Today's Headlines and Commentary

Headlines and Commentary is going on vacation for a week. There's simply too much homemade lasagne to eat and too many presents to wrap. We’ll be back after New Year’s---and will be using the snazzy Lawfare news ticker to keep you up to date in the meantime.

Lots of coverage on the NDAA: it passed the House yesterday, but the White House hasn't yet said anything about whether Obama will veto the bill (although Wells Dixon argues in this op-ed in The Hill that he must in order to close Guantanamo). Meanwhile, in the Senate, Rand Paul believes that the bill is now unconstitutional because the provision prohibiting detention of U.S. citizens was removed, and a provision of the NDAA includes reporting procedures for industry.

The Obama administration's executive order on cybersecurity, meanwhile, could be issued in January, writes Jennifer Martinez of The Hill.

Here's the roundup of coverage from yesterday's Senate Foreign Relations hearing on the Benghazi attack: NPR and the New York Times on Senator Kerry's request for more diplomatic security funding and the State Department's new plan to increase security at dangerous posts.

Speaking of Benghazi, there was an attack on a police complex there on Thursday evening by Islamist extremists, and four people are dead. Here's the Times with that story.

In light of the pro and anti-Hagel-as-SecDef campaigns, Darren Samuelsohn and Kate Brannen of Politico reflect on the new approach to public debate over potential Cabinet nominees.

And Craig Whitlock of the Post discusses how serving in Vietnam shaped Chuck Hagel's views on the military and foreign policy.

Although he doesn't appear to have done so just yet, The Hill says that Majority Leader Reid wants to file cloture on the FISA Amendments Act very soon. We'll see.

Informal talks between the Taliban and former members of the Northern Alliance in Paris started yesterday and are not expected to make much progress. Scott Sayare and Matthew Rosenberg write over at the Times.

Brian Naylor of NPR updates us on some changes to TSA screening standards as we all prepare to head to the airport

For those concerned that Omar Khadr would be freed upon being transferred to a Canadian prison, you can put off your concerns for at least two more years---he will be reviewed for parole in December of 2014, says the Toronto Star and the Miami Herald.

Declan Walsh and Donald G. McNeil, Jr. write about the targeting by the Taliban of female aid workers involved with the polio vaccination effort in Pakistan.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to establish an African force backed by the U.S. and Europe in Mali. The forces would help rebuild Mali's military and help prepare it to counter the Islamist extremists that are rapidly taking control of the country. Here's the Washington Post's Colum Lynch and Rick Gladstone of the Times.

NPR's Ted Robbins wonders whether our southwest border is actually secure.

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, Syracuse’s Institute for National Security & Counterterrorism’s newsroll, and Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief and Cyber Brief. Email Raffaela Wakeman and Ritika Singh noteworthy articles to include, visit the Lawfare Events Calendar for upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings at the Lawfare Job Board.