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John B. Bellinger III

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John B. Bellinger, III

John B. Bellinger, III is the Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State of the United States. He was sworn in on April 8, 2005. He is the principal adviser on all domestic and international law matters to the Department of State, the Foreign Service, and the diplomatic and consular posts abroad. He is also the principal adviser on legal matters relating to the conduct of foreign relations to other agencies and, through the Secretary of State, to the President and the National Security Council.

Bellinger joined the Department of State in January 2005 as Senior Advisor to Secretary Condoleezza Rice, having previously co-directed her State Department transition team.

John B. Bellinger, III speaking at the Salzburg Global seminar

From February 2001 to January 2005, Bellinger served as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council at the White House. As Legal Adviser, he provided legal advice to President George W. Bush, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, NSC Principals, and NSC and White House staff on a broad range of national security and international legal matters. He was one of the principal drafters of the 2004 law that created the Director of National Intelligence. During this time Bellinger's apprehension regarding the legality of proposed administration policy sometimes brought him into conflict with more conservative members of the administration on issues broadly relating to the President's powers during wartime, and specifically the use of torture by the government.[1]

Bellinger served as Counsel for National Security Matters in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice from 1997 to 2001. He served previously as Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1996), as General Counsel to the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the U.S. Intelligence Community (1995-1996), and as Special Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster (1988-1991). From 1991 to 1995, he practiced law with Wilmer Cutler & Pickering in Washington, DC.

Bellinger received his A.B. cum laude in 1982 from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and his J.D. cum laude in 1986 from Harvard Law School. He also received an M.A. in Foreign Affairs in 1991 from the University of Virginia, where he was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Foreign Affairs Fellowship.

Bellinger is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Council on Germany and a Fellow of the British-American Project. He is a former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of St. Albans School in Washington. He and his wife, Dawn, live in Arlington, Virginia, with their two daughters.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

According to the British Mail on Sunday, in 2003 Bellinger played a key role in persuading a wavering Lord Peter Goldsmith, British Attorney General, of the legality of the Iraq war. Bellinger was reported to have said: "We had a problem with your Attorney General who was telling us it was legally doubtful under international law. We straightened him out." [1]

On 15 February 2006 the Department of Defense issued a press release, quoting Bellinger, entitled: "Guantanamo Detainees Being Held Legally, Official Says[2]"

The press release quoted Bellinger as arguing:

"The vast majority of the people who are in Guantanamo are being held under the typical laws of war."

It reported:

Bellinger said most of the detainees were captured on the battlefield, but are not categorized as prisoners of war because al Qaeda is not a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, and "neither the Taliban nor al Qaeda met any of the definitions of the term 'prisoner of war'" outlined in the conventions.
Due to security threats, "the Geneva Conventions themselves make very clear ... that there would be certain categories of individuals -- spies or 'saboteurs,' ... who should be considered to have forfeited their rights of communication with the outside world," he said.

David Ignatius, reported in the Washington Post that Bellinger had backed a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission that the United States join with her allies to negotiate a new approach to dealing with combatants who stood outside the already established International conventions.[3] Ignatius quoted a passage from the 9/11 Commission's report that he asserted Bellinger supported:

"New principles might draw upon Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions on the law of armed conflict."[3]


In a June 2008 article in the Washington Post, Michael Abramowitz reported that the White House dismissed legal advice on detainees, repeatedly ignoring warnings from inside and outside the administration. Bellinger was quoted as saying in an August 2006 email, "I can virtually guarantee you, without a legislative basis, federal courts are not going to be willing to uphold the indefinite detention of unlawful combatants." [2]

References

  1. ^ David Ignatius Cheney's Cheney, Washington Post, January 6 2006
  2. ^ Guantanamo Detainees Being Held Legally, Official Says, Armed Forces Press Service, February 15 2006
  3. ^ a b David Ignatius, A Way Out of Guantanamo Bay, Washington Post, July 7 2006
This article incorporates public domain text from a Department of State biography and a White House press release.
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