Ryan Goodman

Welcome to the Just Security Podcast.

I'm Tess Bridgman, your co-host today with Ryan Goodman.

We're the co-editors-in-chief of Just Security.

September 11th, 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

And I'll also say I really appreciate what just security does to illuminate not only what we do well, but what we've done less well and what where we have to do this to the discussion earlier, where we've strayed from either our values or our principles.

And that helps hold us to account as we think about dealing with challenges in the future.

This episode was hosted by me, Tess Bridgman, and Ryan Goodman.

It was produced by Daniel Hojnacki and edited by Pooja Shah.

Welcome to the Just Security podcast.

I'm your host, Ryan Goodman, Just Security's co-editor-in-chief.

And today's podcast discussion, the topic for our conversation is an evaluation of whether or not U.S. military conduct in the Iran war has violated the law of armed conflict.

And the podcast we're recording is happening on Thursday, August 27th, which is one day away from the sixth month mark of of the U.S.-Iran War starting on February 28th of 2026, and we thought this would be a good time to take a step back and just kind of evaluate what's happened.

So thanks for folks who are listening and tuning in.

The episode was hosted by me.

Ryan Goodman was produced by Daniel Hajnaki and with help from Pooja Shah.

Special thanks to our guests, Tom Denbaum, Margaret Donovan, and Todd Huntley for joining us.

So it's important to get the context that you provided.

Ryan Goodman is with me now, out front legal analyst.

And Ryan, OK, let's just start with what this whistleblower is saying.

So where really are we on this? This report comes out.

from whom we as a nation explicitly promised to protect him as part of the deal, as thank you and as a sacred contract in return for his family helping our military while we were at war there.

Ryan Goodman at Just Security posted this remarkable statement from an active duty U.S. Marine colonel.

You'll see him here in just a moment.

He is not wearing his uniform.

and this raises a lot of new questions.

A couple of us, uh, me and Brian, uh, and Ryan Goodman and Mike Schmidt put together actually a whole list of questions.

If folks are interested, it's linked in the show notes called key questions on us killing trained at Agua leader inside Venezuela.

But, um, you know, Beck, maybe you can talk us through kind of what happened.

I've had a belly full.

New York law professor Ryan Goodman pointed to the United States v. Solomon case, which happens to have been decided in the SDNY.

That decision noted that the president may, at any time, remove the judicially appointed United States attorney pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 504, regardless of the nature of his appointment.

Well, look, if there's precedent for this happening and the precedent has already happened within the SDNY, they will be hard-pressed to fight this order.