Today's Headlines and Commentary

The Associated Press and Dina Temple-Raston of National Public Radio  have the story of Tarek Mehanna's trial, which began today, and which Bobby discussed here.  Omar Khadr, a Guantanamo Bay detainee, is eligible for repatriation to Canada, reports Paul Koring of the Globe and Mail -- but when he will return and under what conditions remains unclear. Charlie Savage of the New York Times covers the increasingly aggressive stance Republicans are taking on counteterrorism issues, including the GOP push to include a provision in the NDAA that would require al-Qaeda suspects arrested in the United States to be held in military custody. Don Borelli at The Hill has an op-ed advocating for federal prosecution of terrorism suspects as a viable option. Twelve members of the Senate Armed Services committee wrote this letter to Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, asking for hearings on President Obama's decision to withdraw all troops from Iraq by the end of the year, says Charles Hoskinson of the Politico. Farhana Khera, president and executive director of Muslim Advocates, has an op-ed on the CNN web site railing against the Patriot Act -- to which she declines to offer birthday wishes and describes instead as "erod[ing] America's freedoms and wast[ing] precious resources. Patriotism is about defending America's moral character and celebrating what makes this country great. Unfortunately, this bad law did the exact opposite." The UN Security Council has unanimously voted to end the NATO mission in Libya. The AP and AFP report that a drone strike has killed ten suspected militants in Pakistan, including two top commanders who were accused of working with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.  Meanwhile, John Walcott of Bloomberg Buisnessweek describes a new report from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Political Violence at Kings College, London, which argues that targeting al-Qaeda's middle-men rather than just its top leaders is the best way to disable the organization. According to Peter Finn at the Washington Post, the State Department still has not officially acknowledged the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year old son, deeply angering his relatives in Yemen. Tom Finn and Noah Browning of Time have an account from Sana'a, Yemen. And here, of course, is your moment of Zen. 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 to email me noteworthy articles I may have missed at singh.lawfare@gmail.com.