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Articles by Scott Roehm
Reactions to the British Debate About the Legality of Recognizing Palestinian Statehood
In recent days, officials in Canada, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom have stated that their nations will, or might, soon recognize Palestine as a state: On July 23, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognize Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
A Pyrrhic Victory: Initial Supreme Court Gain for Trump on Alien Enemies Act May End in Administration’s Loss
When the Supreme Court ruled roughly a month ago in Trump v. J.G.G., five justices removed at least a large part of the Alien Enemies Act case from Judge James Boasberg’s jurisdiction—a move some interpreted as a tactical and procedural win for the administration. But just weeks later, the resulting legal landscape reveals a growing pattern of judicial resistance–one that may undermine the administration’s position when the Court ultimately revisits the Alien Enemies Act litigation on its merits.
The Trump Administration’s Recent Removals to El Salvador Violate the Prohibition on Transfer to Torture
Several of our colleagues have already provided excellent analyses of the fast-evolving legal and factual questions presented by President Donald Trump’s pretextual and abusive invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to transfer to El Salvador 238 Venezuelan men who it alleges are members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Removals to El Salvador Violate US Non-Refoulement Obligations
Several of our colleagues have already provided excellent analyses of the fast-evolving legal and factual questions presented by President Donald Trump’s pretextual and abusive invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to transfer to El Salvador 238 Venezuelan men who it alleges are members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
How Much (or How Little) Does the Biden Administration Want Justice in the 9/11 Case?
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin put his thumb on the scale in United States v. Khalid Shaikh Mohammad on Aug. 2 when he revoked plea agreements that the government and three defendants on trial in the Guantanamo military commissions had signed just 48 hours prior.
Another Lost Year on Guantanamo
Last year began with some promise that the Biden administration would finally make critical and substantial progress towards closing the infamous Guantanamo detention facility, and address ongoing rights violations there in the interim. Three men were transferred out in February, followed by another one each in March and April.
US Regresses on Torture and Guantanamo at Treaty Review
Editor’s note: This is one of two Just Security articles on the U.S. ICCPR periodic review by authors from the Human Rights & Security Coalition. An article on use of force is available here. On Oct. 17 and 18, the United States appeared before United Nations Human Rights Committee as part of the fifth periodic review of U.S. compliance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
States Have an Opportunity to Lead on a Torture-Free Trade Treaty
Today, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Alice Edwards, is presenting her annual report to the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly. The report focusses on an issue with massive implications but little international attention: the global production of and trade in law enforcement equipment which can be used to commit torture or other ill-treatment.
Takeaways from the UN Special Rapporteur Report on Guantanamo
On June 26 – the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, released the final report of her technical visit to the United States, which included unprecedented access to the Guantanamo detention facility. The report covers a lot of ground – the rights of victims of terrorism, the rights of detainees at Guantánamo, and the rights of former detainees – and does so in a fair amount of detail.
On International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, a Call to Better Support Them
Monday, June 26, is International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. It is a day to stand with survivors; to affirm their dignity and humanity; and to reflect on the prohibition of torture’s strengths (accepted near-universally as a peremptory norm of international law) and weaknesses (in practice, torture remains widespread).
Torture files: how the most notorious scandal in Iraq came from GiTMO
This is the fifth installment of our weeklong series marking the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2003. See all of the stories here. On September 18, 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law congressional authorization to use military force against those responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks. Three weeks later, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.
A Big Few Weeks for Guantanamo: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
It’s been an uncharacteristically Guantanamo-news-filled few weeks – some good, some bad, some ugly. Here’s a quick rundown of recent developments. The Good: Majid Khan’s Transfer, and the Biden Administration’s Much Welcome Position on U.N. Access to Guantanamo Last Thursday, Majid Khan touched down in his new home, Belize, after almost 20 years in U.S. custody – three at CIA black sites (one of which he came to call “The American Torture Palace”), followed by another 16 at Guantanamo.
In Guantanamo cases, is the government trying to profit from torture?
WATCH: Ilhan Omar reacts to Kevin McCarthy's plan to pull her from committees Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Sunday condemned House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) plans to kick her off the House Foreign Affairs Committee as hypocritical. Omar was asked about McCarthy's repeated promises to yank her committee assignments during an appearance on MSNBC's Yasmin Vossoughian Reports.
In Guantanamo cases, is the government trying to profit from torture?
Twenty-one years ago today, the United States began shipping droves of Muslim men to the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, a remote military base on Cuba’s southern coast. The George W. Bush administration evidently chose this location hoping that it would put the men beyond the reach of U.S. courts — in the words of at least one government official, because Guantanamo was “the legal equivalent of outer space.” In some respects, that proved wrong.
In U.S. v. Al-Nashiri the Government Is Rewarding Torture and Incentivizing Torturers
There has been no serious dispute for years that the Guantanamo military commissions have failed. At the heart of their failure, longtime chief defense counsel Gen. John Baker told the Senate Judiciary Committee last December, is the government’s “original sin, torture.” It “impacts and undermines every aspect of these prosecutions,” he explained.
In U.S. v. Al-Nashiri the Government Is Rewarding Torture and Incentivizing Torturers
Published by The Lawfare Institute in Cooperation With There has been no serious dispute for years that the Guantanamo military commissions have failed. At the heart of their failure, longtime chief defense counsel Gen. John Baker told the Senate Judiciary Committee last December, is the government’s “original sin, torture.” It “impacts and undermines every aspect of these prosecutions,” he explained.
Biden’s Guantanamo Politics are not Obama’s
On January 11th, the Guantanamo prison marked its 20th year. Although the population has slowly decreased over time, there’s a lot about Guantanamo that hasn’t changed. It still fuels hatred and bigotry, and flouts the rule of law. Torture’s legacy continues to loom large—from the speed with which victims’ health is deteriorating, to its impact on the military commissions which, save for the rare exception, can’t seem to produce anything but paralysis and injustice.
Four questions that deserve answers at the Guantanamo oversight hearing
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The Biden Administration's Moment of Truth on Torture Evidence
by David Luban, Scott Roehm, Claire O. Finkelstein, Karen J. Greenberg, Lisa Hajjar, Jonathan Hafetz, Elisa Massimino and Gabor Rona December 1, 2021 Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Al-Nashiri is headed to federal court to prevent the U.S. government from using torture-derived evidence in his capital prosecution before the Guantanamo military commissions.
A Torture Survivor Speaks At The Guantanamo Military Commissions
Above Photo: This Photo Screened By US Military Officials On September 7, 2021 Shows A Sign For Camp Justice In Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Paul Handley/AFP Via Getty Images) I traveled to the Guantanamo Bay prison late last week to watch the long-awaited military commission sentencing hearing in United States v. Khan. What unfolded over those two days was extraordinary.
A Torture Survivor Speaks at the Guantanamo Military Commissions
I traveled to the Guantanamo Bay prison late last week to watch the long-awaited military commission sentencing hearing in United States v. Khan. What unfolded over those two days was extraordinary. There were historic moments; all-too-familiar, but no less outrageous, prosecutorial transgressions; and a military commission judge who reached his wits end with the government.
How to Responsibly End Three Key Rights-Abusing Post-9/11 Policies
by Hina Shamsi, Priyanka Motaparthy and Scott Roehm September 9, 2021 (Editor’s note: This essay is part of a Symposium published for the twentieth anniversary of September 11th; co-organized by Just Security and the Reiss Center on Law and Security.) As we approach the 20th commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and a collective assessment of what followed, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the massive scale of civilian suffering there dominates the airwaves.
Nuremberg Prosecutor says Guantanamo Military Commissions Don’t Measure Up
Filed under: Benjamin Ferencz, Black Sites, CIA, Guantanamo, Mark Martins, Military Commissions, Nuremberg, Rendition, SSCI Torture Report, torture On September 6, 2006, detainees from the CIA secret prisons, known as “black sites,” were brought to Guantanamo Bay. That day, President Bush gave a public speech in which he admitted for the first time that the CIA had held men incommunicado for years.
Course Correction Still Needed on Anti-Torture Obligations
by Scott Roehm and David Luban August 9, 2021 Shortly after Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker from the iconic Star Wars movies) shared a meme that pictured each of President Obama, President Trump, and President-elect Biden’s faces alongside one of the Star Wars movie titles. Obama was paired with “A New Hope,” Trump with “The Empire Strikes Back,” and Biden with “Return of the Jedi.” The tweet went viral.
How the Biden Administration Should Take Torture-Derived Evidence Off the Table
In his excellent May 28 article, David Luban observed that “[i]n a decent legal system,” courts do not admit evidence extracted by torture. I would add that in a decent legal system, the government does not ask them to, nor does it press other arguments that disregard the absolute prohibition on torture. David’s piece examines the recent Guantanamo military commission ruling that the government can use torture-derived material in its capital case against Abd-al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
Biden Team’s Litigation Tactics on Guantanamo Undercut Biden Policy to Close the Prison
by Jonathan Hafetz, Scott Roehm and Hina Shamsi April 21, 2021 Earlier this month, the Biden administration had an opportunity to distance itself from the Trump administration’s categorical rejection of due process rights for detainees held at Guantanamo. That opportunity arose in Ali v. Biden, in which a detainee is petitioning the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court opinion that accepted the Trump administration’s position.
Biden's Asylum EOs and Where to Go from Here
In a series of Executive Orders (EOs) issued Tuesday night, President Joe Biden took several steps toward rolling back the Trump administration’s punitive and cruel asylum-related policies and practices, redressing the harm they caused, and restoring migrants’ basic human rights.
How to Fix the U.S. Litigation Position in Key Pending Cases
As with any presidential transition, the Biden administration has inherited a host of pending litigation from its predecessor, including cases that involve fundamental human rights violations. In many of them, the Trump administration pursued strategies and advanced arguments that are incompatible with specific commitments Biden made as a candidate, and that otherwise flout longstanding U.S. human rights obligations and policy.
Former Senate CIA Investigator Warns Biden Against Picks Tainted By Torture, ‘Cover Up’
The chief investigator for the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2014 torture report is urging President-elect Joe Biden not to include anyone in his administration who was complicit in torture, or who otherwise frustrated efforts to investigate and hold people responsible for it. In an article and Twitter thread Monday, former Intelligence Committee staffer Daniel J.
Message to Joe Biden: No Torturers in the Next Cabinet
President-elect Joe Biden will soon take office having pledged to “heal” and “unify” the country, possibly signaling a more centrist approach to governing. He also campaigned on a policy platform that former President Barack Obama dubbed the “most progressive … of any major party nominee in history,” and will face either a divided Congress or one with a slim Democratic margin.
Forever War Archives - Just Security
Just Security is based at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law.
Towards a New Approach to National and Human Security: Ending Endless War
Editor’s note: This piece is part of a four-part series marking the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. All of the posts can be found here. For nearly 20 years, successive U.S. administrations have adopted a costly war-based approach to national security and counterterrorism policy that has no clear endgame in sight.
Toward a New Approach to National and Human Security: Close Guantanamo and End Indefinite Detention
Editor’s note: This piece is part of a four-part series marking the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. All of the posts can be found here. On January 11, 2021, the detention facility at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will enter its 20th year. Forty Muslim men remain captive there, at a cost of $540 million per year; $13 million per detainee.
Toward a New Approach to National and Human Security: Introduction
Editor’s note: This piece introduces a four-part series marking the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The posts can be found here, here, here, and here. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States responded with military force intended to target those responsible. More broadly, it invoked extraordinary powers reserved for what should be exceptional: war.
Three things the Minnesota National Guard company deploying to Guantanamo should know
The Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Military Police Company is deploying to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The company’s mission is to “provide security,” presumably regarding the 40 Muslim men whom the United States continues to hold captive there nearly two decades after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Guantanamo has long been cloaked in secrecy and is rarely the subject of public scrutiny.
Trump’s Latest Assault on Asylum Has Nothing to Do with National Security or Public Health
Last Thursday the Trump administration issued the latest in a long line of administrative rules that unlawfully ban and punish asylum seekers and others pursuing related humanitarian protections in the United States. The proposed rule, titled “Security Bars and Processing” (and separate from another harmful asylum-related rule from early June), marries two of the president’s favored pretexts: national security and public health. But it has nothing to do with either.
Crises of Accountability for U.S. Systemic Abuses of Power
On this International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the United States is at a crossroads. We will know soon if the country is capable of breaking the cycle of impunity for systemic racism in police use of deadly force.
Trump's coronavirus order scapegoats immigrants and doesn't make us safer
President Donald Trump is once again using immigration as political theater, issuing an executive order to suspend entry to the United States for certain classes of new immigrants in an appeal to fear. The order builds upon similar recent actions the president has taken, including closing the southern and northern borders to nonresidents during the coronavirus pandemic, halting the refugee admissions program, and imposing country- and region-specific travel bans.
Recap of Recent Articles on Just Security (March 30-April 3)
Editor’s Note – Just Security has created a running A Topical Index of COVID-19 Articles that is updated daily. Below please find Coronavirus-related articles published this week.
Guantanamo’s COVID-19 Precautions Must Safeguard Detainees’ Rights
My colleague Daphne Eviatar wrote an excellent piece last week about the human rights implications of a “war” against COVID-19, in which she rightly observed that “[t]he half a billion dollars spent per year to run an offshore prison for 40 men denied fair charges or trials would surely be better put to use providing truly ‘essential services’ in a time of national crisis.” Of course, Daphne was referring to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
An Overdue Reckoning with U.S. Torture
Justice Delayed December 09, 2019 By Scott Roehm In a scene from The Report, actor Adam Driver, who plays a Senate staffer, surrounded by papers representing the 6,000 page Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s “Committee Study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program.” Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios In the fall of 2019, Axios reported that Don McGahn, when he was serving as White House counsel, had wanted to withdraw Gina Haspel’s nomination as director of the CIA because he...
As Sudan Deadline Looms, a Playbook for a Massacre
(Editor’s note: This is the first of two articles on the Sudan security forces’ June 3 attacks on peaceful demonstrators and what may happen next.
The Early Edition: June 27, 2019
Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. G.20 SUMMIT U.S. President Trump yesterday criticized the military alliance between the U.S. and Japan hours before he departed for the G.20 summit, where foreign leaders will discuss a range of pressing issues.
torture Archives - Just Security
Just Security is based at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law.
Deprivation and Despair: The Crisis of Medical Care at Guantánamo
Earlier this year, in a rare and refreshing moment of candor, the admiral who was in charge of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, expressed concern about the military’s ability to provide medical care to the detainees still held captive there. Many of the 40 remaining prisoners are entering old age and there is seemingly no prospect of their release. Speaking to reporters in April, Rear Adm.
Deprivation and Despair
This report was jointly produced by the Center for Victims of Torture and Physicians for Human Rights. Executive Summary From the inception more than 17 years ago of the Guantánamo Bay detention center located on the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, senior detention facility personnel have consistently lauded the quality of medical care provided to detainees there.
For the Military Commissions, a Fork in the Road on Torture
“It’s time for everyone to admit that the Guantanamo military commissions have failed.” That’s what Steve Vladeck wrote last month in a characteristically excellent post discussing the D.C. Circuit’s recent decision in In re Al-Nashiri III. Of course, unless and until either the executive branch or Congress acknowledges the same and decides to do something about it, the commissions will drag on.
International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court Just Security is based at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law.
Arbitrary Detention of Asylum Seekers Perpetuates the Torture of Family Separation
While the Trump administration’s official policy of family separation may have formally ended in June 2018, the practice itself did not, nor did the harm it has caused to thousands of families.
Republican horse trading on 'national emergency' powers is nonsense
The Senate is expected to vote this week on a joint resolution, which already passed the House of Representatives, to terminate the “national emergency” that the President declared — after months of posturing and bluster — so he could divert funds that Congress has appropriated for other uses to build a portion of his wall along the U.S. southern border.
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