Today's Headlines and Commentary

Raffaela Wakeman
Monday, October 10, 2011, 11:20 AM
The Economist argues this week that drones are the future of air power. Wired magazine reported, as Jack noted over the weekend, that a fleet of Air Force drones has been infected with a computer virus. From the AP, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reportedly

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The Economist argues this week that drones are the future of air power. Wired magazine reported, as Jack noted over the weekend, that a fleet of Air Force drones has been infected with a computer virus. From the AP, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reportedly joked at the U.S. base in Naples, Italy:
“obviously I have a helluva lot more weapons available to me in this job than I had at the CIA.” Then he added, as an aside, “Although the Predators aren’t that bad.”
Scott Shane at the New York Times has a prediction for the next arms race: drones. Meanwhile, the AP (via the Boston Globe) reports that a senior military commander in Iran says its radar can detect drones. Abner Mikva (former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit), William S. Sessions (former Director of the FBI), and John J. Gibbons (former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit) argue in an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend against the detention provisions in the NDAA. Meanwhile, Buck McKeon, Chairman of HASC said he would rather see the NDAA not passed than compromise on the House-passed detention provision and the ban on gay marriages by military chaplains. Josh Gerstein keeps us all in the loop, as usual. Last week's edition of Foreign Policy and the New America Foundation's LWOT highlighted, unsurprisingly, the debate over the constitutionality of killing U.S. citizens who are terrorist suspects. Peter Finn writes in the Post about the increasingly loud and bipartisan group arguing in favor of releasing the Anwar Al-Aulaqi memo. The trial for the underwear bomber begins this week, and while Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is representing himself, he will not be giving his own opening statement; instead, his court-appointed counsel Anthony Chambers will, reports the AP (via the Washington Post). For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter and visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law's Security Law Brief. Email me noteworthy articles that I may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com.

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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