Lawfare News

The Week That Was: All of Lawfare In One Post

Raffaela Wakeman
Saturday, September 14, 2013, 11:00 AM
This week saw the twelfth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the first anniversary of the attacks in Benghazi. Jane published an essay, drawing on E.B. White's Here Is New York, to mark the day. One of our latest podcasts featured a Brookings event last week about a potential U.S. intervention in Syria.
Meet The Authors

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

Subscribe to Lawfare
This week saw the twelfth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the first anniversary of the attacks in Benghazi. Jane published an essay, drawing on E.B. White's Here Is New York, to mark the day. One of our latest podcasts featured a Brookings event last week about a potential U.S. intervention in Syria. If you prefer catching the highlights, see this post---from this week---with video clips of the various panelists, too. Ben highlighted an important Onion story about the latest polling data on Syria.  (Ritika had done the same in her Moment of Zen.) Our own writing on Syria continued this week---catch the updated roundup here. This week featured another significant dissemination of declassified FISA-related materials, regarding the NSA's business records metadata program. But before that happened, we had a Lawfare-ish debate on the NSA programs: Ben laid out five defenses of the NSA surveillance programs, Steve swiftly responded, prompting a reply from Ben. Steve had the last word. Alright, those NSA metadata materials. Here's what we've got: Ben ruminated over what the NSA might be doing in response to the public's increasingly anti-NSA vibe. Meanwhile, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued an unclassified opinion finding that the ACLU and another organization have standing to seek the release of FISC opinions regarding Section 215 activities---though both will have to pursue a good many of those opinions in parallel, earlier-filed FOIA litigation in another court. Jack took a look at a Foreign Policy piece written by Shane Harris about the Director of the NSA, General Keith Alexander. I wrote about an almost-eventful status conference in the Guantanamo counsel access case. Jane posted the latest filing in the GTMO forced-feeding D.C. Circuit appeal. Speaking of Guantanamo detainees, the D.C. Circuit heard brief oral arguments regarding the timeliness of an appeal filing, in the case of Hentif v. Obama.  Here are the oral argument preview, and Wells's and my recap post. Brookings' Bruce Reidel wrote our latest book review, on Matt Apuzzo's and Adam Goldman's Enemies Within: Insight the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and bin-Laden's Final Plot Against America. Podcast listeners can delight in the fact that we released our next episode---with Nathan Myhrvold on strategic terrorism---a bit early. Readers, our world is wider than Syria, Guantanamo, and the NSA: Paul reminded us of two high-profile cybersecurity developments this week. The Obama Administration announced that it's nominating John Carlin, acting head of the Department of Justice's National Security Division, to be Assistant Attorney General for National Security. Ben noted another reason for us to think carefully about ground safety matters vis-a-vis the use of UAVs in domestic airspace. And that was the week that was.
Topics:
Lawfare News
Back to Top
Raffaela Wakeman

Raffaela Wakeman

Read More
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT. Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.

Subscribe to Lawfare