Today's Headlines and Commentary

News surfaced this morning that the Taliban has beheaded 17 Afghans who were dancing in a mixed-gender setting (two of the victims were women) Sunday evening. Sayed Salahuddin of the Washington Post reports on this attack, along with the news that an Afghan soldier accidentally shot and killed two NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan. So does Graham Bowley and Richard A. Oppel Jr. at the New York Times. Add Saudi Arabia to the list of Arab countries taking credit for foiling terror plots by Al Qaeda, says Al Jazeera. Mark Thompson of Time's Battleland blog gives the run-down on next steps as the Pentagon reviews the book written by Navy SEAL Team 6 member Matt Bissonnette about the UBL raid. If there's no classified information revealed in the book, it's a question of policy whether or not to pursue Bissonnette for violating his non-disclosure agreement.

The commanding general of the Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command said that he and his forces have been utilizing cyber warfare in southwestern Afghanistan. Sterling Beard of The Hill reports, and you can watch his video below:

Speaking of cybersecurity, Retired Admiral William J. Fallon has this Time op-ed which discusses a recent survey of cybersecurity execs on awareness and responsiveness to cyber breaches. He has two lessons for these leaders, more than half of whom thought that striking back against their attackers would help their companies:

– First, real-time situational awareness and intelligence enable an active and effective defense. – Second, the battlefield is ever changing, and this requires constant monitoring, assessment and adjustment.

NPR's All Things Considered has this piece on the Obama administration's transformation of the use of drone strikes and special operations forces in the war on terror. Saudi Aramco is back online after a computer virus infected 30,000 workstations a few weeks ago. Reuters has a story on the world's top oil producer here. NPR's Morning Edition discusses the upcoming arguments that John Walker Lindh will be making in a federal court in Indiana as he seeks approval to establish a prayer group with his fellow Muslim prisoners in a federal prison in that state. And NPR's data on the population of that secret prison has been updated. David Herszenhorn of the New York Times writes on recent attacks in the Russian state of Tartarstan by radical Islamic groups. Egypt is aiming for the release of Guantanamo detainee Tarek al Sawa, writes the AP. A four-year-old risk assessment of al Sawa recommended his release. And Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic writes about pro bono lawyers, defending the Guantanamo detainees, and a 2009 speech Judge Dennis Jacobs of the 2nd Circuit gave in which he said that pro bono lawyers are choosing to defend Guantanamo detainees rather than opting to defend veterans and their families in court. He concludes:

The men and women who represent the detainees on grand constitutional issues like habeas corpus and due process deserve no less praise for their professional sacrifice than the men and women who are working pro bono to help our troops get divorced, or to avoid civil judgments, or to see their kids via visitation rights. Instead of criticizing the charitable choices our attorneys make, we should instead be grateful that they've made the choice at all to sacrifice their time to help other people in need.

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.