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The recent weeks have witnessed not only last week’s Boston bombings, but also reports of several instances of weapons violence in various other parts of the United States. The recent and ongoing violence in the world of course needs to be reversed. The temptation, though,...

This photo at Guantanamo’s Camp Delta prison is the least whitewashed of those at this Defense Department Guantanamo photo webpage. Enlarge this photo only on an empty stomach. I first featured this photo here. Sahr MuhammedAlly is a Senior Counsel with the Law & Security Program at...

This photo at Guantanamo’s Camp Delta prison is the least whitewashed of those at this Defense Department Guantanamo photo webpage. Enlarge this photo only on an empty stomach. One day, a public defender lawyer told me he wanted to keep his job rather than make waves. Much...

 Colin Powell. Photo from State Department’s website. Many times I have decried the Guantanamo prisons. Congratulations to Bush II’s first secretary of state Colin Powell for expressing his agreement with me. Jon Katz.

On November 21, 2006, online and on the radio waves, NPR aired FOIA-obtained audio recordings of Guantanamo hearings to review enemy combatant classifications. The inmates need not participate, but sometimes do, despite their lawyers’ advice not to, seeing how irresistible it can be for an...

  Vindication comes for criminal defense lawyers refusing military judge’s order to continue after confidentiality breach Vindication of criminal defense lawyers doing the right thing came last week when the D.C. Circuit concluded that the military judge who ordered lawyers to continue defending Abd Al-Rahim...

Advocating for criminal defendants when judges blunder is part of the job of a criminal defense lawyer. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that many judges will royally blunder in making numerous vital decisions. The humble judges who blunder have better potential for getting...

My public elementary school teachers taught us about "Honest Abe" Lincoln. None of my teachers ever taught me about Lincoln's approval for a mass hanging of thirty-eight Dakota Indians in 1862. Arising from the Dakota War, United States military commission trials of 392 American Indians...

Lotus flowers at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens (August 17, 2013. Copyright, Jon Katz.) When I met my friend and peace mentor Jun Yasuda in January 1991, by orders of George Bush I American troops were bombing Iraq. I have always felt that Gulf War I was...

Last week, I decried law enforcement plans — which ended up being carried out for multiple hours — to interrogate Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev without Mirandizing him first. Sadly, police not only violated Mr. Tsarnaev’s Constitutional rights by not Mirandizing him, but also violated the...