Mark Udall’s amendment to strip out indefinite detention provisions from the defense authorization bill failed today, and the bill will likely pass the Senate with the provisions intact. The Senate soundly defeated a move to strip out controversial language requiring mandatory detention of some terror suspects, voting it down 61 to 37 and escalating a [...]

Other than the payroll tax legislation, the big news in the Senate this week is the defense authorization bill, traditionally seen as must-pass legislation. It seems like every year there’s some big controversy over this bill.  This time that comes in the form of a measure that would mandate indefinite detentions of terrorist suspects in [...]

In the space of a couple days, the US Senate was poised to essentially legalize indefinite detention and open up the possibility for US citizens to come under such a regime. The defense authorization bill included a provision requiring that any non-citizen suspected of terrorism be held in military custody, and opened the practice up [...]

Even in the Era of New Dysfunction, Congress usually manages to pass a defense authorization bill. The forces of nature demand that the war machine gets to set its budgets on time, even if the budgets for food stamps, welfare, the NIH, the Department of Education, etc., have to sit on pins and needles and [...]

A couple weeks ago, Adm. William McRaven of the Joint Special Operations Command wondered if there was even a standard system for capturing and interrogating terrorist suspects in the Obama era. Now we know that there’s a template – you hold the suspect at sea for months until you figure out a way to charge [...]

President Obama has threatened to veto the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) if it includes, as the House bill does, an effort to update the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force to create a virtually open-ended war against anyone deemed to be a terrorist regardless of connection to Al Qaeda or the [...]

Marcy and company have been working quite a bit on the Wikileaked Guantanamo docs, so I’m not going to step on toes there. I will just point out that the documents appear to be vast enough that any news outlet can spin virtually any narrative they want. As Marcy notes here, the documents label prisoners [...]

In the end, the deal to a avert a government shutdown and keep funding going for the rest of the fiscal year amounted to a $38.5 billion cut in appropriations from the 2010 baseline (although WaPo puts it at $37.8 billion, the joint Boehner/Reid announcement used the $38.5 billion number, so that’s what I’m going [...]

As Marcy reported earlier, the Obama Administration retreated from their initial position and decided to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his co-conspirators at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This includes Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi. Holder in a press conference said that [...]

There’s no surprise in the ACLU criticizing a policy on Guantanamo and indefinite detention like what President Obama ordered into law yesterday. ACLU President Anthony Romero told supporters in a statement that “The detention of Guantánamo detainees for nine years without charge or trial is a stain on America’s reputation that should be ended immediately, [...]

President Obama has announced that he will lift a two-year ban on military commissions for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and restart those trials immediately. Here’s the statement from the President: “From the beginning of my Administration, the United States has worked to bring terrorists to justice consistent with our commitment to protect the American [...]