it will be the public’s first glimpse in several years of the 9/11 mastermind. The event holds the promise of long-delayed justice and […]
Skip the Trials for Terrorists
Co-authored with Jack Goldsmith, The Washington Post, November 19, 2010 The Obama administration’s critics are missing the point on Ahmed Ghailani. Their reaction to his acquittal this week on 284 criminal counts and conviction on only one exaggerates both the vices of civilian courts and the virtues of military commissions. And it elides an important […]
Commission or Court for Khalid Sheik Mohammed? Yes
Brookings Institution, October 29, 2010 Here’s a simple proposal to break the impasse over how to proceed against Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his colleagues: Press charges in both military commissions and in federal court. Call it the John Allen Muhammad model.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Dispensable Trial
Co-authored with Jack Goldsmith, The Washington Post, March 19, 2010 The Obama administration and its critics are locked in a standoff over whether to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in a military commission or in federal court. Both sides are busily ignoring the obvious solution: Don’t bother trying them […]
How Do We Bring Osama Bin Laden to Justice? America is Clueless
NY Daily News, July 5, 2008 News flash: Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are captured in Pakistani tribal areas and turned over to American custody. What would happen next? Celebratory news stories, cries of a major victory in the war on terrorism – and total confusion. This is the shameful truth: Six […]
Trial by Fire: How Military Commissions Work and Why They Fail
The New Republic, February 14, 2008 At long last, one way or another we’re about to learn a great deal about military commissions. The charges prosecutors filed Monday against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other alleged September 11 conspirators cannot proceed credibly to trial in anything less than a viable court system. The evidentiary questions […]
Whose Court Is It Really?
The Atlantic Magazine, January/February 2006 What are the early indications of what the Roberts Court will be like? It’s not the Roberts Court—at least not yet. It’s still the Stevens Court. Excuse me? For a few weeks this past summer, between the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and the confirmation of John G. […]
Benjamin Wittes 