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Another man wearing an Afghan uniform opened fire on NATO troops today, killing one. Graham Bowley at the New York Times reports,
Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy has the scoop on the U.S. stance on the potential release of Ali Musa Daqduq.
With Al Qaeda's latest plot foiled, it seems that officials have renewed their debate on the quality of airline security, reports Michael Schmidt and Ron Nixon at the Times.
Graham Bowley at the New York Times has this piece on the Afghan police's successful efforts to thwart an Al Qaeda attack in Paktika Province.
Our own Matt Waxman was interviewed over at the Council on Foreign Relations web site on "Obama and the Laws of War."
After the family of the kidnapped Army soldier went public yesterday on the status of the negotiations for his release, the U.S. has responded. Thom Shanker at the Times covered Pentagon officials' statements on the matter yesterday.
The U.S. has launched an airstrike in Yemen, report Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post, but SecDef Panetta has assured us that there are no U.S. troops heading to Yemen any time soon. Carlo Munoz at The Hill reports on his statement.
The SecDef is all over the place today; he has named a replacement for the retiring Air Force Chief of Staff: General Mark Welsh III will replace General Norton Schwartz. Jeremy Herb at The Hill covers Panetta's statement.
Jose Rodriguez has penned this CNN op-ed on the media's coverage of the KSM arraignment last week. He concludes:
It is good that these terrorists are now facing justice, but in the reporting of the case, it would be helpful if the media didn't help them with their propaganda mission by unquestioningly repeating false information about their detention.This week's Economist has this article about the KSM trial, labeling the proceedings as "farcical." Naureen Shah, a lecturer at the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law, wrote this op-ed in Politico on the CIA's involvement in military operations, particularly related to drone strikes. She concludes:
The CIA may escape scrutiny at home, but among other nations the drone strikes are turning the CIA into the most notorious agent of U.S. power — displacing the military. The specter of a rogue agency conducting shadow wars will haunt this administration and undermine its legitimacy on the global stage. If the CIA is competent, law-abiding and humane in its drone policies, it’s time to start spilling those secrets.Former Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani wrote this New York Times op-ed entitled "How Pakistan Lets Terrorism Fester." Quote of the Day:
But if anything, the reaction should be to gear up and fight jihadist ideology and those who perpetrate terrorist acts in its name; they remain the gravest threat to Pakistan’s stability. Instead, our national discourse has been hijacked by those seeking to deflect attention from militant Islamic extremism.Civil liberties groups are organizing against the Collins-Lieberman cybersecurity bill, which is considered to have the best chance at Congressional and White House approval. Brendan Sasso at The Hill has the story. The House is planning on voting on the NDAA next week, says The Hill. For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter, visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law’s Security Law Brief, Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief, and Fordham Law’s Cyber Brief. Email us noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com and singh.lawfare@gmail.com.
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.