Today's Headlines and Commentary

This morning, the White House sent a draft Authorization for the Use of Military Force against ISIS to Congress. We’ve posted both the text of the proposal as well as the accompanying transmittal letter. While long awaited, the proposal is already facing significant political opposition, Politico reports. Senate Democrats have panned the draft for not including more stringent restrictions on the use of ground troops and for not repealing the 2001 AUMF. On the other side of the aisle, Republicans have criticized the proposal for not allowing unrestricted use of ground forces in the conflict. The campaign against ISIS continues apace, however. Reuters reports that the U.S.-led coalition conducted several airstrikes across Iraq and Syria yesterday. The New York Times reveals that Jordan and the United Arab Emirates launched a series of airstrikes against ISIS targets. The strikes were the first carried out by the UAE since December, when the country halted its strikes over worries about the lack of U.S. forces deployed to rescue downed pilots. In Syria, Kurdish forces hope to build on their recent defeat of ISIS in Kobani by forming an alliance with moderate Syrian rebels, according to the Associated Press. The alliance, some say, could be the partner force that the West has been searching for since the start of the conflict. But the muddled mess in Syria makes it difficult to keep clear the lines of alliance. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed in a recent interview that the United States is communicating with the regime through intermediaries. Whether that is true or not, the Daily Beast describes how Syrian forces often launch follow-up bombing raids after U.S. airstrikes and have thus far avoided coming into contact with coalition planes. On the ground, the Associated Press reports that Syrian troops have moved south of Damascus, fighting alongside members of Hezbollah to reclaim areas lost to opposition forces last year in a region that abuts the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Despite the six-month long coalition bombing campaign, more than 20,000 foreign fighters have left home to join ISIS, and the number is increasing at a rate that the United States’ director of the National Counterterrorism Center calls alarming, according to CNN. In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee, Director Nick Rasmussen and other intelligence officials confirmed that up to 150 Americans have tried to join the extremist group, the AP shares. While some have been arrested or have been killed, some continue to fight in the region. The Pentagon has confirmed the death of Kayla Mueller, an American hostage held by ISIS since August 2013, the Washington Post shares. A Pentagon official stated that Mueller was killed by ISIS. The Daily Beast reports that there will be no investigation into Mueller’s death, which ISIS blames on Jordanian airstrikes on February 6th. In an interview, the leader of the Houthi rebels now controlling the Yemeni capital expressed interest in maintaining strong relations with the United States, the Times reports. But on Tuesday the U.S. State Department reported that it was closing its Yemeni embassy. Several other countries, including France and Britain, followed suit amid widespread protests against the Houthis’ seizure of power, Reuters reveals. As the security situation deteriorates, a Yemeni group has renounced allegiance to Al Qaeda in the the Arabian Peninsula in order to declare its loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, Reuters reveals. With the Yemen “model” in shambles, the Post reports that the Obama administration is considering slowing the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. The plan may involve keeping more than the original number of 5,500 troops in Afghanistan beyond the end of 2015, but would not change the administration’s larger goal of ending the U.S. military mission by the end of the President’s term in 2017. A drone strike in Kunar province killed two Taliban commanders, while in Nangarhar province militants set fire to a girls’ primary school, Pajhwok shares. Despite today’s planned peace talks in Minsk between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany, violence between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists continues to escalate. The BBC notes that more than 20 people were killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine in the run-up to the talks. The Wall Street Journal quotes a Ukrainian defense official as saying that 19 troops had been killed and 78 wounded in recent days. In light of the renewed violence, French and German officials expressed little hope that the talks would lead to a solution to the ongoing conflict, Radio Free Europe shares, and a U.S. military commander said that the United States will begin training Ukrainian troops, the AP reveals. In the Wall Street Journal, former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Roger Altman argues that imposing sanctions on Russia is a more powerful tool than arming the Ukrainian military. Before traveling to Belarus for the peace talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Egypt, where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The visit was President Putin’s first to Egypt in ten years and comes as Egypt faces a more skeptical United States following the 2014 coup against then President Mohamed Morsi, Reuters reports. Niger has declared a state of emergency in the region of Diffa after Boko Haram conducted a series attacks against the region from its base in Nigeria. The BBC has more. In Cameroon, Boko Haram hijacked two buses, abducting about 30 people and killing seven others, according to the AP. In a sign of progress, the U.S. military will end its operations fighting Ebola in West Africa, the Wall Street Journal shares. Over the next two months, the United States plans to withdraw all but 100 of the 1,300 troops currently serving in the region. The US military spent $400 million on the effort to contain Ebola. The AP explains that the administration’s efforts to close Guantanamo have been complicated by the recent killing of a former Guantanamo detainee. Abdul Rauf, who spent six years in Guantanamo, was killed by a drone strike on Monday in Afghanistan, where he was working as a recruiter for ISIS. Additionally, several of the Taliban detainees traded in return for U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl may have already contacted an Al Qaeda affiliate, the Haqqani network, though they remain in Qatar. A federal judge issued an order on Tuesday rejecting a portion of an ongoing lawsuit against the NSA by the privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation. In the order, the judge explained that revealing some of the relevant information would compromise national security, but asserted that customers of AT&T are not currently subjected to dragnet seizure and search, the Wall Street Journal reveals.

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Yishai Schwartz explained how the difficulty in selecting an unbiased jury in the Boston bomber trial evinces the traditional tension between a defendant’s right to an impartial jury and the community’s right to serve justice to those who harmed it. Steve Vladeck recapped the oral argument heard by the D.C. Circuit yesterday in the case of al Nashiri and noted that, based on the substance and tone of the judges’ questions, the Court is unlikely to reach the merits of the case. Herb Lin broke the news that the Obama administration is establishing a new agency tasked with coordinating intelligence activities during a cyber crisis, to be called the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center. Later, Cody shared video from an address on the topic given by Lisa Monaco, Assistant to President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. Ramzi Kassem argued against Steve’s earlier point that moving detainees from Guantanamo to U.S. soil would probably legally benefit them. Herb discussed the Anthem hack and noted that coverage of such hacks usually misses the fact that Social Security Numbers are a problematic, inadequate form of identification. 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.