Colonel Gary D. Brown is an American lawyer and former officer in the United States Air Force. [1] [2] He was the official U.S. observer to the drafting of the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (2013) [3] [4] and is a member of the International Group of Experts that authored Tallinn Manual 2.0 (2017). [5] Professor Brown also appeared as the legal expert in the documentary film Zero Days (2016). [6]
Year | Degree | Institution |
---|---|---|
1984 | B.Sc. | University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, Missouri |
1987 | J.D. | University of Nebraska College of Law, Lincoln, Nebraska |
1988 | LL.M. | Cambridge University, England |
1994 | Squadron Officer School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama | |
2000 | Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama | |
2005 | Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama |
Year | Title | Published in |
---|---|---|
2017 | Out of the Loop | Temple International & Comparative Law Journal |
2019 | Commentary on the Law of Cyber Operations and the DoD Law of War Manual | Chapter in The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual |
2020 | State Cyberspace Operations: Proposing a Cyber Response Framework | RUSI Occasional Paper |
2020 | International Law and Cyber Conflict | Chapter in Routledge Handbook of International Cybersecurity First Edition |
2021 | If You Think AI Won't Eclipse Humanity, You're Probably Just a Human | William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal |
In 2017 Brown was appointed the legal advisor to a Guantanamo military commission's newly appointed Convening authority, Harvey Rishikof. [13]
Rishikof and Brown's appointments were terminated in early 2018. [2] [13] [14] Observers commented that their termination suggested a disagreement between the pair and their superiors at the Pentagon.
In July 2020 Brown told National Public Radio that he and Rishikof had been negotiating plea agreements with the lawyers of the men facing charges. [2] They'd take the death penalty off the table, if the suspects agreed to plead guilty and accept a sentence of life imprisonment.
In 2019 Brown formally filed a whistleblower report alleging substantial government waste, at Guantanamo. [15] [16] [17] According to Brown, operating costs at Guantanamo had been $6 billion.
The military budget of the United States is the largest portion of the discretionary federal budget allocated to the Department of Defense (DoD), or more broadly, the portion of the budget that goes to any military-related expenditures. The military budget pays the salaries, training, and health care of uniformed and civilian personnel, maintains arms, equipment and facilities, funds operations, and develops and buys new items. The budget funds five branches of the US military: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force.
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense (DOD), headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. DFAS was established in 1991 under the authority, direction, and control of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer to strengthen and reduce costs of financial management and operations within DOD. DFAS is responsible for all payments to servicemembers, employees, vendors, and contractors. It provides business intelligence and finance and accounting information to DOD decisionmakers. DFAS is also responsible for preparing annual financial statements and the consolidation, standardization, and modernization of finance and accounting requirements, functions, processes, operations, and systems for DOD.
John D. Altenburg Jr. is a lawyer for the U.S. Army and a retired major general. In December 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld named Altenburg as the appointing authority for military commissions covering detainees at Guantanamo. He resigned, effective November 10, 2006.
Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic warfare.
Morris Durham "Moe" Davis is an American retired U.S. Air Force colonel, attorney, educator, politician, and former administrative law judge.
Abdul Zahir (عبدالظاهر) is a citizen of Afghanistan currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was the tenth captive, and the first Afghan, to face charges before the first Presidentially authorized Guantanamo military commissions. After the Supreme Court ruled that the President lacked the constitutional authority to set up military commissions, the United States Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006. He was not charged under that system.
Noor Uthman Muhammed is a citizen of Sudan who was confined in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba where he served a sentence for terrorism convictions before the Guantanamo military commission
Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba from August 2002 to May 2018; in May 2018, he was transferred to Saudi Arabia's custody. He was the only detainee held at Guantanamo released during President Donald Trump's administration.
The United States Department of Defense is an executive branch department of the federal government of the United States charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the U.S. government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces. As of June 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense is the largest employer in the world, with over 1.34 million active-duty service members, including soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, and guardians. DoD also maintains over 778,000 National Guard and reservists, and over 747,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.87 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., DoD's stated mission is to provide "the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security".
Beginning on 27 April 2007, a series of cyberattacks targeted websites of Estonian organizations, including Estonian parliament, banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters, amid the country's disagreement with Russia about the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, an elaborate Soviet-era grave marker, as well as war graves in Tallinn. Most of the attacks that had any influence on the general public were distributed denial of service type attacks ranging from single individuals using various methods like ping floods to expensive rentals of botnets usually used for spam distribution. Spamming of bigger news portals commentaries and defacements including that of the Estonian Reform Party website also occurred. Research has also shown that large conflicts took place to edit the English-language version of the Bronze Soldier's Wikipedia page.
Susan Jean Crawford is an American lawyer, who was appointed the Convening Authority for the Guantanamo military commissions, on February 7, 2007. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Crawford to replace John D. Altenburg.
Thomas W. Hartmann is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Air Force Reserve. He has 32 years of criminal, commercial and civil litigation experience. Between 1983 and 1991 he was a prosecutor and defense counsel in the Air Force, including duties as Chief Air Force Prosecutor in Asia-Pacific Region. From 1991 to 1996 he was an associate at Bryan Cave LLP and at SBC Communications. In 1996 he became senior counsel for mergers & acquisitions for SBC Communications closing multiple deals worth several billion dollars in U.S., Europe, and South America as well as negotiating a strategic partnering agreement with a global internet service provider. From 1998 onwards he was general counsel for SBC Communications (1999–2001), Orius Corp. (2001–2004) and MxEnergy Inc. (2005–2007) in domestic and international settings. In July 2007 Brigadier General Hartmann was appointed the legal adviser to the convening authority in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions. In September 2008, as a result of the expansion of the commission efforts that General Hartmann had led, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England elevated General Hartmann to become the director of operations, planning, and development for the commissions. Hartmann reported to Susan J. Crawford, a retired judge, who was the convening authority until March 2010.
United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al. is the trial of five alleged Al-Qaeda members for aiding the September 11, 2001 attacks. Charges were announced by Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann on February 11, 2008 at a press conference hosted by the Pentagon. The men charged are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ammar al-Baluchi, and Mustafa Ahmad al Hawsawi.
The term convening authority is used in United States military law to refer to an individual with certain legal powers granted under either the Uniform Code of Military Justice or the Military Commissions Act of 2009.
Paul Luis Oostburg Sanz is the former United States General Counsel of the Navy, serving from 2010 to 2017.
Cyberwarfare is the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes. As a major developed economy, the United States is highly dependent on the Internet and therefore greatly exposed to cyber attacks. At the same time, the United States has substantial capabilities in both defense and power projection thanks to comparatively advanced technology and a large military budget. Cyber warfare presents a growing threat to physical systems and infrastructures that are linked to the internet. Malicious hacking from domestic or foreign enemies remains a constant threat to the United States. In response to these growing threats, the United States has developed significant cyber capabilities.
Gary Brown may refer to:
The Tallinn Manual is an academic, non-binding study on how international law applies to cyber conflicts and cyber warfare. Between 2009 and 2012, the Tallinn Manual was written at the invitation of the Tallinn-based NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence by an international group of approximately twenty experts. In April 2013, the manual was published by Cambridge University Press.
Michael N. Schmitt is an American international law scholar specializing in international humanitarian law, use of force issues, and the international law applicable to cyberspace. He is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Reading, the G. Norman Lieber Distinguished Scholar at the Lieber Institute of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the Charles H. Stockton Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the US Naval War College.
Harvey Rishikof is an American lawyer who was the Convening Authority for the Guantanamo military commission in 2017 and early 2018.
Rishikof and Brown expressed concern about the simultaneous removal of the convening authority and legal adviser. They also objected to the possible simultaneous appointment of two convening authorities as, according to the declaration, the Pentagon appointed the acting convening authority, Jim Coyne, before informing Rishikof of his removal.`
Retired Air Force Col. Gary Brown also claims that he and the former head of the military court were fired because they were negotiating a controversial cost-saving proposal with defense lawyers: allow Guantánamo prisoners — including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison rather than face the death penalty. Such plea deals, Brown says, 'would stop wasting resources.'
Rishikof and Brown said in a declaration filed with a military judge earlier this week that they were not advised of any concerns about their performance before they were abruptly fired last month.
Mr. Rishikof and his legal adviser, Gary Brown, said in a joint affidavit that they had not been warned in advance that senior Pentagon officials were unhappy with their performances but were aware that they had made some unpopular and controversial decisions, including discussing guilty pleas in the two capital cases in exchange for life in prison rather than execution.
NPR has learned that a former top attorney at the military court there has filed a federal whistleblower complaint alleging gross waste of funds and gross mismanagement.
One part of the cost equation comes from government prosecutors, who have been pursuing death penalty convictions for some, which critics say is a waste of money and time given that the evidence in many cases is "tainted by torture." And, as Brown further argues, even if they get a conviction, most of those cases will result in lengthy appeals that will cost billions more. (Brown pushed for settlement negotiations instead.)
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