Today's Headlines and Commentary
All of us at Lawfare extend a warm welcome to Rear Adm. John W. Smith, Jr. He is the new commander of Guantanamo Bay detention center, replacing Rear Adm.
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All of us at Lawfare extend a warm welcome to Rear Adm. John W. Smith, Jr. He is the new commander of Guantanamo Bay detention center, replacing Rear Adm. David Woods. Carol Rosenberg covers the festivities at the Miami Herald.
NPR's Dina Temple-Raston has this All Things Considered piece on FBI investigations into suspected Islamic militants in the U.S. military (including contractors and dependents of members of the military). The Bureau considers a dozen or so of the hundred cases to be serious.
This week's issue of The Economist has this piece on the second of the articles (and the more controversial of the two) recently published on cutting-edge bird flu research in Science magazine. The article, written by Dr. Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, aimed to figure out what, if any, mutations of the H1N1 virus would result in its transmission from human to human. The Economist piece summarizes his findings:
Rajiv Chandrasekaran has published this excerpt of his book Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan in the Washington Post; it describes the Obama administration's infighting surrounding Richard Holbrooke's failed efforts to convince Obama and the military to strike a deal with the Taliban.
Ken Dilanian in the LA Times reports on the monthly meetings at the CIA over the past three years attended by staffersfrom the House and Senate intelligence committees. At the meeting, staffers review video and intelligence connected to targeted killings. Writes Dilanian:
Our friends in the Parliament Down Under defeated a motion to authorize an inquiry into the Australian government's role in the detention of David Hicks, who was held in Guantanamo for five years. The Austalian reports.
Libby Lewis at CNN Radio interviews David Remes on his and his Guantanamo clients' frustrations. Says Remes:
Misha Glenny's op-ed in the New York Times is making waves. Thomas Barnett at TIME's Battleland blog points to the DOD and President Obama as the reason a cyber warfare treaty is just a pipe dream.
Henry Chu of the LA Times updates us on the Polish inquiry into the country's secret CIA prison and involvement in the U.S.'s rendition program.
Ben woke up early to check out President Jimmy Carter's op-ed yesterday in the New York Times.
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.
NPR's Dina Temple-Raston has this All Things Considered piece on FBI investigations into suspected Islamic militants in the U.S. military (including contractors and dependents of members of the military). The Bureau considers a dozen or so of the hundred cases to be serious.
This week's issue of The Economist has this piece on the second of the articles (and the more controversial of the two) recently published on cutting-edge bird flu research in Science magazine. The article, written by Dr. Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, aimed to figure out what, if any, mutations of the H1N1 virus would result in its transmission from human to human. The Economist piece summarizes his findings:
Dr Fouchier and his colleagues introduced the three mutations into an Indonesian strain of H5N1, then tested the virus in ferrets.Read the AP story on the study here.
On its own, the mutated virus did little. Things got interesting when swabs were used to pass the virus from one ferret’s nose to another’s. After four such passages, the virus was better able to replicate. By the tenth it could spread through the air. The genomes of the viruses in each ferret had only five common mutations; the three introduced and two more, H103Y and T156A, which influenced haemagglutinin. The study was not all doom and gloom. None of the ferrets infected with the airborne virus died, and it seemed susceptible to drug treatment.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran has published this excerpt of his book Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan in the Washington Post; it describes the Obama administration's infighting surrounding Richard Holbrooke's failed efforts to convince Obama and the military to strike a deal with the Taliban.
Ken Dilanian in the LA Times reports on the monthly meetings at the CIA over the past three years attended by staffersfrom the House and Senate intelligence committees. At the meeting, staffers review video and intelligence connected to targeted killings. Writes Dilanian:
Congressional officials say their review has made the CIA more careful. They are hard-pressed, however, to point to any changes the agency has made. The CIA declined to comment.Jack noted yesterday DNI James R. Clapper, Jr.'s new policy to discourage leaks. Walter Pincus in the Post writes, as does Jeremy Herb at The Hill.
If the congressional committees objected to something, the lawmakers could call CIA leaders to testify in closed investigative hearings. If unsatisfied, they could pass legislation limiting the CIA's actions.
"I don't know that we've ever seen anything that we thought was inappropriate," one senior staff member said.
....
"During my time, the committees didn't do any oversight on drone strikes to speak of," said a former senior CIA official who left in 2009. "They would be informed when a strike was carried out. No staffers ever came out and watched video."
Our friends in the Parliament Down Under defeated a motion to authorize an inquiry into the Australian government's role in the detention of David Hicks, who was held in Guantanamo for five years. The Austalian reports.
Libby Lewis at CNN Radio interviews David Remes on his and his Guantanamo clients' frustrations. Says Remes:
"So now, the executive is against transfers, Congress is against transfers and the courthouse doors are shut," Remes says. "All three branches of the government are aligned against us."The Saudi Gazette has this editorial urging the closure of Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Misha Glenny's op-ed in the New York Times is making waves. Thomas Barnett at TIME's Battleland blog points to the DOD and President Obama as the reason a cyber warfare treaty is just a pipe dream.
Henry Chu of the LA Times updates us on the Polish inquiry into the country's secret CIA prison and involvement in the U.S.'s rendition program.
Ben woke up early to check out President Jimmy Carter's op-ed yesterday in the New York Times.
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.
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT.
Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
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