Today's Headlines and Commentary

First off, a bit of administrative business concerning the news and commentary feature going forward. While I was camped out in my undisclosed location, Ritika handled the news. Now that I am back, she and I will be sharing the feature, so expect to see it change hands regularly from now on and expect as well that our styles may differ a bit. I am afraid that I cannot do proper justice to Ritika's moments of Zen, for example, so she will continue to be your sole source for that. Readers should continue sending interesting articles we may have missed--or that readers think we should include--to either of us at singh.lawfare@gmail.com or wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com. Roger Cohen of the New York Times examines the shift from President Bush's approach to the war on terror to the Obama administration's angle, which he defines as the  "doctrine of silence." Conor Friedersdorf over at The Atlantic picks up on Kevin Drum's Mother Jones post about the end of Al Qaeda, and (arguably) the need for a new congressional authorization to continue the war on terror. Bobby wrote about the implications here, which Drum quoted in his post. Reports from London indicate that News International may have hacked into the computer of a  cabinet minister who was responsible for Northern Ireland and may have potentially taken classified material. Alan Cowell at the Times reports. Despite President Obama's veto threat and a slew of complaints, the NDAA continues to advance with the detention provisions, reports Jeremy Herb of The Hill. Here is a partial list of complaints:

• FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III's letter, which I posted earlier. The AP's Donna Cassetta reports on the letter here;
• Senator Mark Udall, who is pushing to remove the detention provisions, writes this Washington Post op-ed arguing that the Senate version of the NDAA expands the military's responsibility for detention;
• Human Rights First has this press release regarding two letters signed by retired military leaders in support of Senator Udall's amendment, which Ben's reluctantly endorsed here, and in opposition Senator Ayotte's amendment which would authorize the creation of a new classified annex to the Army Field Manual on interrogation for high-value detainees.

NPR's Morning Edition covered how the increasing use of drones in warfare is changing what it means to be an Air Force pilot. Reporters attempting to get access to Creech Air Force Base in Nevada (where the first drone was activated) are finding it nearly impossible to get in, Dawn Lim and Noah Shachtman at Wired's Danger Room Blog report. Jennifer Robinson, a human rights lawyer, writes in Al Jazeera that the U.S needs to re-examine its policy of drone warfare in Pakistan. Her op-ed comes on the heels of the closure of the U.S. drone base near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Ellen Nakashima at the Post dissects the strategy for Bradley Manning's defense based on his lawyer's pretrial submissions. He is scheduled for a military hearing in December for his alleged role in classified disclosures to Wikileaks. Josh Gerstein at Politico also notes that Manning's lawyer found that the leaks had no significant impact on national security. 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 as well as the Fordham Law Center on National Security’s Morning Brief. Feel free to email me and Ritika noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com and  singh.lawfare@gmail.com.