Today's Headlines and Commentary

A suicide bombing in Kabul outside of NATO HQ killed eight civilians. Afghan police say that the bomber was only 14 years old. The Detroit Free Press reports, and the New York Times says that this was in response to the Department of State's decision to designate the Haqqani Network as a foreign terrorist organization. Still more violence in Iraq over the weekend; a string of attacks on Sunday resulted in the deaths of at least 70 people and injured more than 270. CNN.com has the story. Over the weekend, the Pentagon has circled back to members of Navy SEAL Team 6 regarding the conflicting reports over the UBL raid that are detailed in "No Easy Day," and Matt Bissonnette's teammates have suggested that the book's account is incorrect. Writes Jeremy Herb of The Hill:

The Obama administration had said that bin Laden was armed and standing when Navy SEALs entered his room in his Abbottabad, Pakistan compound. The book said bin Laden was shot by the “point man” when he poked his head out as SEALs went up the stairs. By the time the SEALs entered his room he was on the ground, and the weapons in the room were empty. But Pentagon officials have concluded that the book’s author, writing under the pseudonym “Mark Owen,” was wrong, telling CNN that bin Laden was in fact standing when they entered and posed a direct threat. One official said the initial shots may have missed bin Laden, and speculated that the author may not have seen him standing because he was a few seconds behind the lead SEAL.

The New York Times has this editorial today on cybersecurity advocating for "new international understandings about what constitutes cyber aggression and how governments should respond." Hamdan al Rahbi of Asharq Al-Awsat confirms from anonymous Yemeni sources that the September 2 drone strike that killed 13 civilians was aimed for Abdelrauf al-Dahab, an Al Qaeda affiliate. (h/t Bill Roggio.) Rosa Brooks of the New America Foundation and Georgetown Law dissects four common objections to the use of drones in warfare. Bagram Prison has officially been transferred to Afghan control---except for those detainees who haven’t. Here's Richard Leiby of the Washington Post, while Graham Bowley of the New York Times reports on the U.S.'s last-minute decision to withhold the transfer of three-dozen detainees because of questions over the Afghan government's commitment to provisions of the MOU between the two countries. This has unsurprisingly not pleased Afghan officials one bit. From President Karzai's office: "Any delay in its hand-over is considered a breach of Afghan national sovereignty." Josh Gerstein writes on the missing details of both Mitt Romney and President Obama's plans for Afghanistan. Foreign Policy has just launched a new blog focused on national security. Check it out. The House Intelligence Committee is holding a hearing this week on Chinese telecommunications companies and the threat that they may pose to U.S. national security. Jennifer Martinez at The Hill notes the hearing, although there is as of yet no information regarding witnesses or testimony on the committee website. 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.