Today's Headlines and Commentary

Lots of coverage of Attorney General Eric Holder's speech yesterday--Ben discusses today's Washington Post's editorial here; Bobby breaks down the speech's key passages here; John digs in here; and Steve weighs in here. If that isn't enough to satisfy your appetite, here is coverage from the New York Times, the Politico, the Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Wired magazine's Danger Room. There has also been a rash of coverage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, as well as commentary on Israeli security concerns vis-a-vis Iran. Although much of it lies outside the scope of Lawfare, here is the Los Angeles Times on the legal questions behind a preemptive Israeli strike on Iran--a subject about which Hoover scholar Peter Berkowitz wrote here. As Ben mentions here, the DNI has released a report about Guantanamo recidivism rates. Here are the Miami Herald and the Times on the news. Afghan Talks Founder! So says this Times piece from March 4 reporting that U.S.-Afghan talks are on the ropes "despite a new American willingness to move up the transfer of detention centers to the Afghans to as soon as six months from now." Afghan Talks Move Forward! Or so says Reuters, which reports that "[a]n agreement on the transfer of U.S.-managed detention centers to Afghan authorities is likely soon." This is why we have a free press. In terrorism trials news, the New York Daily News informs us that Betin Kaziu of Brooklyn has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting to "join Al Qaeda and the Taliban to fight on a battlefield in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Somalia." And the AP says that Mohammad Hassan Khalid of Maryland, who "agreed to help [Jihad Jane] seek money and recruits to wage a Muslim holy war in Europe and South Asia," will plead guilty to a terrorism charge. Get used to those pat-downs, says the Washington Times--the TSA says they are "likely to continue for the time being." The "head of the Pakistani Taliban has removed his deputy commander, the militant group confirmed. . . in a sign of a growing power struggle," reports the BBC. Here's hoping for a little fratricide. And in case any of you was thinking about purchasing "Saddamorabilia" for your secret collection--maybe a piece of Saddam's butt from a Baghdad statue or, perhaps, “a sword that once belonged to the ‘Butcher of Baghdad’”--Spencer Ackerman of Wired's Danger Room has an important warning you should consider in 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.