05/24/12: The Huffington Post reports the war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic will resume on June 25th, about a month later than initially planned.  The trial was put on hold shortly after it began this month after prosecutors had failed to disclose all case documents.  The UN Yugoslav tribunal agreed, saying the disclosure failures by prosecutors were significant enough to warrant a delay. But on Thursday the court rejected the defense’s request for a six-month halt, saying a shorter postponement of the original May 29 date was more reasonable.

05/24/12: The Michigan Law Review has this article by Professor Monica Hakimi proposing new principles of international law to govern when states may target to kill or preventatively detain nonstate actors.  Contrary to the current method of establishing different standards across ‘regulatory domains,’ Hakimi argues that all targeting and detention law ought to be rooted in a common set of core principles.  Decisionmakers should look to those principles to assess when states may target or detain nonstate actors.  Doing so would address the practical problems of the domain method. It would narrow the uncertainty about when targeting and detention are lawful, lead to a more coherent legal discourse, and equip decisionmakers to develop the law and hold one another accountable. HT to Robert Chesney.

05/24/12: POLITICO reports a federal judge has ordered the Defense Department to turn over three video recordings showing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay being forced out of their cells for in camera inspection.  Judge John Bates of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued the unusual order Wednesday in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by families of Kuwaiti prisoners being held at the US military-run prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo.  Bates said the Pentagon, which is represented in the case by the Justice Department, had failed to offer detailed enough explanations to sustain the Government's position that the videos are exempt from disclosure under the law.

05/24/12: The Miami Herald reports Iranian negotiators on Thursday rejected proposals by six world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program, and demanded answers to their own counteroffer meant to alleviate concerns about Iran's ability to build atomic weapons.  Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, demanded an overhaul to the plan put forward by the world powers after the Baghdad talks began Wednesday.  An Iranian diplomat involved in the discussions said the package falls far short of a compromise.  Still, the negotiations did not appear in danger of collapse as envoys convened again in Baghdad.

05/24/12: Secrecy News reports the former director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) asked a federal court yesterday for permission to disclose a National Security Agency document that he said represented an egregious example of overclassification.  J. William Leonard was the ISOO director, or what is sometimes called the “classification czar,” from 2002 to 2008.  In 2010, Leonard became an expert consultant for the defense of Thomas A. Drake, the former NSA official who was charged with ten felony counts alleging unlawful retention of classified information.  In Count One of the indictment against Drake, he was charged with unauthorized retention of a classified NSA email message entitled “What A Success,” and it is that document which Leonard is now seeking to make public.

05/23/12: The Harvard National Security Journal has this article by Haridimos V. Thravalos discussing whether conspiracy to violate the law of war is, by itself, a war crime.  In June 2006, a plurality of the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld determined that the Government failed to make a colorable case for the inclusion of conspiracy among those offenses cognizable by law-of-war military commission.  The article, however, examines and expounds upon the domestic law sources and precedents, spanning from the Civil War to beyond World War II, that inform the issues, and concludes that a thorough analysis of historical evidence shows that conspiracy to violate the law of war is, itself, a violation of the law of war that has traditionally and lawfully been tried by law-of-war military commission.

05/23/12: The Hill reports Mitt Romney has muted his attacks on President Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan despite several recent significant events regarding the future of the conflict.  The presumptive GOP presidential nominee declined to criticize Obama after he announced the US-Afghan strategic partnership agreement earlier this month that aims to end the war and give security control to the Afghans in 2014.  The silence on Afghanistan is noticeable from Romney, given his sharp criticism of Obama on the issue during the GOP primaries. At the time, he accused the president of ignoring the advice of military commanders and announcing a timetable for withdrawal.  But with the Afghanistan war tumbling to all-time lows in public support, it has become difficult for Romney to contrast his policies with Obama’s without advocating a longer war.

05/23/12: The Long War Journal reports that over the past few weeks, Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) operatives have arrested over a dozen Taliban and Pakistani militants and confiscated over ten tons of homemade explosive precursors and hundreds of anti-personnel landmines, effectively thwarting multiple plots by the Afghan Taliban to carry out its much flaunted "Al Farooq" spring offensive.  NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal explained to reporters that Afghan intelligence operations thwarted a Taliban plot to attack the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) office in Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to Pajhwok News and NDS interrogation footage made available to journalists.

05/22/12: The Miami Herald reports the chief UN prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia said Tuesday that evidence errors that postponed the trial of Ratko Mladic are of "limited" impact and do not warrant a delay of six months as sought by the defense.  Serge Brammertz said during a visit to Serbia that the prosecution believes the long-awaited proceedings against the former Bosnian Serb army commander accused of genocide could start within weeks.  A judge at the UN tribunal in The Hague earlier this month postponed Mladic's trial citing "significant disclosure errors" by prosecutors, who are obliged to share all evidence with the defense.  Mladic is accused of commanding Bosnian Serb troops who waged a campaign of killings and persecution to drive Muslims and Croats out of Serb-held territory during the Bosnian War.

05/22/12: The Washington Post reports UN officials said Tuesday that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are near agreement on a plan that could lift the veil on some of the Islamic Republic’s past nuclear research.  The announcement raised hopes for a more comprehensive nuclear accord when Iranian officials meet with six world powers later in the week.  IAEA head Yukiya Amano said UN and Iranian officials settled most of their differences during talks Monday in Tehran and were moving toward a formal pact on making Iran’s nuclear activities more transparent.  While a few obstacles remain, a “decision was made to conclude and sign the agreement,” Amano said.

05/22/12: The Washington Post features a column by Walter Pincus discussing retired Marine Corps General James Cartwright, who argues that Congress’ priorities are misplaced as they try to make cuts at the Department of Defense.  The former vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff questioned the emphasis on additional manned aircraft, tanks and land vehicles, saying unmanned systems will prove more effective.  Although the United States has taken a volunteer force through a decade of war, Cartwright said, “we have not taken an all-volunteer force through a downturn when resources become stretched.”  Voicing concern about recruitment and retention, he said, “How we entice people to stay is something that we have really not done in the past.”

05/22/12: The Army Times reports White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan has seized the lead in guiding the debate on which terror leaders will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure to vet both military and CIA targets.  The move concentrates power over the use of lethal US force outside war zones at the White House.  The process, which is about a month old, means Brennan’s staff consults the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies as to who should go on the list, making a previous military-run review process in place since 2009 less relevant, according to two current and three former US officials aware of the evolution in how the government targets terrorists.

05/22/12: The Washington Post reports the head of the UN nuclear watchdog and Iranian officials held a day of high-level talks Monday that both sides described as “positive,” but it remained unclear whether Iran had given ground on allowing access to key nuclear scientists and research facilities.  Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), traveled to Iran over the weekend for the unusual session and afterward praised his hosts, saying they engaged constructively with the agency.  Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, also hailed what he described as “very good talks” with the IAEA leader, but neither man spoke in detail about the issue at the heart of the visit: Iran’s refusal to satisfy the nuclear watchdog’s questions about its past nuclear research.

05/22/12: CNN reports NATO leaders signed off Monday on President Barack Obama's exit strategy from Afghanistan that calls for an end to combat operations next year and the withdrawal of the US-led international military force by the end of 2014.  Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters at the conclusion of a two-day summit of the alliance leaders that the plan calls for handing over security responsibilities to Afghan forces in 2013, then withdrawing foreign forces the following year. After that, a new and different NATO mission will advise, train and assist the expected 350,000-strong Afghanistan force, Rasmussen said.  Obama said NATO leaders were leaving Chicago with "a clear road map" to bring the war in Afghanistan to a "responsible end."

05/22/12: BBC News reports the US Senate has approved a bill to tighten sanctions against Iran in a bid to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.  The new sanctions will target Iran's Revolutionary Guard and investigate its role in the export of oil from the country.  It will also make it mandatory for US-listed firms to disclose any Iran-related business to the authorities.  The move comes ahead of crucial talks on Iran's nuclear program.  "Today the US Senate put Iranian leaders on notice that they must halt all uranium enrichment activities or face another round of economic sanctions," Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said in a statement.

05/21/12: The New York Times reports President Obama and leaders of America’s NATO allies formally agreed on Monday to hand over the primary role in providing security in Afghanistan to the Afghans themselves next summer, beginning the end of America’s involvement in a decade-long war.  In a declaration at the summit meeting of the twenty-eight-member alliance, the leaders insisted that the transition was “irreversible.”  The declaration says the allies are "gradually and responsibly drawing down our forces” to complete the Afghanistan mission by December 2014, when the rest of the American-led NATO troops in Afghanistan are supposed to come home.

05/21/12: CBS News reports NATO says that its European missile shield is up and running with a basic capability to shoot down incoming missiles.  NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Sunday the declaration of "interim capability" at the alliance's summit in Chicago is a first step toward a goal of establishing full coverage of Europe by 2018.  A final stage is planned for 2022 that would also provide coverage of the United States from Europe.

05/21/12: The Washington Times reports military planners are under strict orders not to devise scenarios for meeting the demands of so-called “sequestration,” the automatic spending cuts slated to begin in January, because such paperwork, if leaked, would tell Congress there might be a way to deal with such drastic cuts.  “The department is not currently planning for sequestration,” says Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Melinda Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman.  Defense sources say the armed services have talked of the dire consequences of sequestration, which would require deeper troop cuts and missions left undone.  But they are not creating studies that would spell out specific reductions in weapons or programs for fear it sends a signal that such downsizing is doable.

05/21/12: CNN reports the United States ambassador to NATO says the alliance has no plans for military intervention in the Syrian crisis, as reports of deaths mount by the dozens and diplomatic efforts have yet to stymie the bloodshed.  Ivo Daalder told reporters late Sunday there is "no planning going on that's related to a NATO role in Syria."  "As it relates to NATO planning, a NATO ally has to come forward and request that type of planning. So that's a circumstance that hasn't taken place," the ambassador said.  "We'd obviously take any requests of that nature seriously if it were to be made."

05/21/12: The Miami Herald reports the head of the UN nuclear agency arrived Monday in Tehran on a key mission that could lead to the resumption of probes by the watchdog on whether Iran has secretly worked on an atomic weapon.  International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano and his two aides were quickly whisked away after landing at the Tehran airport before dawn Monday. They are to meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, as well as Iran's foreign minister and other officials later in the day.  The visit is focused on getting Iran to agree to terms that will allow IAEA probes of suspect Iranian sites, including the Parchin military complex where the agency had reported suspicious activities in the past.

05/21/12: CNN reports NATO countries are expected to sign off Monday on President Barack Obama's exit strategy from Afghanistan that calls for an end to combat operations next year and the withdrawal of troops by the end of 2014.  Against a backdrop of massive demonstrations that saw violent clashes between protesters and police, NATO and world leaders gathered at the summit in Chicago to sketch out the end of an unpopular war and figure out how to pay for shoring up Afghanistan's security forces.  Obama made clear Sunday as the summit opened that he expects the NATO nations and their strategic partners to agree to the withdrawal plan, while assuring Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the twenty-eight-nation alliance would not abandon the country.