Today's Headlines and Commentary

First, a public service announcement: I join my fellow news followers, journalists, and blog junkies in exasperation over Google's announcement that it is "retiring" Google Reader. My only hope is that you, Lawfare readers, don't also suffer as a result of the loss of this news-collecting tool. OK, on to the news. The Obama administration continues full-steam on its cybersecurity awareness push.  President Obama in fact brought 13 CEOs to the White House Situation Room for discussion of cyber matters on Wednesday. Here's the New York Times, Bloomberg, and the LA Times on that meeting. Over at GovInfo Security, Jeffrey Roman authored this piece based on executive editor Eric Chabrow's interview with White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel. And the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government agency tasked with drafting cybersecurity guidelines under President Obama's executive order, is on the road meeting with businesses, reports NextGov. Over at CNET, Declan McCullagh notes the (once again) strong opposition to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) by the privacy community.  A petition opposing the bill and submitted to the White House has gathered more than the 100,000 signatures. Reuters says the Obama administration may grant the intelligence community broader access to a database compiled by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, regarding the details of unusual banking transactions. Current law does not preclude intelligence agencies from obtaining transaction data; however, agencies must request transaction records on an ad hoc, record-by-record basis (the FBI already has full access to FinCEN).  If implemented, the new policy would remove such requirements. At U.S. News and World Report, the question for the Debate Club is whether Sulaiman Abu Ghaith should be prosecuted in federal court. Check out the discussion, which includes, among other people: Human Rights First's Daphne Eviatar (who says yes, Abu Ghaith such face federal prosecution); Sterling Thomas, a lawyer for 9/11 accused Ammar al-Baluchi (yes); our own Steve Vladeck (yes), and Congressman Mike Rogers (no). Members of the GOP are taking their Benghazi complaints to the next level.  They propose to subpoena survivors of the attack, some of whom apparently are recovering at Walter Reed Hospital; the idea is to obtain information that the White House is reluctant to reveal.  Who, you ask, is leading this charge? Congressman Frank Wolf (here's his letter to SecState Kerry) and Senator Lindsey Graham, according to The Hill. U.S./NATO Commander in Afghanistan General Joseph Dunford has instructed his troops to increase security measures---an otherwise unusual command, made unusual here by Dunford's high position and recent Afghan political developments.  His order pointed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent tirades against the U.S., according to the New York Times.  The latter received a copy of Dunford's order, which said among other things that Karzai's "remarks could be a catalyst for some to lash out against our forces — he may also issue orders that put our forces at risk..." Emma Kantrowitz of McClatchy provides a readout of Tuesday's Inter-American Commission of Human Rights meeting.  During it, the State Department's senior advisor for Guantanamo policy discussed plans for transferring detainees and (cough cough) eventually closing the detention center. Over at the Times, Nicole Perlroth discusses evidence compiled by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto that 25 countries may be using off-the-shelf surveillance software unchecked against their citizens. Here's the list of countries:

Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Britain, Brunei, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, Qatar, Serbia, Singapore, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Vietnam.

According to Amnesty International, it's not just the Syrian government who might be guilty of war crimes, but also the anti-Assad forces.   The latter allegedly have committed "brutal summary killings of captured officers." Here's the New York Times story, and a link to Amnesty International's reports. Could New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte replace retired Senator Joe Lieberman in the Three Amigos, by making common cause with Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham on matters of defense policy? Jeremy Herb of The Hill compiles the evidence, and discusses the difficult balance Senator Ayotte must strike, between, on the one hand, allying with Rand Paul on fiscal issues; and, on the other hand, aligning with Senators McCain and Graham on defense issues. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA"), among other things,  because of controversial CFAA charges filed against now-deceased internet freedom advocate Aaron Swartz.  (As is well known, Swartz stood accused of entering an MIT electronics closet without permission, accessing its computers without authorization, and then downloading millions of documents from the JSTOR  database.)  It seems the time has come to "augment and improve" the law---that is, to narrow its coverage---judging by yesterday's remarks.  Check out the witness testimony here, and Brendan Sasso's story in The Hill. I almost made it through an entire roundup without mentioning drones. Almost. The Houston Chronicle points to a report that 100,000 jobs will be produced in the U.S. by 2025  as a result of proliferating drone technologies.  (Jobs=good news, right?)   Over in Florida, that state's Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill that would preclude drone surveillance unless to a judge has authorized a warrant; a person's life or property is believed to be in danger; or DHS has declared a terrorist threat. Quote of the day from Republican State Senator and bill sponsor Joe Negron:

It's fine to kill terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan with drones, but I don't think we should use them to monitor the activities of law-abiding Floridians.

Wonder how the usually aligned privacy and human rights communities will react to that. Here's the story from the Orlando Sentinel. Finally, Josh Gerstein and Manu Raju have the details of a closed-door session with President Obama and the Senate Democratic Caucus about those infamous OLC targeted killing memos. Obama's response to complaints about lack of access to the legal analyses? The President said, in so many words, I'm no Dick Cheney--- according to unnamed Democratic Senators, anyway. For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter and check out the Lawfare News Feed, 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.