Today's Headlines and Commentary

Let's start with the Aghanistan news. There has been another suicide bombing in Helmand province, signifying the Taliban's continued unwillingness to negotiate with the United States and causing three death and at least 30 injuries. Sayed Salahuddin writes from Kabul for the Washington Post. The AP tells us that Jack Idema--who was convicted of running a private jail in Afghanistan where he tortured terrorist suspects but was pardoned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai--has died of AIDs in Mexico. On the heels of her husband's being charged with leaking classified intelligence to the press, Heather Kiriakou has resigned from the CIA. Greg Miller at the Post has the story. Meanwhile, Josh Gerstein notes the New York Times's assertion that it did not provide information to the DOJ regarding the investigation into Kiriakou's alleged extracurricular activities. Slight confusion on the drone front as a consequence of defense budget cuts: the Wall Street Journal's trio Adam Entous, Julian Barn and Siobhan Gorman (caution: paywall) report that the DOD is going to increase its drone inventory by 30% over the coming years; by contrast,  CNN Pentagon Producer Larry Shaughnessy reports that 30 Global Hawk drones would be grounded and replaced by U2's. Look Ma, no hands! Or human pilots, for that matter. Over at the LA Times, W.J. Hennigan covers testing of the X-47B, the Navy's new drone, which will be flown autonomously by onboard computers. Yuck! Kashmir Hill writes at Forbes about the recent discovery by a drone and its amateur pilot of sketchy (and frankly, gross) practices  of a meat-packing plant in the Lone Star State. Papua New Guinea soldiers raided the country's military headquarters today, placing the head of the military under house arrest and seating a new commander in his place. Matt Siegel reports on the bloodless mutiny at the New York Times. Charles Hoskinson of the Politico writes about recent debates over arming medevacs, spurred by the severely delayed rescue of a wounded soldier as a consequence of a lack of an armed escort for the medevac helicopter. In what appears to be a continuation of the U.S. strategy of strengthing its Pacific presence, Philippine officials are working to negotiate an expansion of U.S. presence in the country. Floyd Whaley covers the negotiations in Washington for the Times. Mike Allen at the Politico says that  President Obama learned of the Navy SEALs' successful rescue of pirate hostages and unmatched heroics about two hours before his SOTU address. For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter, visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law’s Security Law Brief, Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief, and Fordham Law’s new Cyber Brief. Email us noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com and singh.lawfare@gmail.com.