Today's Headlines and Commentary

Last night, President Obama delivered his State of the Union Address. You can find the full video here. The speech focused on a strong call of action and a promise to go it alone if Congress doesn’t advance various policies. President Obama briefly touched on issues of national security; here are some reactions to that particular section of his speech. After yesterday’s revelations that the National Security Agency can collect personal information from “leaky” smart-phone apps, some app developers are speaking out. Rovio, the company behind the popular app Angry Birds, has said it will change its approach to advertising amidst the new information. The CEO of the company called for a renewed balancing of commercial competitive advantage on the one hand, and users’ privacy, on the other. At yesterday’s Periodic Review Board hearing, lawyers for Guantanamo detainee Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi asked for the Yemeni man to be allowed to return home. Here’s the full statement read out by Al Rahabi’s legal team. The Wall Street Journal also covered the story. A report released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says that a $200 million program launched by the United States to teach Afghan soldiers to read has been a failure. The report calls the goal of the program---to make all Afghan soldiers literate by the end of 2014---unrealistic and unattainable. The Daily Beast has more on the story. Meanwhile, the Washington Post tells us that President Karzai is blaming the United States for a recent wave of violence in Afghanistan. Karzai believes the United States is behind insurgency-style attacks, which he says have been carried out to undermine his presidency. The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan insists that there is no truth behind the Afghan president’s conspiracy theories. According to the Telegraph, the United States has sent a large cache of weapons to Syrian opposition groups, reinvigorating the aid that the U.S. had halted for some months. The Syrian government, furious at this revelation, has brought all talks in Geneva to a halt. The United Kingdom has agreed to take in 500 Syrian refugees---namely, those deemed to be the “most vulnerable” throughout the ongoing crisis. The U.K. had been battling with the U.N. over the refugee policy, with the international body urging the U.K. to offer protection to more refugees. The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution that would allow EU troops to use force in the Central African Republic.  The troops will assist French and African forces already present in the country, trying to put an end to religious-based civil violence. Bad news for Bitcoin, courtesy of the Guardian: the Vice-President of the Bitcoin Foundation resigned yesterday, amid allegations that he is involved with the so-called "Silk Road" scandal. Bitcoin users, however, are confident that the online currency won’t suffer too big a blow from the bad PR. There have been eleven school shootings in the United States since the start of 2014. The Wire breaks down the troubling numbers. Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.