Today's Headlines and Commentary

The stories are still coming in from yesterday’s announced deployment of 450 additional US troops to Iraq. The Wall Street Journal describes various criticisms of the measure as misguided or insufficient. Politico delves into the semantic distinction between the White House’s description of the troops as “trainers” for the Iraqi military, versus the Pentagon’s consistent use of “advisors.” Finally, the New York Times and Washington Post report on what the deployment means for US efforts against ISIS, and both seem to agree that those troops probably won’t be leaving Iraq any time soon.

Thousands more refugees have fled into Turkey as Kurdish and rebel Syrian forces fight ISIS along the Syrian-Turkish border. Fighting between rebel forces and Kurdish troops has also resulted in the death of Keith Broomfield, an American citizen fighting alongside the Kurds.

With both ISIS and rebel forces seizing large amounts of Syrian territory, the Guardian examines Bashar al Assad’s increasingly unstable situation. In the midst of the chaos, regional analysts worry Saudi Arabia may choose to place its bets with the rebel alliance that includes al Nusra Front, considering Nusra to be the “lesser evil” in comparison to ISIS. Meanwhile in Pakistan, ISIS propaganda has begun to proliferate. Read about it in Foreign Policy.

Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott publicly announced his government’s intention to strip “known terrorists who are dual nationals” of their Australian citizenship. Abbott’s proposal arrives one year after the British government greatly expanded its power to strip citizenship from not only terrorist suspects who are dual nationals but also those with only British citizenship--a matter on which the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported (and criticized) extensively.

Apropos of Britain’s battle with homegrown extremism, the Guardian reports that a London woman has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for her prolific tweets and Instagram posts advocating and encouraging terrorism. Al Qaeda had included the Twitter on its greatest-hits list of 66 most important jihadist accounts.

A new report on bulk surveillance in the United Kingdom, commissioned last year by Prime Minister David Cameron, advocates a reworking of current British surveillance law and, crucially, requirements for judicial (rather than ministerial) authorization of individualized warrants for electronic surveillance. Yet the report does not, as privacy advocates might have hoped, take a strong stance against bulk surveillance of electronic communications. The Guardian provides a detailed analysis.

Also in the United Kingdom, Nominet, the domain name registry for .uk, has created software to track web traffic across all sites with .uk domains, which allows for identification and mitigation of cyberattacks.

The Wall Street Journal follows up on yesterday’s story about the use of malware to spy on the recent nuclear negotiations with Iran. The Swiss government has begun an investigation on the suspected hacking, which targeted the Swiss hotels hosting the nuclear talks. Though under suspicion, Israel has denied any responsibility.

Unfortunately for the Bundestag, the German parliament may have cause to commiserate with those Swiss hoteliers. Per the BBC, a virus discovered a month ago is apparently still stealing data from Bundestag computers, with no official word on who might be responsible.

More news has surfaced about the recent hacking of the US Office of Personnel Management. The New York Times reports that the hacking may represent a “systematic Chinese effort to build databases that explain the inner workings of the United States government.” The data breach is one of the largest ever experienced by the federal government, giving hackers access to the personal information of over 4 million federal employees. Considering this news, Wired says the latest lesson on cybersecurity may just be that great defense is never enough.

The New York Times reports that cyberattacks are “going local”—that is, beginning to attack smaller businesses as well as larger ones in the search for consumer data.

Over on the Hill, Senate Democrats are none too pleased with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) attempt to attach a cybersecurity measure to the NDAA. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) instead advocated consideration of the NDAA and cybersecurity as separate bills.

Just like your recent Kickstarter, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is now being crowdfunded, according to the New York Times. With the tacit support of the Kremlin, online groups are using social media and online payment systems to raise money in support of separatists in eastern Ukraine. In many cases, these donations skirt the edges of illegality, changing names and redirecting funds in order to avoid sanctions.

China sentenced Zhou Yongkang, a former domestic security chief, to life in prison on Thursday. Zhou is the highest-level official to be convicted as part of Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s sweeping corruption crackdown. The Washington Post has more.

Another U.S. military training exercise is coming under fire, this time in the Pacific islands of Pagan and Tinian. The Pentagon plans to use the islands, both U.S. territories, for military exercises, but the Guardian reports that residents of the islands fear that the operations will result in “irreparable damage” to the local ecosystems.

Reuters shares the disturbing news that a new United Nations study has found that U.N. peacekeepers routinely pay for sex with cash, dresses, jewellery and other items while posted abroad. The report found that the behavior is “underreported” but actually “quite common,” even though the United Nations has formally banned such relationships with people peacekeepers are tasked with protecting.

Parting Shot: Wired tells us to “stop laughing at those clumsy humanoid robots.” (See Video). They just might save your life one day.

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Mailyn Fidler wrote on the Department of Commerce’s proposed restrictions on the sale of zero-day vulnerabilities outside the US.

Sean Mirski told us more about Zivotofsky, particularly its relationship with exclusive presidential power and Justice Jackson’s hallowed Youngstown opinion.

Jack alerted us to the publication of a new issue of the Harvard National Security Journal, with articles on cyber attacks, just war, drug cartels, and the UN Security Council.

Stewart Baker spoke with the cybersecurity researcher Dan Kaminsky on the Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast.

The famed (yet mysterious) Baker of Hard National Security Choices graced Lawfare once again with a set of “edible targets.”

Yishai and Jennifer Williams provided the Middle East Ticker.

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