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Lots going on since the weekend:
Saudi Arabia is pushing for the alleged Iranian assasination plot to be brought to the United Nations in a bit of regional power play, and the Iranian Foreign Ministry demanded information from the U.S. regarding the allegations, as well as access to the alleged perpetrator.
CNN reports that U.S.-Iraq negotiations on legal immunity for troops who will remain in Iraq after the end of the year have stalled, and the New York Times affirms that the number of U.S. forces remaining behind will be far less than the Obama administration originally proposed.
The pending National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 is still generating a lot of controversy. Adam Serwer--who is, alas, no longer blogging--describes in Mother Jones security-related objections to different provisions of the bill.
The Washington Post reports that James R. Clapper Jr., the Director of National Intelligence, has forecast a “double-digit” cut in the intelligence community’s budget over the next ten years.
On a somber note, the Los Angeles Times informs us that an unreleased Pentagon report concludes that two U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan on April 6, 2011 were mistaken for Taliban insurgents by drone operators.
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post describes the Obama administration's escalating campaign against the Haqqani network here and here; seven of the group's members were killed in two drone strikes last week.
Andrew Duffy of theVancouver Sun reports that former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg was denied entry into Canada last week on grounds that he admitted to being a member of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban while at Guantanamo.
Bruce Reidel of the Brookings Institution proposes in the Times a new direction America should take in its relations with Pakistan: containment. Also in the Times, C.J. Chivers describes the "disintegrating" U.S.-Pakistan relationship.
Thomas E. Ricks did a great interview with Joby Warrick, author of The Triple Agent: The Al-Qaeda Mole who Infiltrated the CIA on Foreign Policy. Ben reviewed Warrick's book here.
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 that 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.
