Today's Headlines and Commentary

We begin with cyber matters. Convicted hackers, the UK's new Joint Cyber Reserve Unit wants you! The BBC reports that these individuals could be recruited to work on bolstering the country's computer networks and strengthening its protections in cyberspace. Google unveiled two services yesterday: uProxy will allow users in certain countries to "bypass government censorship or surveillance software," and Project Shield will "protect news organizations and human rights groups from cyberattacks." Al Jazeera America has more. In other news, Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald tells us that military commissions Chief Prosecutor Brig. Gen. Mark Martins concurred with the Obama administration's decision to try Abu Anas al-Libi in federal court instead of at Guantanamo Bay. Agence France Presse reported that al-Libi has gone on a hunger strike this morning ahead of his court appearance tomorrow; it has also been revealed that he is suffering from Hepatitis C. Federal prosecutors filed a brief arguing for Special Administrative Measures to be kept in place against accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, reports Josh Gerstein of Politico. J. J. Green of Washington's radio station, WTOP, got an inside look at the workings of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He interviews its director, Michael T. Flynn, about the agency's role in the intelligence community and the future of intelligence collection in part one of a three-part series. According to the Associated Press, President Obama called French President Francois Hollande yesterday in an attempt to placate French anger over reported NSA surveillance of its citizens. Secretary of State John Kerry also ran interference at a press conference in Paris yesterday, writes the Washington Post. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an Al Qaeda-linked rebel group, is complicating international efforts to moderate an end to the country's civil war. The New York Times has the details in advance of a meeting in Geneva next month. The Wall Street Journal discusses the European Union's statement on extremist rebel groups. The BBC and the Times report after Arab and Western forces (dubbed the Friends of Syria) met with Syian opposition forces in London. And---no surprise here---Syrian President Assad is none too happy about the planned talks. Saudi Arabia is distancing itself from the United States and the United Nations over policy differences in the region. The kingdom is frustrated with the lack of U.N. progress in resolving the conflict in Syria and has resigned its seat on the Security Council in protest. The Saudis are also angry that the United States stopped short of a military strike on Syria last month; the Journal has more, as does Reuters. The Times reports on increased American-Chinese military cooperation. Sen. Dianne Feinstein argues in favor of the NSA's phone metadata program in this op-ed in USA Today:

The call-records program is not surveillance. It does not collect the content of any communication, nor do the records include names or locations. The NSA only collects the type of information found on a telephone bill: phone numbers of calls placed and received, the time of the calls and duration. The Supreme Court has held this "metadata" is not protected under the Fourth Amendment. This program helps "connect the dots"---the main failure of our intelligence before 9/11. Former FBI director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified that if this program existed before 9/11, it likely would have identified the presence inside the U.S. of hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar.

President Obama will meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tomorrow. Michael Kugelman of the Woodrow Wilson Center has an op-ed in the Times arguing that President Obama should push to strengthen the country's civilian leadership vis-a-vis its all-powerful military. And the Post editorial board discusses a way forward for the partnership.