Do We Have the Legal Tools to Prevent Terrorist Attacks?

New York City Lawyers Chapter & the International Law and National Security Practice Group

Speakers:

• Andrew C. McCarthy, Senior Fellow, National Review Institute, and author, Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad
• Glenn Sulmasy, Professor, U.S. Coast Guard Academy and author, The National Security Court System - A Natural Evolution of Justice in an Age of Terror
• Samuel J. Rascoff, Assistant Professor, NYU Law School and Former Director of Intelligence Analysis for the New York City Police Department and Special Assistant to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq
• Hon. Kenneth M. Karas, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Moderator)

Speakers:

• Andrew C. McCarthy, Senior Fellow, National Review Institute, and author, Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad
• Glenn Sulmasy, Professor, U.S. Coast Guard Academy and author, The National Security Court System - A Natural Evolution of Justice in an Age of Terror
• Samuel J. Rascoff, Assistant Professor, NYU Law School and Former Director of Intelligence Analysis for the New York City Police Department and Special Assistant to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq
• Hon. Kenneth M. Karas, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Moderator)

As the new administration is reviewing the legal tools for our struggle against terrorism, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban has threatened "an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world." After closing Guantanamo, what happens next? Should the international law of armed conflict continue to set the basic structure? Are ordinary criminal procedures and courts sufficient, or should a national security court system be created? What interrogation, surveillance and intelligence tools are essential? A distinguished panel will address these related subjects.

Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy is a Senior Fellow at the National Review Institute, and the author of the bestseller Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad. He was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York for 18 years, and prosecuted, among other major cases, the terrorism case against Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 others for waging against the U.S. a war of urban terrorism that included bombing the World Trade Center in 1993. He helped supervise the Justice Department's command post in NYC after the 9/11 attacks, has been an adjunct professor of law at Fordham and New York Law Schools, and served as a special assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense in 2004

Samuel J. Rascoff
Samuel J. Rascoff joined the NYU faculty as an Assistant Professor of Law in June 2008. He came to the Law School from the New York City Police Department where, as Director of Intelligence Analysis, he created and led a team responsible for assessing the terrorist threat to the City. A graduate of Harvard, Oxford and the Yale Law School, he previously served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and to Second Circuit Judge Pierre N. Leval, and as a special assistant with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He was also an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz where his practice focused on the settlement of complex litigation. His research interests include counter-terrorism law, intelligence, and regulatory law and policy.

Glenn Sulmasy
Commander Sulmasy is a judge advocate and an expert in national security law. He has been on the faculty of the U. S. Coast Guard Academy since July, 2001 where he serves as the first permanent military law professor (tenured) in the school's history. He has also served on the faculty of the International Law Department at the U. S. Naval War College and has been an adjunct faculty member at the Roger Williams University School of Law since 1999. Prior to entering academia, Commander Sulmasy had myriad military tours, including service in the Persian Gulf War, narcotics interdiction n the Caribbean, a fellow/advisor on national security matters to former Congressman Rob Simmons (Ct-2), and as a prosecutor. Commander Sulmasy publishes and lectures widely on the law of armed conflict, international law and national security matters. Further, he is sought after for commentary in media outlets such as National Public Radio, The Associated Press, The New York Times and Fox News, among others, on issues such as the War on al Qaeda, Guantanamo Bay Detention Center (GITMO) and other national security matters. He is a former national security and human rights fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Commander Sulmasy is a graduate of the U. S. Coast Guard Academy, the University of Baltimore School of Law, and the Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). He is the author of the forthcoming book, The National Security Court System - A Natural Evolution of Justice in an Age of Terror (Oxford University Press/ June 2009).

Ken Karas
Ken Karas was appointed United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York on June 30, 2004, and entered duty on September 7, 2004. He graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. degree in 1986, and received a J.D. degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1991. Upon graduating from law school, Judge Karas served as a law clerk to the Hon. Reena Raggi, then United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. Thereafter, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1992 until 2001, and Chief of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Unit from 2001 until his departure from the office in June 2004. While at the U.S. Attorney's Office, Judge Karas worked on numerous terrorism investigations into associates of several terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, Hamas, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and the IRA. He was part of the team of prosecutors who in 2001 convicted four of Usama Bin Laden's followers for their role in the August 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. He also participated in the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui who pled guilty to being part of several conspiracies that involved the September 11th terrorist attacks.  Judge Karas has been the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award and the John Marshall Award from the Justice Department, and the Agency Seal Medallion from the Central Intelligence Agency. And in 2001, he was named the Federal Law Enforcement Association's Prosecutor of the Year. Judge Karas is a member of the Federal Bar Council and the Board of Directors for the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues.

Reception 6:00 P.M.
Program 7:00 P.M.

Refreshments will be served.
The event is free of charge and open to the public. No reservations are required.
For more information, telephone Mark Schuman at (212) 578-9043 or e-mail [email protected].