Today's Headlines and Commentary

The New York Times gives us a sneak peak at Attorney General Eric Holder’s much awaited revisions to the Justice Department’s profiling rules. Although the draft expands the definition of profiling, the rules still allow the FBI to continue using most of its current methods including the use of nationality in mapping neighborhoods. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is calling for an investigation of the State Department’s granting of legal immunity to Blackwater guards and suggesting that there may have been a deliberate attempt to “sabotage” prosecutions. The Associated Press has the story. Over at ThinkProgress, Ken Gude calls for the current Congress to lift the ban on transferring Guantanamo detainees to the US before the results of the next elections make doing so even more difficult. And at Secrecy News, Steve Aftergood notes that CIA will likely play a large role in the actual declassification process of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA abuses, and outlines some possible means of counteracting the inevitable conflict of interest. The State Department also seems to want a role in the declassification process, as it is apparently concerned with the effects of the report on the safety of US diplomats and success of US diplomatic efforts Is encryption the answer? An article in the MIT Technology Review suggests that increased use of encryption could make the intelligence community’s data stores and data searches more respectful of privacy and resistant to misuse. A new report from the inspector general for the intelligence community found that Russia declined to provide information to the FBI that likely would have led to increased scrutiny on of the Boston Marathon bombers. The Times has the story. In a bid to prevent the government in Kiev from sliding further toward the West, Russian President Putin has threatened to restrict natural gas exports to Ukraine. And according to NATO satellite images, Russian troops are in a “state of high readiness” on the Ukrainian border. The Times and Journal have those stories, respectively. In an interview with the Associated Press, NATO’s top military commander specifically refused to rule out the possibility of deploying US troops in Eastern Europe. The commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, was discussing potential measures the West might take to counter recent Russian actions. But while the world is focused on Russia, is anyone still paying attention to Syria? Foreign Policy reports on Bashar Assad’s string of missed deadlines in transporting and destroying chemical weapons and on claims that the regime even used chemical weapons again recently. Yesterday, Iran and the six major powers wrapped up their most recent round of talks in Vienna. According to the Wall Street Journal, the real drafting and negotiating work has not yet begun and will start with the next round of talks on May 13^th. But even if the negotiations succeed, what comes next? David Petraeus has an opinion piece in the Washington Post where he argues for increased attention to the “day-after” a deal with Iran. The Obama administration has, for three straight years, failed to meet its reporting requirements under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. According to The Hill, the administration’s failure to do so may be giving Russian companies involved in trading with those countries a free pass for sanctions violations. According to the National Journal, the House will vote today to bar the recently appointed Iranian ambassador to the UN from entering the country because of his involvement in the 1979 hostage crisis. As the Iranians have already reiterated their commitment to the appointment, this has the potential to get very awkward. Last week, we linked to reports that the Turkish courts had ordered the government to stop blocking access to YouTube. Well, it now appears that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has no intention of obeying. According to Reuters, he wants to keep wiretaps linking government officials to corruption offline. Hopefully, the Turkish public still has access to Lawfare. Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.