Today’s Headlines and Commentary

To justify Karzai's refusal to sign the agreement, the Afghan government recently handed out a questionable dossier that purported to contain proof that Americans were behind January 15 airstrikes on the remote village of Wazghar, rather than the Afghan army, as claimed by the U.S. The Times reported on Saturday that the dossier included false and unverifiable evidence, such as pictures of victims of a 2009 NATO airstrike. To rebut the Times report, on Sunday morning the Afghan government brought seven villagers to a news conference as witnesses; it appears the gig was up when one villager began identifying victims in an old photograph known to be unconnected to this month's airstrikes. Remember, these are our allies.

Dmitry Adamsky has a piece in Foreign Affairs arguing that the Israeli response to the interim nuclear deal struck between Iran and the P5+1 is more nuanced than the current conventional wisdom suggests:

The current deal might look limited in scope for many in Israel, but it is nonetheless the most significant rollback of Iranian nuclear aspirations so far. Even those who suspect that Iran will not honor the interim deal, let alone negotiate a final agreement, must acknowledge that, as The Economist put it, “If the talks break down, Iran will not be much closer to having a bomb than it is today---and further away than it would have been without a deal.” In addition, although Israel was not party to the negotiations, it sees itself as deserving some credit for their outcome.

On Sunday, peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi announced that the Syrian government has agreed to allow unarmed women and children in blockaded parts of the city of Homs to leave, though in most other ways, UN-mediated talks between the Syrian opposition groups and the Syrian government have stalled. Al Jazeera has details. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won't be giving up "the keys to Damascus" any time soon, writes Reuters. That looks about right: today, the first meeting scheduled to discuss the creation of a Syrian transitional government broke up less than an hour in, according to the AP.

Reuters is citing an anonymous U.S. military official who says that on Sunday, the U.S. carried out a missile strike in southern Somalia, targeting a suspected militant leader with ties to Al Qaeda and Al Shabaab.

Also on Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the U.S. may impose targeted sanctions against those perpetuating religious-based violence in Central African Republica; the same day, eight people were killed in mob violence in the capital Bangui, and last Friday a Muslim former minister was hacked to death by the militia. Here is Reuters.

This weekend saw clashes between Philippine troops and hardline Muslim rebels in the wake of the peace deal newly struck between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main insurgent group. The AP reports.

After a three-year hiatus, North Korea agreed last week to begin resuming reunions for families separated by the Korean War; a wary South Korea has just agreed and proposed the meetings take place at a North Korean mountain resort next month, reports the AP.

The Games in Sochi are set to be the most security-intensive Olympics ever. U.S. contingency plans involve two warships in the Black Sea, equipped with helicopters ready to be deployed to the city, a C-17 transport aircraft on standby in Germany, and FBI agents on the ground in Russia. CNN has more.

Domestic news:

In an interview with German public television broadcaster ARD, Edward Snowden claims that NSA spies on foreign companies for reasons unrelated to national security. Snowden also notes that he no longer holds any NSA documents or has any part in their release, as he has passed them all on to a handful of journalists. Here's the Al Jazeera America coverage.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is emerging as a vocal opponent of President Obama's plans to revamp bulk data collection programs and secret drone strike operations, according to the Washington Post. The story quotes Steve at length:

The issue “is not the daylight between the president and Senator Feinstein. It’s the lack of apparent daylight between Senator Feinstein and the intelligence community,” said Stephen Vladeck, a professor of terrorism and surveillance law at American University.

Amid an ongoing deluge of disclosures about U.S. surveillance programs, Vladeck said, “to my mind the larger concern over the last six months is a lack of any evidence that there’s ever been a significant pushback from either of the intelligence committees on any of the more controversial initiatives.”

Pointing to the report issued last week by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, Bloomberg's editorial board argues that "the basic premise used to rationalize [NSA's phone-data program] has never been validated" and suggests there is no evidence to justify the program's costs.

On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that after taking the unusual step of personally interviewing Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers himself, President Obama approved Rogers to succeed Gen. Keith Alexander as head of NSA and U.S. Cyber Command.

More bad news about personal misconduct from top military brass, as described in files obtained by the Washington Post by FOIA request. The Post story is accompanied by full reports on Brig. Gens. Bryan T. Roberts, Martin P. Schweiter and David C. Uhrich.

And yesterday, Google announced that it is acquiring DeepMind Technologies, an artificial intelligence company that specializes in building general-purpose learning algorithms. Deal details remain limited, but here's the Wall Street Journal story.

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