Law Commons^™

Targeted Killing In U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy And Law, Kenneth Anderson

Working Papers

Targeted killing, particularly through the use of missiles fired from Predator drone aircraft, has become an important, and internationally controversial, part of the US war against al Qaeda in Pakistan and other places. The Obama administration, both during the campaign and in its first months in office, has publicly embraced the strategy as a form of counterterrorism. This paper argues, however, that unless the Obama administration takes careful and assertive legal steps to protect it, targeted killing using remote platforms such as drone aircraft will take on greater strategic salience precisely as the Obama administration allows the legal space for …

An Overt Turn On Covert Action, Afsheen John Radsan

Faculty Scholarship

Long past the soul-searching of Watergate, very few people question the need for covert action as a part of American foreign policy. The world is so dangerous after 9/11 that it would be irresponsible to suggest that our intelligence agencies should be disbanded or that our government should acknowledge everything it does on the dark side. Today the question is not whether we should engage in covert action at all, but how often and under what circumstances.

Not everything stays secret. Our Nation has been conducting covert action with greater transparency and more congressional participation than during the Cold War. …

Change Versus Continuity At Obama’S Cia, Afsheen John Radsan

Faculty Scholarship

Sweeping change is necessary at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During President Barack Obama‘s transition into office, change should go deeper than usual between administrations. To restore the trust of the American people and to regain the confidence of the international community, the CIA needs to do better. I will outline three areas for legislative change relating to my former employer, the CIA. The first proposal is to have a national security court for the trials of terrorists. The second is to permit the CIA to continue to have an exception to pursue aggressive interrogations with a lot of oversight …

Deep Secrecy, David E. Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers a new way of thinking and talking about government secrecy. In the vast literature on the topic, little attention has been paid to the structure of government secrets, as distinct from their substance or function. Yet these secrets differ systematically depending on how many people know of their existence, what sorts of people know, how much they know, and how soon they know. When a small group of similarly situated officials conceals from outsiders the fact that it is concealing something, the result is a deep secret. When members of the general public understand they are being …