Benjamin Farley
@brfarley.bsky.social
International law, law of armed conflict, national security law and policy, constitutional and criminal law. https://footnotesflashpoints.substack.com/profile/posts
Charges Dropped in Reflecting Pool Case as Prosecutors Say Work Was ‘Botched’ There should be serious consequences for the Interior Department officials whom Ms. Pirro accused of deception. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...
Charges Dropped Against Ex-Olympian David Hearn Accused of Damaging Reflecting Pool
A former Olympian will not face trial after federal prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration’s claims of vandalism were false.
nytimes.com
Ten years ago, the Philippines beat China in the South China Sea Arbitration. China called the ruling "waste paper." It also hasn't built a new island in the Spratlys since, and won't say why. My latest @Forbes: buff.ly/dBc90W7
The US/Israel-Iran war has now reached: -Iran; -Israel; -Lebanon; -Iraq; -Kuwait; -Saudi; -Yemen; -Bahrain; -Oman; -UAE; -Qatar; -Jordan; -Azerbaijan*; -Ukraine**; -Egypt; and -a variety of neutrals whose vessels have been attacked by one side or the other.
The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 6d agoAn explosion at a port on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast was caused by a drone attack, Egyptian authorities said, the first targeting of the country during the current Iran war.
Interesting. Like man-made geothermal. www.wsj.com/us-news/clim...
An Underground Nuclear Reactor Is Coming to This Kansas Town—and Dividing Locals
No one has tried operating a commercial one a mile down—until now in Parsons, Kan. “It’s great that it’s here. It’s kind of bad that we’re the guinea pigs,” says one local leader.
wsj.com
Is this Meta ad about AI with Bowie’s “Five Years” playing under it a parody? Or don’t the advertisers know what that song is about?
Unlikely to go any better than the last time
Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social · 2w agoCNN: Saudi Arabia has approved a massive military operation against Yemen’s Houthi terrorists after coordinating with regional and Western allies. The operation will include Saudi air power and Yemeni government forces.
I could get down with a let’s-remember-some-guys approach to 1990s software
videogame history@vghistory.bsky.social · 2w agomacromedia shockwave, print ad (1999) archive.org/details/eu_W...
New from me on the Monroe Doctrine and constitutional war powers. Many thanks to @lawfaremedia.org for letting me walk readers through a century of war powers practice under the doctrine--practice that reveals + reinforces real constraints on presidential power. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...
The Monroe Doctrine Was Never a Blank Check for Presidential War
Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” in Latin America inverts a policy that, properly understood, abided by and reinforced constraints on unilateral presidential force.
lawfaremedia.org
Reading through this Post piece and I can’t help but see a lot of parallels to the rationales in the run up to counter-ISIS war but with less public justification. Though I think the ISIS war was justified, needed, the failure to clarify the logic was risky www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Trump administration weighing military options in Mali, officials say
If approved, it would add an eighth nation to the list of countries where President Donald Trump has ordered strikes since the start of his second term.
washingtonpost.com
We've entered the reprisals phase of the war.
Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social · 2w agoTrump on SoH:
Notably acknowledges (a) that the snatch-and-grab of Maduro was a war (without Congressional authorization); and (b) that Iran “conflict” has been ongoing for four months—contrary to both WPR report claims and 47-year war talking point
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w agoTrump offers sales pitch for his war: "Afghanistan War: 20 years, 2,000 DEAD. Iraq War: 9 years, 4,600 DEAD. Vietnam War: 19 years and 5 months, 58,220 DEAD. Korean War: 3 years and 1 month, 36,574 DEAD. Venezuela War: 1 day, 0 DEAD. Iran Military Conflict: 4 months, 18 DEAD."
Who gets to shape the global normative order? @boydvandijk.bsky.social draws on Algerian and Southern African archives to show how the FLN challenged it through South-South legal politics, establishing a model of insurgent legal activism that persists today. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Norm Making from the Margins: Armed Groups, the Algerian War, and South–South Legal Politics | International Organization | Cambridge Core
Norm Making from the Margins: Armed Groups, the Algerian War, and South–South Legal Politics
cambridge.org
Sadly, it's time to re-up this Q&A by @mikeschmitt.bsky.social, me & @rgoodlaw.bsky.social on targeting & the #Iran war. To be clear it is never lawful to: - target civilians or civilian infrastructure as such - target "dual use" infrastructure to "send a message," punish, or coerce the other side
Expert Q&A: A Targeting Primer on the Iran War
Leading legal experts Q&A analyzes how the law of armed conflict applies to United States, Israeli, Iranian strikes - focusing on targeting rules and civilian protections.
justsecurity.org
If only there were a body of law to regulate the behavior of and relationships between states, assign responsibility and liability.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w agoTrump on Canada: “They should pay us some damages or something”
This sort of escalatory spiral of punishing civilian populations is exactly why IHL exists
Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social · 3w agoThe conflict is ramping back toward, and possibly beyond, its earlier peak. Both sides now hit civilian infrastructure, Tehran named five Gulf ports as potential targets, and an IRGC adviser to the Supreme Leader warned of a full-scale offensive if US strikes persist.
Preventing some Iranian villagers from getting drinking water does nothing to prevent the IRGC from firing missiles and drones. Water is a red line. I know those of you who hate the US military and US foreign policy won’t care about the difference, but it’s significant, with very bad implications.
Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · 3w agoMore war crimes: In its fourth strike on water infrastructure, the US has destroyed two water tanks in Sirik, Iran, completely cutting off water distribution in all villages of the Bemani district and the city of Kohstak, the Hormozgan Water and Sanitation Authority says.
Reposting my analysis in @foreignpolicy.com from April, when these sorts of now realized strikes were merely threatened. foreignpolicy.com/2026/04/14/t...
Understanding the Illegality of Trump’s Iran Threats
Destroying bridges and power plants would violate international law and expose service members to prosecution.
foreignpolicy.com
Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · 3w agoMore war crimes: In its fourth strike on water infrastructure, the US has destroyed two water tanks in Sirik, Iran, completely cutting off water distribution in all villages of the Bemani district and the city of Kohstak, the Hormozgan Water and Sanitation Authority says.
Just totally unacceptable that countries of origin--including many, wealthy Western countries--continue to refuse to repatriate their nationals detained or displaced during the conflicts in Syria. www.ohchr.org/en/statement...
UN Syria Commission concludes latest visit to Syria
Commissioners Monia Ammar and Fionnuala Nì Aolain of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic concluded their latest visit to the Syrian Arab Republic, where the...
ohchr.org
Whoa! US Alien Terrorist Removal Court has its first case, 30 years since its creation: www.courtwatch.news/p/alien-terr...
Alien Terrorist Removal Court Has Its First Case
Created in 1996, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court has never reviewed an application. Until now
courtwatch.news
The intel assessments partially declassified and released by President Trump related to election security strike me as largely an argument for (a) better privacy protections for Americans vis-a-vis commercial actors; and (b) improved cyber security requirements for state, local, and private actors.
To stop ICE's violence, Congress must take back the money that pays for it. They wrote these violent agencies a blank check, and they have the power to revoke it. Tell your representatives to take back ICE & CBP's $240 billion slush fund: https://bit.ly/4vtpRCl
I learned and retained much more once I largely discarded my laptop in favor of pen and notebook after my first semester of law school
Dr. Stephanie Seul@stephanieseul.bsky.social · 3w ago'We need to ensure that our students actually learn to think critically, strategically & independently without relying on AI.'To that end, first-year law students will be entirely banned from using electronic devices like laptops, tablets & cell phones in the classroom" cybernews.com/ai-news/univ...
Condoleezza Rice is still a fan of dumb, unnecessary, and illegal wars.
William Adler@williamadler78.bsky.social · 3w agoShot/chaser
