Today's Headlines and Commentary

Raffaela Wakeman
Tuesday, June 21, 2011, 10:56 AM
Bobby is quoted in this MSNBC article covering the story that the White House rejected Justice Department advice over the U.S. intervention in Libya. For those who just can't get enough of Bobby, he will be taking your questions in a live chat on the WPR and Libya on Wednesday at 12:30 over at the Brookings website.

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Bobby is quoted in this MSNBC article covering the story that the White House rejected Justice Department advice over the U.S. intervention in Libya. For those who just can't get enough of Bobby, he will be taking your questions in a live chat on the WPR and Libya on Wednesday at 12:30 over at the Brookings website. You can register here. Critics of the Obama administration's decision to engage in hostilities without Congressional approval may benefit from a DoD decision in April to pay members of the military tasked with flying over Libya or serving on ships within 110 miles of the Libyan shore an additional $225 a month. This "imminent danger pay," on which Jack commented earlier, may in fact help Obama critics prove that the Libya campaign does indeed qualify as "hostilities," which requires Congressional authorization after 90 days. The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold has the story, and NPR's David Welna reminds us that the 3-month mark was, in fact, this past Sunday. Meanwhile, the New York Times provides an overview of recently unclassified material sent to Congress last week about the  scope of U.S. intervention there. Bruce Ackerman has written an op-ed criticizing the Obama administration's legal foundation justifying intervention in Libya in The New York Times. The House is still planning on taking formal action on funding for military operations in Libya this week, as Politico's John Breshnahan and Jonathan Allen report. Scott Wong points out, also in Politico, that John McCain and Lindsey Graham, despite their foreign policy-heavy resumes, appear to be on the outskirts of the debate over Libya. President Obama is still expected to announce a draw-down in Afghanistan on Wednesday. An attack in a Pakistani tribal area that killed 12 people, including civilians, apparently was initiated by U.S. drones. The AP is reporting that NATO has lost contact with one of its drones over Libya. UK's The Telegraph tracks the history of the development and use of unmanned aerial vehicles in warfare (beginning in 1849, according to Rob Crilly, when Austria attacked Venice with explosive-loaded balloons). For more news and analysis links, see Today’s Terrorism News over at the CenterLine.

Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT. Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.

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