The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Benjamin Wittes, Cody Poplin, Quinta Jurecic, and Clara Spera released their major new reports on "sextortion."

Cody Poplin featured Wittes’s online webcast discussing the new sextortion research.

Ben later commented on the relationship between sextortion and cybersecurity and said that it is a great mistake not to think of the problem in cybersecurity terms. He also flagged the interaction between sextortion and the “going dark” debate.

This week, Zachary Goldman and Samuel Rascoff’s featured their new book Global Intelligence Oversight: Governing Security in the Twenty-First Century.

Lawfare held a mini-forum on Global Intelligence Oversight with some of the book's contributors discussing their chapters. Ashley Deeks started the forum and discussed the constraints and structural limits that peer intelligence services of foreign states can put on the intelligence work of their counterparts.

Keiran Hardy and George Williams reviewed executive oversight of intelligence agencies in Australia.

Christopher Kojm analyzed global changes and megatrends and the implications for intelligence and its oversight.

Jane Harman examined why intelligence oversight matters and how Congress is a key player.

And finally, Russell Miller looked at the operational chaos of German intelligence.

Turning to topics related to foreign affairs, in Sunday’s Foreign Policy Essay, Carol Saivetz analyzed Russia’s pullout from Syria and pointed out that Moscow is more involved in Syria than it likes to admit.

Ammar Abdulhamid argued that Saudi Arabia should seek normalization with Israel in order to pave the road towards peace.

Aurel Sari took a look at the U.K. Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights's recent report on drones.

Robert Chesney flagged Belgium’s recent decision to strike Islamic State targets in both Iraq and Syria and questioned if this meant more support for the unwilling or unable test.

Suzanne Maloney questioned whether it was the Obama administration or the Ben Rhodes’ profile that misled America on the Iran Deal.

Julian Ku commented on the United States’ latest “freedom of navigation” operation in the South China Sea.

Chris Mirasola released the newest edition of Water Wars, featuring the known and unknowns in the South China Sea.

Cody Poplin released the latest Lawfare Podcast featuring Juliette Kayyem on her new book Security Mom:

John Bellinger commented on the proposed legislation to micromanage the National Security Council and indicated that it raises constitutional and political concerns.

Rebecca Ingber examined the ISIS lawsuit and the perverse effects of national security litigation.

Paul Rosenzweig told us that the Intelligence Community thinks thinks the "Don't Panic" report is wrong on encryption. However, Susan Landau stated that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence “got it wrong” in reference to the “Don’t Panic” report.

Jake Laperruque and Joe Onek analyzed how a chain link fence can protect privacy in the age of “collect it all.”

Peter Margulies wrote that NSA officials appear to be taking James Madison's principles of checks and balances to heart.

Cody shared the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on "Oversight and Reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act: The Balance Between National Security, Privacy and Civil Liberties."

Daniel Weitzner and the "Keys Under Doormats" crew provided a checklist for recognizing flaws in proposed “exceptional access” systems.

Stewart Baker issued the newest edition of the Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast, featuring an interview with Orin Kerr.

Benjamin Wittes released the latest Rational Security, the “creeps and liars” edition, which includes a substantial discussion of the sextortion reports.