Hillary Clinton on the fight against terrorism in Der Spiegel

Read the interview here.
SPIEGEL: President Karzai has already made clear that he refuses to tolerate interference.
Clinton : We do not think that is interference. The most common kind of formulation that I and others have learned from the Afghans themselves is: We need your help to get us in a position where we can defend [...]

US opens new Bagram detention facility

By the end of the month, the U.S. military plans to begin moving the first of its approximately 700 detainees at Bagram air field to a new $60 million holding complex. By the end of the year all the detainees are expected to move from the current Bagram prison to the new facility. The new [...]

In Afghanistan, Taliban surpasses al-Qaeda

As violence rises in Afghanistan, the power balance between insurgent groups has shifted, with a weakened al-Qaeda relying increasingly on the emboldened Taliban for protection and the manpower to carry out deadly attacks, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials in The Washington Post. Although the war in Afghanistan began as a response to al-Qaeda [...]

Rights group urges US government to reform Afghanistan detainee policy

[JURIST] The US should reform its detention policy at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in order to combat counterinsurgency, according to a report released Thursday by Human Rights First (HRF). HRF called on the governments of the US and Afghanistan to reach an agreement that “set[s] forth grounds and procedures for detention in accordance with [...]

New ideas for the Afghanistan strategy

In Washington, the debate over Afghanistan seems to center around two broad ideas: counterinsurgency versus counterterrorism. Should the United States add troops for a more population-centric strategy, as Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal advocates? Or should it use a less ground-heavy approach, disrupting Al Qaeda with Special Operation Forces and unmanned drones, as Vice President Joseph [...]

Ex UK Foreign Office minister says UK should pull out Afghanistan

Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister with responsibility for Afghanistan and current chairman of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, questions in The Guardian the central tenet of the UK government’s case for fighting in Afghanistan: that it is the frontline of a war that would otherwise be conducted on British streets. Mr Howells said [...]

Afghan Working Group Calls for Transparency at Bagram

Last week, the Afghanistan Working Group on Conflict-Related Detentions urged the United States to open the Bagram detention facility to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and to better respect Afghan law. The joint call for accountability is the first time the group publicly issued a statement.

New CRS reports and congressional hearings released

Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy (6 Oct. 2009)
Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa (2 Oct 2009)
Removing Aliens from the United States: Judicial Review of Removal Orders (25 September 2009)

The records of several noteworthy congressional hearings that were held in the past two years have been [...]

Opposition to Presence in Afghanistan Hardens in Canada and United Kingdom

Public backing for the mission in Afghanistan is eroding in two countries, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 59 per cent of respondents in Britain oppose the military operation involving UK soldiers in Afghanistan, up six points since July. In Canada, overall support for the mission stands at 37 per cent, down six [...]

Interesting articles

Beth van Schaack – International Criminal Law & its Enforcement
This chapter, to appear in the 2nd edition of Beth Van Schaack & Ron Slye’s International Criminal Law & Its Enforcement (Foundation Press 2010), covers the crime of torture under international criminal law. It begins with a doctrinal discussion of the elements of torture as elucidated [...]