Today's Headlines and Commentary

Ritika Singh
Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 3:05 PM
Jeh Johnson's speech at the Heritage Foundation, which Ben discussed in his earlier post, generated a lot of press today:  the Washington Post's Peter Finn reports on Johnson's warning against the "over-militarization" of our counterterrorism efforts; the Wall Stree

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Jeh Johnson's speech at the Heritage Foundation, which Ben discussed in his earlier post, generated a lot of press today:  the Washington Post's Peter Finn reports on Johnson's warning against the "over-militarization" of our counterterrorism efforts; the Wall Street Journal's Julian E. Barnes provides an overview of the speech; Josh Gerstein at the Politico says that the Senate will consider the defense authorization bill before the end of the year; Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald describes Johnson's views on congressional restrictions on detainee transfers and releases from Guantanamo Bay; and John T. Bennett of The Hill discusses the partisan politics behind the bill. In other news, Anwar Al-Awlaki's family has released the Colorado birth certificate of his son, who was killed in a strike separate from the one that killed the elder Al-Awlaki, reports the Post's Peter Finn, and the New Yorker's Amy Davidson reflects on issues surrounding his death.  Meanwhile, Marc Thiessen expresses outrage at the State Department's apology to Samir Khan's family, the American citizen who was killed along with al-Awlaki. Gen. C. Robert Kehler, head of U.S. Strategic Command, asserts that the DoD needs to clarify the military’s cyberwarfare doctrine and better determine the rules of engagement for cyberattacks, according to Thom Shanker of the New York Times. Miniature kamikaze drones will be the new normal for U.S. force, say Bloomberg Buisnessweek and Wired Danger Room. The new Switchblade drone doesn't carry a missile; it is the missile--and it has already been deployed. Munir Ahmed of the Associated Press describes Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani's pushback against the United States following the American crackdown on the Haqqani network. Jim Barnett at CNN and Josh Gertsein at Politico discuss the sudden delay in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, the former CIA officer who has been charged with ten felony counts for leaking top secret information to New York Times reporter James Risen. Salam Al-Marayati writes in the Los Angeles Times about the fragile relationship between the Muslim-American community and the law enforcement community. Rob L. Wagner at the Media Line reports on the dreadful state of due process in trials of suspected terrorists in Saudi Arabia. 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. Feel free, as always, to email me noteworthy articles I may have missed at singh.lawfare@gmail.com.

Ritika Singh was a project coordinator at the Brookings Institution where she focused on national security law and policy. She graduated with majors in International Affairs and Government from Skidmore College in 2011, and wrote her thesis on Russia’s energy agenda in Europe and its strategic implications for America.

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