Today’s Headlines and Commentary

Let’s begin with Guantanamo Bay: Eyder Peralta of NPR reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived at the prison to assess the situation as the number of detainees participating in the hunger strike has grown to 31. Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald has more. The Australian reports that Mamdouh Habib, ex-detainee at Guantanamo Bay, has won the right to file a claim of racial discrimination against Australian police, who he claims have discriminated against him five times between 2006 and 2011. Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times reports on the sentencing of one Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, an Eritrean man who joined Al Shabab, was arrested in Nigeria, and extradited to the SDNY to face terrorism charges. He pleaded guilty last summer; Bobby wrote about the case here and here. Lots of Africa news: Outgoing U.S. AFRICOM commander Gen. Carter Ham added another worry to our already-full plates (and to that of his successor, Gen. David Rodriguez): Al Qaeda is trying to establish a presence in Tunisia. The Associated Press has more on his remarks, as does Carlo Munoz of the Hill. Africa is on the front burner at the Pentagon, says Kevin Baron of Foreign Policy, who discusses DoD’s relationships with different countries on the continent. And Yochi Dreazen writes in Foreign Policy about why the drug trade will make the war in Mali difficult to win. Meanwhile, Peter Bergen has this story in CNN.com about what actually happened the night Osama bin Laden was killed. Bergen dismantles the differences between the accounts of the “The Shooter” (remember the Esquire profile of him that sparked a national debate about how we treat our military?) and the account in the book by Matt Bissonette (aka the Squealing SEAL). Talk about a turf war. Greg Miller and Julie Tate of the Washington Post inform us that a woman who helped run the CIA’s interrogation and detention program---and who wanted the interrogation tapes destroyed---is being considered for the director of the CIA’s clandestine service. Mark Mazzetti of the Times has more on the difficult decision CIA Director John Brennan will have to make. CNN.com reports that the Afghan national police has carried out a series of operations that led to the deaths of 52 armed Taliban members in a day. Forty-five Taliban members were wounded and 21 were arrested. According to the Hill, Reps. Sander Levin and Charles Rangel have sent a letter to the Obama administration asking it to designate China a Priority Foreign Country for engaging in cybertheft. An advocacy group called the Brave New Foundation has released a video of a group of rabbis, reverends, and priests speaking out against the drone campaign in the name of religion, says CNN.com. And, don’t deny it---I know how closely you’ve all been following the Washington Post’s Peeps Contest this year. Check out this national security-inspired peep diorama: it’s today’s Moment of Zen (h/t Tamara Cofman Wittes): For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter and check out the Lawfare News Feed, visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law’s Security Law Brief, Syracuse’s Institute for National Security & Counterterrorism’s newsroll, and Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief and Cyber Brief. Email Raffaela Wakeman and Ritika Singh noteworthy articles to include, visit the Lawfare Events Calendar for upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings at the Lawfare Job Board.