Today's Headlines and Commentary

Cody M. Poplin
Tuesday, December 23, 2014, 1:53 PM
Yesterday, North Korea lost access to the internet. The blackout, while limited in scope due to the meager nature of the DPRK’s network, comes after US President Barack Obama suggested that the United States would find a “proportional response” to the cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

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Yesterday, North Korea lost access to the internet. The blackout, while limited in scope due to the meager nature of the DPRK’s network, comes after US President Barack Obama suggested that the United States would find a “proportional response” to the cyberattack on Sony Pictures. The New York Times reports that North Korea only has 1,024 Internet protocol addresses, which the paper notes, is fewer than many city blocks in New York. The United States has not claimed responsibility for the network’s failure, and security experts have proposed that the blackout could be the result of many factors. North Korea could have taken its own networks offline in preparation for an attack, or China could have just unplugged its neighbor. However, network instability began on Friday, and its prolonged nature suggests that the network was “under duress.” Politico suggests the outage is most likely the work of hackers---it’s just not yet possible to tell whether those hackers were working for the US government. In the Daily Beast, Shane Harris explores the legal contours associated with a possible US cyber attack on North Korea. Whatever the cause, by Tuesday morning, the Hermit Kingdom’s servers were back online. Meanwhile, South Korea said that it could not determine whether its Northern neighbor was behind a cyberattack on its nuclear power plant operator. Seoul said that only non-critical data was taken, but South Korean President Park Geun-hye called it a “grave situation.” Reuters has more. Turning to from the battlespace to the battlefield: McClatchy reports that Islamic State militants have launched a powerful counterattack on the Iraqi town of Baiji, where one of Iraq’s largest oil refineries is located. Baghdad had anticipated bringing the refinery back online this month after Iraqi security forces dislodged ISIS from the refinery in November. Social media photographs and videos showed militants seizing key parts of the inner city, including government buildings and a central mosque, but there was no evidence that the militants had secured control of the refinery itself. Fighting continued at the time of reporting. However, McClatchy also describes gains by the Kurdish pesh merga forces in the north around the town of Sinjar. ISIS forces has retreated to Tal Afar and Mosul amid constant air attacks by the US-led coalition and sweeping operations by Kurdish ground forces. The gains close a major transportation and logistics hub between Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. Violence continued in Yemen today, with five bombs exploding in the capital city of Sanaa. No one has claimed responsibility, but the attacks killed one member of the Shiite Muslim Houthi group. The New York Times reports of Taliban advances in Afghanistan, especially in Helmand Province, where more than 1,300 members of the Afghan security forces have been killed since June. In the wake of the American troop withdrawal, Taliban advances have continued long after the traditional end of the fighting season. The Long War Journal covers new evidence of a new Taliban training camp in the northern province of Faryab. Pakistan has fast-tracked the execution of convicted militants on Pakistan’s death row. The New York Times notes that the decision is provoking outcry from human rights groups and the United Nations over concern that some wrongfully convicted prisoners will be put to death. One case, that of a 14-year-old boy who could be put to death for manslaughter over the killing a 7-year-old, illustrates the campaigners’ case. Because of a clause in Pakistani law, any crime that “creates a sense of fear of insecurity in society” can be considered terrorism. The boy, Shafqat Hussain, claims to have confessed after being tortured by police during nine days of interrogation. The Times also carries a long read on the 2008 Mumbai attacks, where piles of data but incomplete information sharing left a puzzle uncomplete and a city vulnerable to attack. This morning, Ukraine’s parliament voted to scrap its official “non-aligned” status, a move aimed at accelerating its ambition to join NATO. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned the vote, calling it “counterproductive” to peace in the region. Following the vote, a NATO spokesman said, “Our door is open and Ukraine will become a member of NATO if it so requests and fulfills the standards and adheres to the necessary principles." Cuba has signalled that it will not extradite fugitives to the United States as part of the detente announced by President Barack Obama, effectively confirming that Joanne Chesimard, who escaped prison to Havana after killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973, will continue to live openly in Cuba. The Hill reports that the United States has spent $1.6 trillion on military operations and counterterrorism since the attacks on September 11, 2001. This does not include the $64 billion included in the Overseas Contingency Operations fund in the fiscal 2015 budget. The number, calculated by the Congressional Research Service, also neglects to include the “life-time” costs of caring for veterans, interest on the deficit, increases to the base budget, or retirement costs. Finally, the New York Times reports that Chris Sloan, the State Department envoy responsible for negotiating transfers from Guantanamo Bay, is resigning.

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Chris Jenks wrote on “Extradition, Chesimard, and US-Cuba Relations.” Wells Bennett alerted us that Cliff Sloan will step down as State Department’s Envoy to Guantanamo Bay. Paul Rosenzweig shared the news that North Korea’s internet went offline yesterday. 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.

Cody Poplin is a student at Yale Law School. Prior to law school, Cody worked at the Brookings Institution and served as an editor of Lawfare. He graduated from the UNC-Chapel Hill in 2012 with degrees in Political Science & Peace, War, and Defense.

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