Today's Headlines and Commentary

On the night before Christmas eve, the National Security Agency quietly released hundreds of surveillance-related documents, some of which describe the inadvertent targeting of U.S. citizens. We’ve begun and will continue to cover the document dump. In the meantime, here’s coverage from the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Bloomberg, the first to report on the story. Meanwhile, a new cache of leaked Snowden documents has surfaced. Der Spiegel reports on the materials, which shed light on the NSA’s data encryption-breaking programs, and the NSA's struggles in cracking certain encryption. It seems some email encryption providers have proved too tough for the NSA to crack. Amidst all the controversy and disagreement over the security and accessibility of data, Iceland has offered its services to provide a potential solution. Al Jazeera tells us that the tiny country would like to become the “Switzerland” of data, providing numerous data centers where individuals, customers and even countries could store valuable data without privacy concerns. Over the weekend, Iran tested a new “suicide drone.” The Associated Press explains that the drone, essentially a moving bomb, is “designed to plunge into aerial and ground targets, as well as ships." The New York Times has a piece on how American forces are approaching the “psychology” of the Islamic State in order to disarm it. The militant extremist group has managed to control swaths of the Iraqi and Syrian population in a way that other Islamist organizations have not; the key to defeating IS could lay in understanding its ideology and appeal. In recent days, Pakistan's military has killed nearly 40 Islamist militants, including several top commanders who were likely associated with planning the shocking attack on a military school that killed 149 people, mostly children. NPR, by way of the AP, reports on the operation. Last week the Post likewise reported on “Saddam,” a Taliban leader allegedly killed in the attack; yesterday, the same paper described Pakistan's new crackdown on Islamist extremism. Cliff Sloan, who just resigned from his position at the State Department where he was tasked with coordinating the release of Guantanamo detainees, sat with NPR’s Weekend Edition to explain his views on Guantanamo and why he resigned. As to the former, he argues that the prison is an anathema, and justified his resignation by explaining that he had always planned to leave the position within a certain timeline. The AP reports on commercial drone regulations. There are strong indications that Congress will weigh in on the issue. The upcoming cover story in The Atlantic delivers a seething take on contemporary America’s approach to its military. James Fallows argues that politicians and the general American public pay little-to-no attention to our troops which, in turn, hinders the ability to look at the military with a needed critical eye that might contribute to helping to reform it.

And yet however much Americans “support” and “respect” their troops, they are not involved with them, and that disengagement inevitably leads to dangerous decisions the public barely notices. “My concern is this growing disconnect between the American people and our military,” retired Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George W. Bush and Barack Obama (and whose mid-career academic stint was at Harvard Business School), told me recently. The military is “professional and capable,” he said, “but I would sacrifice some of that excellence and readiness to make sure that we stay close to the American people. Fewer and fewer people know anyone in the military. It’s become just too easy to go to war.”

Politico considers Ash Carter’s chances of a successful tenure should he be confirmed as the new Defense Secretary. His first major hurdle will be the threat of sequestration in the new fiscal year – which would majorly hamper his ability to help carry out U.S. defense strategy. In southeast Asia, another commercial airliner is missing. The BBC reports that AirAsia Indonesia Flight QZ8501 from Indonesia to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control after roughly 40 minutes of flight. Even though we at Lawfare didn’t find The Interview to be well, any good, CNN reports that it’s still enough to get North Korea riled up. Saturday, the country’s National Defense Commission released a scathing review not of the film, but of the Obama administration for “blackmailing” theaters into distributing the movie.

ICYMI: Since December 24, on Lawfare

Paul considers various theories holding that North Korea was behind the Sony hack. Ben reported on his unexpected but pretty shocking exchange with Edward Snowden. NSA hoodies are made in Pakistan… no punch line necessary. To mark the occasion, Paul flagged "Christmas in the Trenches," by John McCutcheon. Jodie Liu noted the NSA's release of oversight reporting---which described technical and human error, as well as some intentional abuse of NSA authority. As noted above, it seems The Interview is a bad movie---according to both Paul and Jane. Mira Rapp Hooper covered important maritime security developments in Asia in 2014. Yesterday, Ben continued his series on his thoughts on the SSCI’s CIA interrogation report. Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us onTwitter 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.