Today's Headlines and Commentary

Iraqi forces and pro-government militias have begun securing their hold on Tikrit, the Iraqi city that ISIS has held since last June. The Washington Post reports that the assault on the city, which began earlier this month without U.S.-led air support, includes up to 30,000 troops and, according to an Iraqi security official, has recaptured 90 percent of the city. However, Reuters notes that the assault’s advance is still being slowed by ISIS snipers and bombs. The Post report adds that holding the city would represent both a strategic and emotional victory for the forces battling ISIS; the group’s militants slaughtered up to 1,700 Shiite soldiers when they seized the city last year. But, the New York Times reveals, the large role of Shiite militias in the offensive is raising fears of greater sectarian strife, as these militias may exact retribution upon the Sunni population in and around Tikrit. According to the Associated Press, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said in congressional testimony yesterday that officials are watching for any signs of “acts of retribution and ethnic cleansing” by Shiite militias. Moreover, Gen. Dempsey expressed concern that Iranian support for these militias may drive them to destabilize the country after the primary goal of defeating ISIS is achieved. However, in at least one instance, Sunnis and Shiites are working together. The Post notes that, after extensive negotiations with Iraq’s Shiite leaders, the Sunni Jubbour tribe is fighting alongside Iraqi security forces in Tikrit. But reports indicate that these Sunni tribesmen played a minor role in the offensive, which also saw Shiite militiamen burning the houses of Sunnis near Tikrit. During his congressional testimony (before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), Gen. Dempsey also discussed the obligation of the United States to provide support and protection to the Syrian moderates it trains to combat ISIS. The Wall Street Journal quotes him as saying that without some “reasonable chance of survival,” few moderates will volunteer for training and the program will not succeed. However, Defense Secretary Ash Carter later said that the proper form for this support has not yet been determined. This decision becomes even trickier if, or when, these forces engage with pro-Assad forces. As government officials mull how best to support these moderate militants, the United States, along with its partners on the U.N. Security Council, is facing criticism from a coalition of aid agencies for failing to support humanitarian efforts in Syria. The Times reports that, despite two Security Council resolutions authorizing U.N. aid agencies to cross the Syrian border and provide humanitarian aid without the Syrian government’s consent, the agencies claim they are consistently blocked in their efforts. This failure to deliver aid is all the more problematic because, according to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the Syrian civil war has pushed 80 percent of Syrians into poverty and reduced life expectancy by 20 years. The Times covers the report. Details regarding the video depicting the execution of an Israeli Arab by ISIS militants continue to emerge. The AP reveals that a man and a young child shown in the video have been identified as French citizens. French officials are now investigating whether the man is related to the French extremist who killed 7 people in an attack on a Jewish school and French paratroopers in 2012. Dozens of Americans, both former servicemen and otherwise, have joined the fight against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. The Times tells the story of one former Marine who fought alongside the Kurdish peshmerga in Iraq last fall before being removed from the front when U.S. officials discouraged the Kurdish forces from involving Americans in combat operations. Saudi Arabia has reached a nuclear cooperation deal with South Korea, the Wall Street Journal reports. Under the deal, the two countries will, among other things, study the feasibility of building two nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia over the next two decades. The deal, along with Saudi Arabia’s longstanding military alliance with nuclear-armed Pakistan, raises fears that Saudi Arabia is attempting to develop nuclear capabilities to match Iran’s as a balance against Tehran’s growing influence in the Middle East. Taliban fighters killed seven policemen in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province yesterday. The AP explains that, as the insurgent group is stretched thinly across the country, militants have taken to ambushing police checkpoints for easy targets. A new set of documents obtained in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 was released last month during the trial of al Qaeda operative Abid Naseer. CNN describes the contents of the documents, which detail the serious toll that U.S. drone strikes took on al Qaeda. According to the documents, several successful strikes on al Qaeda leadership forced the group to consider moving operational headquarters from Pakistan to Afghanistan or Iran. Boko Haram is facing a growing international coalition as it tries to maintain its hold on northeastern Nigeria. France announced yesterday that it would expand its counterinsurgency unit in West Africa and provide support to forces fighting the militant group, though French troops will not join the fighting, Reuters reports. The Times adds that, according to a Nigerian government official, hundreds of South African mercenaries have bolstered Nigeria’s own fighting force, though the government has not officially acknowledged the presence of these mercenaries. Nigeria may soon receive yet more regional assistance: a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the creation of a 10,000-troop regional force has the support of the United States and France, Reuters notes. The existing multilateral operation, including forces from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, appears to have already made progress against Boko Haram, as a Nigerian official claimed yesterday that the combined forces have already recaptured 36 towns from the militant group. The Obama administration announced yesterday that it would provide an additional $75 million in nonlethal aid to Ukraine to assist its fight against Russian-backed separatists. According to the Times, the package will include 30 armored humvees, counter-mortar radar systems, and surveillance drones, among other equipment. Moreover, the administration is also imposing a new set of sanctions against Russians and separatist Ukrainians, the BBC adds. These moves appear unlikely to appease U.S. politicians demanding that the administration send weapons to Ukraine, however. Politico reports that Congress is remarkably unified on the issue. In a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, members from both parties dismissed the current aid package as ineffective without attaching lethal aid. The committee’s ranking Democrat, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), had this to say: “Providing nonlethal equipment like night vision goggles is all well and good, but giving the Ukrainians the ability to see Russians coming but not the weapons to stop them is not the answer.” The Ukrainian response to the separatists has been hampered by a security service that, according to the Wall Street Journal, is full of Russian spies and sympathizers. When the current conflict began in eastern Ukraine, for example, nearly a third of officers in the SBU, the Ukrainian equivalent of the FBI, stationed in the restive regions of eastern Ukraine sided with the Russian-backed separatists. Even now, the United States degrades the intelligence that it shares with Ukraine to limit the cost of it falling into Russian hands. In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday, despite urging by both Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, senators expressed little interest in passing the ISIS AUMF proposed by the administration, Politico notes. Committee chair Bob Corker (R-TN) said passing an AUMF would be difficult given the partisan divide on the proper provisions of such an AUMF, and went on to say that there was no pressing need for an AUMF, since the administration is already using force against ISIS: “The fact that this operation’s been going on for a long, long time points to the fact that nothing regarding the AUMF is going to affect what’s happening on the ground at present.” Juan Mendez, the U.N. special investigator on torture, said yesterday that he could not accept the restrictions included in a U.S. invitation to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. Mr. Mendez asked the United States to reconsider these restrictions, which currently prevent him from having unmonitored conversations with inmates. The AP has more. The Hill reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee will mark up a proposed cybersecurity bill in a closed session today. The bill, which is supported by several major corporations, has been criticized by privacy advocates for potentially facilitating more data collection by the NSA.

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Jack Goldsmith and Marty Lederman argued that there really isn’t a serious question as to the President’s authority to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran, given that the agreement is probably going to be non-binding under international law. Jack followed up that post by noting that, just as the potential deal’s non-binding nature makes it easier to make, so too does it make it easier to break. Suzanne Maloney noted that, despite the uproar following the release of the Iran letter signed by 47 Republican senators, the letter might actually achieve its goal: scuttling talks with Iran. Ben appeared on CSPAN’s "Washington Journal" yesterday morning to discuss the ISIS AUMF. The conversation served as a preview to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s hearing on the same topic, which Cody linked us to. Ben posted an episode of NPR’s Radiolab show that looks into Japan’s use of hydrogen balloons to bomb the U.S. mainland during WWII. Stewart Baker brought us the newest Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast (Episode #57), which features an interview with Rep. Mike Rogers, former chairman of the House intelligence committee. 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.