Today's Headlines and Commentary

Lots of news to kick start your week. John Fabian Witt of Yale Law School wrote in yesterday's New York Times about the need to answer the question of whether the United States is actually at war. Says Witt:

The difference between war and peace is a matter of urgency, for this much is certain: the awesome technology of the armed drone is ours and ours alone only temporarily. History’s lesson is that what we employ against Abu Yahya al-Libi now will soon be available for use by our adversaries. When that happens, we will desperately want the credibility to judge their actions.

In true Washington fashion, National Journal  has this piece about how President Obama and Mitt Romney compare on national security issues. NBC News discusses the up and coming members of Al Qaeda who could move up the terrorist ladder in the wake of Abu Yahya al-Libi's demise last week. Al Qaeda operatives are now mobilizing their wives! According to the Times, Ayman al-Zawahri's wife appealed to Muslim women in an online letter "urging them to raise their children 'to love jihad and martyrdom.'" For more stellar quotation from Ms. al-Zawahiri, check out the article. In more from the al-Zawahris, the Associated Press reports that the Al Qaeda leader called on the Tunisian people to rise up against their government for not adopting a constitution based on Shariah law. CNN discusses the drone campaign in Yemen--complete with a handy bar graph. General John Allen, NATO commander in Afghanistan, apologized over the weekend for a coalition airstrike in which 18 civilians were killed--half of them children. The Times has the story here. He also ordered new restrictions on airstrikes to protect civilians, says the Times. The Hill reports that Kaspersky Lab, a Russian computer security company, has found strong evidence that the Flame and Stuxnet viruses came from the same creator. The Miami Herald tells us that lawyers for the USS Cole bomber Abd al Rahim al Nashiri have asked Judge Pohl to nationally broadcast their client's trial. We'll be sure to keep you posted about this unlikely possibility. Reuters reports that a Chicago cabbie has been sentenced to seven and a half years behind bars--and lifetime supervision after that--for attempting to provide material support to the Kashmir Independence Movement, a foreign terrorist organization. And, if you never thought you would hear the words "reality TV" and "national security" in one sentence, think again--and check out 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 Cyber Brief. Email us noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com and  singh.lawfare@gmail.com.