Today's Headlines and Commentary
Unsurprisingly in a world dominated by debt ceilings, Rupert Murdock, and Amy Winehouse, there is little to report today.
Ayman al-Zawahri released his first video as Al Qaeda chief and successor to Osama bin Laden. In it, he encouraged Syrian protesters and attempted to portray their efforts as an Islamic battle against the U.S. and Israel--a version of their movement I suspect might surprise the protesters in question.
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Unsurprisingly in a world dominated by debt ceilings, Rupert Murdock, and Amy Winehouse, there is little to report today.
Ayman al-Zawahri released his first video as Al Qaeda chief and successor to Osama bin Laden. In it, he encouraged Syrian protesters and attempted to portray their efforts as an Islamic battle against the U.S. and Israel--a version of their movement I suspect might surprise the protesters in question. Read the AP story on the subject at the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Epstein at Politico reports on the U.S. administration's finding that al Qaeda is near collapse, as a result of of bin Laden's death and successful drone attacks, as does TIME's Battleland blog. This follows a Washington Post report on the subject in yesterday's Washington Post.
CNN's Susan Candiotti tells us that the Department of Justice will be meeting with families of 9/11 victims to discuss whether their relatives' may have had their phones hacked by employees of News Corp.
The Senate has now okayed President Obama's recent request for an exception to the ten-year limit on the term of the FBI Director, so that Robert S. Mueller III's can be extended. Obama's request resulted frmo the nearly simultaneous turnover in leadership of the intelligence community and the Defense Department. With 100 Senators voting in the affirmative, Mueller will continue to lead the FBI for two more years, as Charlie Savage from the Times reports.
A letter from Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to Republican Senators defended their decision to try Ahmed Warsame in a U.S. civilian court. The Miami Herald has the story. The letter also shares this fascinating tidbit: the cost of holding a detainee in Guantanamo is an additional $700,000 over the cost of housing a prisoner in a U.S. federal prison. I have not been able to find a copy of the letter itself online. If you have one you are at liberty to share, please send it along (wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com), and I'll post.
For more news and analysis links, see Today’s Terrorism News over at the CenterLine.
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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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