Today's Headlines and Commentary

The Intercept reports that the NSA collects and stores essentially all cell phone calls inside the Bahamas and one other unnamed country. The collection of data, under the auspices of a program called SOMALGET, covers both metadata and content material. The report also explains that the NSA sweeps up metadata as part of the MYSTIC program in Mexico, Kenya and the Philippines. The intel comes from documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Citing Church Committee-era materials, Walter Pincus of the Washington Post argues that the NSA has learned from lessons of the past and is not on its way to become a tool of a tyrannical government, as Glenn Greenwald has warned. PC World reports that the head of Cisco Systems has written an open letter to President Obama, telling him that the controversy surrounding NSA surveillance impacts U.S. technology sales. In the letter, CEO John Chambers calls on President Obama to intervene in the operations of the NSA, and urges him to implement "new standards of conduct" in an effort to help appease foreign customers and investors. As we explained yesterday, five Chinese military officers have been accused of hacking into the computers of U.S. nuclear energy companies. Jack has a piece here on Lawfare exploring why the DOJ indicted the officers. Today, we learn from Reuters that China has summoned the U.S. ambassador, Max Baucus, to discuss the foreign policy implications of the indictment. The Chinese foreign minister has “protested” the DOJ accusations and his comments so far indicate that the accusations will serve to further force a wedge in an already struggling relationship. The New York Times explores what this all means to the U.S. companies based in China. Foreign Policy, meanwhile, poses the question: will China mimic the States in “coming after” American hackers? The CIA has announced that it will no longer use vaccinations as a cover for intelligence gathering operations, as it has in the past---most prominently in the course of targeting Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The Post and the Times have all the details on the end of this controversial program. Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, most commonly known as Abu Hamza, has been convicted of all eleven terrorism charges leveled against him in New York federal court. Ben Weiser of the Times explains that the jury took less than two full days of deliberations to come to their verdict, after six weeks of trial and many years of legal battles. Judge Katherine B. Forrest will hand down a sentence in September; Mostafa faces life imprisonment. The Times also reports that UK Prime Minister David Cameron has praised the verdict in the Mostafa trial, while also noting that there should have been a faster process in extraditing Mostafa from the UK to the United States. Foreign Policy has a piece on the International Criminal Court’s inquiry into US conduct in Afghanistan. The piece suggests that the chances of the ICC ever prosecuting U.S. soldiers of officials “remain slim” but that the court still remains very interested in determining if the U.S. had a policy of committing torture or otherwise “humiliating and degrading” treatment of enemy combatants in Afghanistan. Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter of the U.S. Marines will be awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest honor that can be bestowed unto any individual serving or who has served in the U.S. military. Cpl. Carpenter, 24, will be honored for his bravery in serving his country in Afghanistan, where he willingly threw himself onto a grenade in an effort to save a fellow Marine. The Post has the story. Yesterday, Ritika caught us all up on the recent violence that has been plaguing Libya. Today, the Post reveals that Khalifa Hiftar, who orchestrated attacks on two major Libyan cities, resided in the United States – and may have even become a U.S. citizen – after being exiled from the country as the leader of a rebel group called the Libyan National Army. The LNA was formed after Colonel Gaddafi was brought to power in the late 1960s. Hiftar resided in Virginia for an unspecified amount of time---at least three decades---before returning to Libya in 2011. 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.