The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Cybersecurity was front and center on Lawfare this week, with the Department of Justice indictment of Chinese military personnel for cyber espionage. Bobby linked to the DOJ's press release on the matter. Jack speculated about why the U.S. government indicted the Chinese officers, and wondered whether its "corporate theft principle" was defensible. Paul offered some additional thoughts on the news.

John Carlin, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at DOJ, happened to be speaking at Brookings on this very subject. I posted the video and text of his speech.

In related news, Jack pointed us to two articles on cyber: Michele Golabek-Goldman's paper on the "policies the United States should pursue in regulating the global market in zero days," and Bruce Schneier's paper on whether the government should stockpile or patch vulnerabilities.

This week’s Lawfare Podcast featured a conversation between Herb Lin and Ben on the former's new paper on public policy and cybersecurity.

The AUMF was the second biggest player on the Lawfare stage this week, with a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the future of the AUMF. Bobby had a handy list of questions he thought would be valuable to ask at the hearing. I linked to the witness list and prepared testimonies. Jack wrote about two reactions he had to the AUMF hearing, and then expanded on them. He explains why he finds himself agreeing with Harold Koh's testimony. Bobby also blogged his post-hearing thoughts.  Ditto Raha Wala of Human Rights first, to whom Jack responded.

Ken noted a law review article by David A. Simon on "the domestic constitutional issues of the end of the conflict against Al Qaeda and associated forces."

The USA FREEDOM Act, aka the NSA reform bill, was passed by the House of Representatives this week. Before the vote, Steve argued that Section 401 of the bill should be reconsidered, which he believed severely watered down the legislation's FISA special advocate provision. Ben also broke down the proposal for us.

CSIS convened a gathering of experts and leaders to talk about how to rebuild trust in U.S. intelligence activities after the Snowden revelations. Ben pointed us to the "Statement of Principles" they came up with.

John DeLong did an interview with Fedscoop, which Ben embedded.

Paul linked to a redacted internal DIA report obtained by The Guardian on the harm caused by the Edward Snowden revelations.

Wells had a recap of the hunger strike hearing at which U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the government to turn over the videotapes of force-feeding Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a Guantanamo Bay detainee. He also discussed another order handed down later in the week which rescinded the temporary ban on force feeding the detainee in question. In other military commissions news, Wells informed us that a new trial date of February 2015 has been set for Al Nashiri. He also directed us to a letter from Senators Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin to President Obama, urging him to declassify information related to the CIA's rendition, detention, and interrogation program.

Matt Waxman discussed the law of the sea in the wake of current disputes between China and its neighbors in the South China Sea.

We ran two book reviews this week: Ali Wyne reviewed "Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific," by Robert D. Kaplan. David Stoll reviewed "Bishop Gerardi: Death in God's Neighborhood," by Julie Lopez.

I offered some thoughts on Thailand's military after it staged its twelfth coup since the 1930s on Thursday.

Aaron Y. Zelin and Jonathan Prohov, researchers at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote about the returnee threat in this week's Foreign Policy Essay. They delved into the many steps taken by governments around the world to guard against the danger of its citizens returning home and engaging in terrorism.

And that was the week that was.