National Security and The Rule of Law in Combating International Terrorism

By Michael Jacobson

This afternoon, the Washington Institute hosted Todd Hinnen, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Law & Policy in DOJ's National Security Division, as part of a speaker series we've been hosting with senior US government counterterrorism officials.

Here is an excerpt of Mr. Hinnen's remarks:

As Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Law and Policy, I oversee a small (but growing) team of lawyers whose mission it is to do the 30,000 foot level strategic thinking, policy development, and legal analysis for the Department to support the operational intelligence collectors, investigators, and prosecutors who carry out this important work in cooperation with our partner agencies throughout the law enforcement, homeland security, and intelligence communities.

It will probably not surprise you, then, that I am predisposed to view the development of an appropriate legal framework as essential to effectively combating terrorism for reasons that are both principled and pragmatic.

It is essential on grounds of principle because the law has defined this nation, a nation of laws not of men, since its founding. “Reverence for the laws,” as Abraham Lincoln observed, is the “political religion of the nation.” It would by a Pyrrhic victory if, in our struggle to preserve this country against the threat of international terrorism we sacrificed so central a part of what this country stands for and why it has been a model for the rest of the world.

It is essential on grounds of pragmatism because a lawless response to terrorism—one for instance that includes torture, black site prisons, and indefinite detention without due process—undermines our moral credibility and standing abroad, weakens the coalitions with foreign governments that we need to effectively combat terrorism, and provides terrorist recruiters with some of their most effective recruitment material.

Our success in combating terrorism, then, depends in large part on the development of a comprehensive set of legal authorities that not only thwarts attacks, takes dangerous terrorists off the streets, and brings them to justice, but also strengthens international coalitions, engages the support of Muslim governments and populations around the world, and deprives terrorists of a recruitment narrative.

An effective legal framework must also be enduring and fundamental. It must be enduring in the sense that it needn’t be abandoned to address exigencies. It must include within its purview carefully considered authorities that allow us to respond to the next opportunity to capture an al Qaeda operative somewhere in the world or, God forbid, the occurrence of another attack.

To read the remainder of Mr. Hinnen's prepared remarks, click here