On Saturday, Benjamin Wittes and Robert Chesney published another response at the Lawfare Blog to questions I think Matthew Olsen, who has been nominated for the position of National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) director, should be asked at his forthcoming Senate confirmation hearing. Wittes and Chesney spend most their time arguing against positions I do not hold, have not advocated, and are not relevant in this debate. While they concede important ground, they simply miss the “larger” point that I have made altogether.
They argue that I dismiss their “larger points about the inherent imperfections of detention,” including “false positives” (which they define as “captures of and decisions to continue to hold persons who turn out not be the people whom the state believes them at first to be”) and “false negatives” (which they define as “releases of or decisions not to capture persons who turn out to be dangerous”).
