Today's Headlines and Commentary

Here is a sampling of  recent news and analysis that may be of interest to Lawfare readers. Both the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal [subscriber access only] are reporting that the CIA, working closely with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, plans to operate drones in Yemen. Greg Miller of the Post reports that as a result of the political chaos there, American counter terrorism efforts have been disrupted. According to the Wall Street Journal's report today,

The CIA program will be a major expansion of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Yemen.  Since December 2009, U.S. strikes in Yemen have been carried out by the U.S. military with intelligence support from the CIA. Now, the spy agency will carry out aggressive drone strikes itself alongside the military campaign, which has been stepped up in recent weeks after a nearly yearlong hiatus. The U.S. military strikes have been conducted with the permission of the Yemeni government. The CIA operates under different legal restrictions, giving the administration a freer hand to carry out strikes even if Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, now receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, reverses his past approval of military strikes or cedes power to a government opposed to them. The CIA program also affords the U.S. greater operational secrecy, and because CIA drones use smaller warheads than most manned military aircraft, U.S. officials hope they will reduce the risk of civilian casualties and minimize any anti-American backlash in Yemen. The Yemen program is modeled on the agency's covert program in Pakistan, which has killed 1,400 militants but is also unpopular in the country, where it is seen as a violation of sovereignty that costs civilian lives. Some U.S. diplomats and military officials have begun questioning whether the pace of Pakistan drone strikes should be slowed to ease the backlash.

The Miami Herald reports that last week, the European Parliament passed a resolution urging the United States not to seek the death penalty against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the Saudi Arabian Guantanamo detainee who is accused of planning the 2000  bombing on the USS Cole. The Parliament relies on the assertion that al-Nashiri was held in a secret CIA prison in Europe prior to being transferred to Guantanamo, and was tortured during his time there. A Bloomberg article explains that the Pentagon is processing a backlog of arms exports totaling over $300 billion. Part of the increase in demand comes from interest in UAVs, and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency will revise its process for pre-approving countries that are interested in acquiring drones. In a speech today on the Senate floor and reprinted in The Hill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urged the United States to relocate two foreign fighters--who have admitted to conducting attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and are currently held in Kentucky by federal law enforcement--to Guantanamo Bay. Should they remain in Kentucky, they will likely be tried in a federal courtroom. Bobby has already commented on the news that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a top al Qaeda leader, was killed in Somalia this weekend. The New York Times has an article suggesting that this presents an opportunity for the Somalian government to assert itself, while NPR's Morning Edition interviewed Bruce Hoffman on the implications for this development for the United States and the war on terror. Finally, the Wall Street Journal editorialized [subscriber access only] on the death of this key al Qaeda leader. Lawfare readers are encouraged to share relevant news and commentary with me at lawfare.wakeman@gmail.com