Today's Headlines and Commentary

The war against the Islamic State continues along both ends of the Euphrates, targeting two of the pseudo-caliphate’s strongholds. In the north, Kurdish-led forces have launched an assault against Islamic State positions near the outskirts of Raqqa. Meanwhile, Iraqi police reclaimed villages just outside of Fallujah as part of a campaign launched earlier this week to recapture the war torn city. The Wall Street Journal reports that “in both places, the pushes face steep challenges, according to fighters and residents in both countries and Iraqi officials. Islamic State is deeply entrenched in both places, and the U.S.-led effort to raise local forces to lead the fight is complicated by ethnic and sectarian rivalries that could hamper the operations or even fuel support among local Sunnis for Islamic State.”

Contrary to previous reports, however, Syrian Democratic Forces are not preparing an all out assault on Raqqa yet. According to Reuters, “movements by the fighters in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, and leaflets dropped on Raqqa urging its citizens to leave had given rise to speculation that they were about to attack the city.” Instead, a militia spokesperson said that “the current battle is only to liberate the area north of Raqqa. Currently there is no preparation...to liberate Raqqa, unless as part of a campaign which will come after this campaign has finished.”

Even so, the Islamic State allowed some residents of Raqqa flee to the countryside. Earlier this month, U.S. officials confirmed reports that ISIS had declared a state of emergency in the city as the group scrambled to conserve supplies and harden defenses for the coming offensive. CNN has more on that here.

War report from Iraq: Earlier today, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi asked for the weekly protests in the Green Zone to be postponed so that security forces can focus on recapturing Fallujah from the Islamic State. The Associated Press shares that “for months, anti-government protesters, mainly followers of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, have been holding protests every Friday outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone and in other provinces, demanding reform to a political system widely seen as corrupt and ineffectual.” Extra security personnel are often deployed around the Green Zone, both to protect the protestors from militant attacks and to prevent the protests themselves from becoming violent. During a visit to Fallujah Operation Command, Prime Minister al Abadi stated, “All our security forces are preoccupied with liberating Fallujah and nearby areas, and imposing pressure on them in Baghdad and other provinces to protect the demonstrations will affect this issue.”

We’re two years into the war against the Islamic State and now military officials are indicating that they have finally corrected the “poor intelligence collection and clumsy process for identifying targets that initially plagued the campaign.” The New York Times tells us that “the destruction in recent months of these targets, deep behind enemy lines -- which commanders previously avoided for fear of causing civilian casualties -- has seriously damaged the Islamic State’s ability to pay its fighters, govern and attract new recruits, military officials say.” Read more on the new measures here.

Meanwhile, Russia accused Turkey of supplying the Islamic State with components for improvised explosive devices. In a letter to U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin suggested the devices are “being widely used to commit terrorist acts.” The Associated Press reports that Ambassador Churkin said that “an analysis of chemical components of explosives captured from Islamists in the region of the Iraqi city of Tikrit and the Syrian city of Kobani, and a review of conditions for selling the components, ‘indicates that they were either manufactured in Turkey or delivered to that country without the right of re-export.’” A spokesman for Turkey’s Foreign Ministry indicated that the letter to the U.N. chief was “the most recent example of Russia’s propaganda campaign against Turkey, and as such it cannot be taken seriously.”

Moscow announced that it will halt air raids against Jabhat al Nusra, al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, in order “to give other rebel factions a chance to distance themselves from the extremist group.” The announcement suggested that the decision was made after rebel factions, including those in Damascus and Aleppo, agreed to stop “provocative” shelling of government targets. Read more on Russia’s unusual move from the Washington Post here.

The Taliban’s new Mullah is not so different than the Taliban’s old Mullah. Foreign Policy has the latest on Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada and why the Taliban’s old guard is still holding the “reigns of power.” Elsewhere, Reuters details the Shura Council’s meeting to choose the Taliban’s new leader here, noting that Haibatullah was a “compromise” candidate.

The Afghan government yesterday urged the Taliban’s new leader to join peace talks. According to Al Jazeera, an Afghan government spokesman called on Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada “to join peace talks or face dire consequences.”

But peace does not appear to be immediately on the horizon, and despite the Taliban’s leadership shake up this week, the group continues to launch deadly attacks in Afghanistan. Just yesterday, the Taliban claimed credit for a suicide bombing that killed eleven people in Kabul. According to the Associated Press, the bomber detonated his explosive vest as he walked by a minibus carrying court employees. The blast killed both court workers and civilians and also wounded four others. More from the AP here.

The Associated Press reports that “Pakistan’s military says the country’s army chief met with U.S. Ambassador David Hale to express Islamabad’s serious concerns over the drone strike that killed the former Taliban leader.” In comments after the meeting, General Raheel Sharif described the strikes as “detrimental to relations and counterproductive for the ongoing peace process.”

The French parliament has given security authorities broader powers to fight terrorism, including new powers to detain terrorism suspects and put people under house arrest. The New York Times tells us that “the measure is the latest in a series of legislative changes that the government of President Francois Hollande has pushed through to give the authorities greater policing powers after the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last year, sometimes prompting debates over civil liberties.” The Times has more on the new proposals here.

Belgium prosecutors have arrested four Islamic State recruiters who may have been planning new attacks. According to the Associated Press, “all four suspects were charged with participating in the activities of a terrorist group.” However, the suspects do not appear to be linked to the Islamic State cell responsible for the Brussels attacks earlier this year.

“A Swedish court on Wednesday upheld the arrest warrant of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, with a Swedish prosecutor saying there’s still probable cause to prosecute him on a rape allegation and that ‘the risk of him evading justice is still large,’” CNN reports. Assange, who is currently residing in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, is “wanted in Sweden on rape allegations.” He claimed that if he left for Sweden, “he could end up being extradited and facing the death penalty in the United States over allegations of revealing government secrets through his site, WikiLeaks.”

Tomorrow, President Obama will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, “a decision that speaks volumes not only about his presidency but also about the increasingly worrisome struggle among powers great and small in East Asia.” The New York Times writes that “Mr. Obama’s predecessors had good reason to avoid Hiroshima. None wanted to be seen by American voters as apologizing for a decision that many historians even today believe, on balance, saved lives.” More on that story here.

Yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “protested” the killing of a young woman in Okinawa by a U.S. Marine, a crime that “has reignited resentment of the heavy U.S. military presence on the southern Japanese island.” According to Reuters, “Obama, joining Abe ahead of a Group of Seven summit, expressed regrets over the killing for which a U.S. base worker has been charged.” Reuters also writes that “both governments want to keep the incident from fanning further opposition to an agreement to relocate the U.S. Marines’ Futenma air base to a less populous part of Okinawa, a plan first agreed upon after the 1995 rape but opposed by the island’s government and many residents who want the base off the island entirely.”

Beijing is set to deploy nuclear-armed submarines into the Pacific Ocean for the first time. According to the Guardian, the move comes as China argues that “new U.S. weapons systems have so undermined Beijing’s existing deterrent force that is has been left with no alternative.” The Guardian also reports that “Chinese military officials are not commenting on the timing of a maiden patrol, but insist the move is inevitable.”

“The Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s office said it plans to ask the European Union’s Court of Justice to review backup contractual language that Facebook Inc. and thousands of other companies use to justify sending personal information about Europeans to the United States.” The Wall Street Journal writes that the move thrusts one of the last legal methods that companies have to store Europeans’ data on servers in the United States deeper into limbo. Read more from the Journal here.

“A judge has thrown out evidence obtained by the FBI via hacking, after the agency refused to provide the full code it used in the hack,” reports Motherboard. The evidence was part of the FBI’s investigation into the child porn site, PlayPen, and specifically involved child pornography on devices belonging to Jay Michaud. Motherboard reports that “Michaud’s case has been a dramatic legal tussle, dealing with the balance between a defendant’s right to information, and the government’s interest in keeping sensitive investigative techniques under wraps.”

Speaking of hacking, “Guccifer” pleaded guilty yesterday in front a federal court and will serve at least two years in prison. According to the Associated Press, Marcel Lazar, of Arad, Romania, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to unauthorized computer access and aggravated identity theft. Seven other counts, including cyberstalking and wire fraud, were dropped as part of a plea bargain.” Guccifer broke into computer networks belonging to the Bush family in 2013 and publicly released private family photos. Guccifer also obtained notoriety for claiming to have hacked into Hillary Clinton’s private email server while she was Secretary of State.

Yesterday, the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General released its report on Hillary Clinton’s private email server used when she was Secretary of State. The AP shares that “the State Department’s inspector general’s release of the 83-page report provides new insights into the server: Who knew about it, its vulnerabilities, and the bureaucratic mismanagement that allowed the secret system to operate outside normal channels throughout Clinton’s tenure.” The report concludes that Clinton violated federal rules with the use of her personal server. Check out the 9 biggest revelations in the State Department’s inspector general’s report on Clinton’s emails from Politico.

The Department of Defense is using 1970s era computers to control nuclear weapons. The Associated Press details a new GAO report that finds that the federal government spends “about three-fourths of its technology budget maintaining aging computer systems.” More from the AP here.

The Hill shares that a key Senate Democrat, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), “believes that officials within the CIA disagreed with Director John Brennan’s approach during a heated battle between the spy agency and the Senate Intelligence Committee.” Speaking to reporters, Wyden said, “this will be the first time I’ve ever said this publicly: My sense is there were clearly people at the CIA who understood that what Mr. Brennan had done was flat out wrong.” More from the Hill here.

In the New York Times, Mark Hertsgaard, the author of a new book on whistleblowing, argues that the Espionage Act should be amended to allow a public interest defense. According to Hertsgaard, “if a whistleblower is willing to take that risk to alert the American people to dangers, the least the law should do is take full account of the whistleblower’s intentions. He concludes, “Let Mr. Snowden come home and face trial. But make it an honest trial.”

A group of Republican senators introduced legislation yesterday that urges the transfer of captured ISIS fighters to Guantanamo Bay. The legislation comes after the New York Times reported two weeks ago that the Obama administration does not yet have a clear policy on detaining potential Islamic State captives. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Mark Kirk (R-IL), James Inhofe (R-OK), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Tim Scott (R-SC).

The Miami Herald reports that the “librarian” at Guantanamo Bay refused to accept a copy of the Senate Torture Report into the base’s 35,000-item library, deciding that the report contained tradecraft that “would be of interest to a potential adversary of the United States.” Speaking to reporters, the Army captain suggested that he turned down the copy “in order to maintain good order and discipline the camps.” The report contains information on the detention and treatment of detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Parting Shot: What does it mean to be a soldier or a civilian in a time of perpetual war? And what exactly does a nation on permanent war footing owe its soldiers? Phil Klay explores those questions and more in the latest Brookings essay entitled “The Citizen Soldier: Moral Risk and the Modern Military.”

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Zoe Bedell provided an update on the right to be forgotten.

Stewart Baker released the latest Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast, featuring a conversation with Patrick Gray.

Benjamin Wittes shared the first part of his thoughts on Donald Trump and the powers of the American presidency.

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