Today's Headlines and Commentary

We learn from the Washington Post that some of the Al Shabab gunmen laying siege to the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya speak English. One of the 62 victims is a famous Ghanaian poet, Kofi Awoonor. Adam Nossiter reports on this in the New York Times. The fighting there continues, write a Times trio, and the Kenyan police are tweeting about their progress in taking over control of the mall, says CNN. At the Post, Greg Miller shares U.S. officials' remarks about the attack and what it says about Al Shabab's strategy. Listen to NPR's Tell Me More about Al Shabab. Lastly, Peter Bergen writes over at CNN about what goes into the group's target selection. Given the situation in his country, it might be of little surprise that the International Criminal Court permitted the Deputy President of Kenya to be excused from his war crimes trial temporarily, and to help deal with the Westgate hostage crisis. That story is over in the AP. It seems that the background check conducted on Aaron Alexis did uncover that his claim of never being arrested or charged with a firearms offense was untrue, says Craig Whitlock at the Post. But, he still got his clearance. And let's not forget that the same company performed Edward Snowden's background check. The Office of Personnel Management says that Alexis's background check was performed "in compliance with all investigative standards," although The Hill says it didn't disclose certain details to the DoD. Here's Thom Shanker's Times story on the same matter. With this week's events at the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power will be very much in the spotlight.  Over at the Times, Sheryl Gay Stolberg discusses the role she'll play, while the Post talks about her boss's agenda in New York. Thomas Erdbrink writes about the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, and what his remarks before the U.N. might signal for U.S.-Iranian relations; so too does a trio at the Wall Street Journal. It's unclear who delivered this classified Israeli document to the Washington Post, but its contents are worth perusing. It offers Israel's frank assessment of President Rouhani's "charm offensive." Although the idea of Syria relinquishing its chemical weapons stockpile has put smiles on the faces of many, David Sanger and William Broad say achieving that goal is not quite so simple, after investigating U.S. efforts to do the same. Over in southern Afghanistan, 11 police officers were ambushed and killed by the Taliban, reports Rod Nordland in the Times. The DoD has declared itself virtually victorious over the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay detention center. How will the draw-down effect those legal challenges before the D.C. Circuit, I wonder?  Charlie Savage has the details at the Times. Former GTMO detainee Omar Khadr appeared in a Canadian courtroom on Monday, as he seeks court approval for transfer from a maximum security prison to a "provincial jail." Here are the AP and the BBC. The looming government shutdown will undoubtedly affect the defense and intelligence communities. The DoD sent out a memo regarding how it will handle reduced operations. For example, military pay will be delayed, and civilian employees may not be entitled to retroactive pay (which was the case in previous shutdowns). Wells shared this breaking news last night.  Since then, more details about the guilty plea in the AP leaks case by a former FBI agent have emerged. Here too, Charlie Savage reports, over at the Times. Secrecy News brings to the fore a very lengthy district court opinion in a FOIA case against the CIA. It warrants a close reading.  In short, it seems Judge Beryl Howell has found the CIA's interpretation of its national security exemption from FOIA to be "inappropriately broad." Two arms control scientists, Scott Kemp and Joshua Pollack, will present findings this week about North Korea.  The latter apparently is learning how to create critical components of nuclear centrifuges, despite export controls and sanctions designed to stop the country from enriching uranium for weapons purposes. Choe Sang-Hun discusses the scholars' study at the Times. On the topic of export controls, it seems China has released a list of dual-use items that must not be sent to North Korea. Jane Perlez provides details at the Times. China also has announced it will lift its bans on Facebook, Twitter, and the New York Times within the Shanghai free trade zone. Read all about it at the South China Morning Post. Let's talk border security: the number of people caught illegally crossing the United States border continues to climb.  In the last 11 months ending in August, 388,000-some odd people came over. That's more than the previous twelve month total of 364,768, writes the Wall Street Journal. Here's a story about cybersecurity challenges for the banking industry, over at the American Banker. Look how far I got into the news roundup without mentioning NSA surveillance! In a letter, nine Senators on the Judiciary Committee said they want the intelligence community's Inspector General to conduct "comprehensive reviews" of surveillance programs.  This seemingly would go beyond other reviews, including the NSA's internal, end-to-end review of incidents relating to its querying and sharing of collected telephony metadata, and disclosures of non-compliance in the metadata program, made to the FISC and to congressional committees at the time (and declassified recently).  The prolific Charlie Savage wrote briefly on the nine-strong group's letter too. Howard Berkes spoke on All Things Considered yesterday, regarding a large NSA facility outside of Salt Lake City. The Washington Business Journal reminds us of the many DHS cyber-related positions that remain empty; let's not forget about the lack of a nominee for this particular position (no offense to the Acting Secretary). The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters has issued an injunction against the Muslim Brotherhood; that matter was brought before the court by a leftist political party known as Tagammu. David Kirkpatrick reports at the 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, Syracuse’s Institute for National Security & Counterterrorism’s newsroll and blog, and Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief and Cyber Brief. Email the Roundup Team 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.