Read Me If You Can: Censorship Today
You Can’t Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom Nick Cohen (London: Fourth Estate, 2012) If I complacently accept the idea that...
Geneva Conventions
A Defense of Drone Attacks in Pakistan Under Humanitarian Law
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, international law has had to grapple with the fundamental challenges that large-scale violence carried out by non-state actors pos...
Op-eds
Government was Right Not to Rush Omar Khadr Home
This week, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced that Toronto-born terrorist Omar Khadr could be brought back to Canada. The government has been criticized for not moving faster to repatriat...
Op-eds
Rule of law allows killing of Muammar Qadhafi
The killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. commandos in Pakistan was met with great relief by Americans of all political stripes. Whether one labels the fight against Al Qaeda, as President George W....
Op-eds
War Crimes and Punishment
“To the justice of the firing squad!” That was the toast proposed by Stalin to Roosevelt and Churchill over dinner in 1943 in Tehran. They were meeting for the first time and...
Op-eds
Where’s the Moral Urgency About Syria?
On March 28, 2011, when President Barack Obama addressed the nation to explain U.S. forces’ involvement in operations over Libyan skies, he made a compelling moral argument. In his...
Op-eds
Pissing on the Enemy
Some Marines seem to have pissed on the cadavers of some Taliban in Afghanistan. We don’t know when or exactly where. It may well have taken place some time ago; a military friend suggests...
Op-eds
De-Commissioned
Will Pentagon blunders mean the end of military trials for terrorists?
Op-eds
A Quick Way Forward After Boumediene
Either Congress reasserts itself, or terror-friendly bedlam ensues.
Op-eds
The CIA Interrogation Tapes
Remember when this was a real war?
Op-eds
McCain Estrangement Syndrome
Are John McCain’s supporters trying to drive conservatives away from their candidate? Senator McCain is the inevitable Republican presidential nominee. He is headed, though, for a...
Op-eds
Feeding the Hand that Bites You
Two years ago, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led his country in a fateful decision to "disengage" from Gaza, uprooting 8,500 Jewish residents, many born in Gaza and some domiciled ther...
Op-eds
Gaza “Blackout” and the Laws of War
Although, as the Jerusalem Post reports, the so-called "Gaza blackout" was instigated by the Hamas terrorists who run the enclave as a sort of cynical publicity stunt, it has drawn the u...
Op-eds
A Different Kind of Justice
‘Justice has been done.” That was President Obama’s succinct assessment of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special-ops forces, carried out at his direction on Sunday. &ld...
Op-eds
Bin Laden’s Killing Shows Us the Irrelevance of “International Law”
This past week, the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair became a figure of ridicule for suggesting that the United States doesn’t have photos of Osama bin Laden’s body — presumably...
Op-eds
Allahu Akbar! It’s Our Friends ‘the Rebels’
A beheading, a few summary executions, a lynching, torturous interrogations, gross violations of the Geneva Conventions — directed at black African captives, with many performed before crow...
Op-eds
We’re There to Help
Last week in the northern province of Faryab, two more American soldiers were murdered by one of the police officers they are in Afghanistan to train. As my friend Diana West calculates, that bri...
Op-eds
Not Unlawful, Not an Enemy Combatant
Is there a limit to the damage this government is willing to do to American credibility and security in its sudden haste to rid the world of Moammar Qaddafi — known until recently as a valu...
Op-eds
Boehner: ‘Before Any Further Military Commitments are Made . . .’?
Another question for our intrepid Speaker — assuming he can spare a second away from patting congressional Republicans on the back for their fearless effort to “slash” what John...
Op-eds
With Stroke of a Pen, Obama Gives Terrorists an Edge
Co-Authored with Lee A. Casey Under the guise of "reaffirming America's commitment to humane treatment of detainees," the Obama administration announced last week a revolut...