Today's Headlines and Commentary

The news this morning is dominated by the KSM trial, with the alleged co-conspirators' arraignment taking place tomorrow. Ben's got an op-ed in the Washington Post, Dina Temple-Raston at NPR has this report on Morning Edition, Jonathan Hafetz wrote this op-ed in the Huffington Post, Peter Finn discusses the implications of the trial for Brig. Gen. Mark Martins over at the Post, and NPR has this handy graphic, which shows the alleged role that Khalid Sheikh Mohamed is believed to have played in the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist strikes. This morning's New York Times Editorial focuses on the treatment of Jose Padilla, whose lawsuit against John Yoo this week was rejected by the 9th Circuit. The Times calls the decision a "misguided and dangerous ruling," and called the standard of qualified immunity for U.S. officials "unworkable." In characterizing the 9th Circuit's decision, the Times says:

The Ninth Circuit was wrong to swallow those deceits and to dwell on whether Mr. Padilla’s mistreatment was torture. Even if somehow it did not qualify, its cruel, inhumane and shocking nature badly violated his rights as a citizen — and international law on the treatment of detainees. Even at the time, the issue was beyond debate, and Mr. Yoo should have known that.

In the increasingly-scary world of cybersecurity breaches, it appears that Great Britain's Defense Ministry has been hacked. The Hill reports. And lest you think that our friends across the pond have it worse than us, FEMA has released its National Preparedness Report, which was requested by President Obama to assess response capabilities. According to Michael Schmidt at the New York Times, it looks to be depressing reading, particularly in light of its findings regarding cybersecurity. The full report is available here, and says that cybersecurity "was the single core capability where states had made the least amount of overall progress." Kuwaitis are continuing to protest the continued detention of two of their own, Fawzi Al-Odah and Fayez Al-Kandari in Guantanamo. The U.S. has not transferred them to their homeland yet, despite Kuwait's brand-new prison just for them. The Kuwait Times covers the protests. Last week's Economist featured this piece on the release of the first of two highly controversial research papers on the resistant strain of bird flu virus. Did you think we were going to be able to go a day without talking about drones? How quaint. The Post's Michael Gerson wrote his column today on drones, and defends the Obama administration's drone policy. The Hill's Jeremy Herb covers U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker's remarks about the strategic partnership agreement between the U.S. and Afghanistan, which includes agreement to not use Afghan territory as a launching point for offensive attacks. Corker clarified that this does not preclude the U.S. from using drones in self-defense. Herb also covers Afghan President Hamid Karzai's discussion of the agreement, in which he intimated that the U.S. conceded to Afghanistan on many of its demands. 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 Cyber Brief. Email us noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com and  singh.lawfare@gmail.com.