Today's Headlines and Commentary

According to the AP, lawyers for underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab say that a mandatory life sentence in his case is "unconstitutional" because there were no casualties--other than Abdulmutallab's own groin. A particularly horrifying stories from the Department of Children Getting Blown Up: Voice of America tells us that eight Afghan children may have been mistakenly killed during a NATO raid last week. Here's one you've never heard before: The defense for the Hutaree militia is calling the group a "social club" that "amassed guns and bombs to defend themselves, not to plot a war against the government," according to the Times. International litigator Eric L. Lewis has this op-ed piece in the Times discussing the cases of Yunus Rahmatullah and Amanatullah Ali, both detained in Afghanistan, and arguing that "America’s treatment of these men violated the Geneva Conventions, and Britain has aided and abetted those violations." As Ben and I discussed at length here, Miltiary Judge James Pohl ordered the defense in the Al Nashiri military commission to submit a draft order on the mail-monitoring issue a week after the Nashiri motions hearing. The government would then have a week to submit a response, after which Judge Pohl would issue a written order. Reuters now reports that Judge Pohl signed his order on Friday--an order that states that "mail inspectors at the Guantanamo prison camp will be held in contempt of court if they disclose the contents of attorney-client mail without permission." The ruling has not been publicly released because it is undergoing a security review. And if you thought the CIA only employed consultants to offer advice on enhanced interrogation techniques, and that you, as an aspiring magician, had no chance at a lucrative side deal with the Agency, you might reconsider after today's Moment of Zen. 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.